Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-06-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, with reference to the Answers of 25 May 2016 and 31 March 2016 to Questions 37757 and 31997, if he will publish data on referrals made by the Pay and Work Rights Helpline in 2014-15.

    Nick Boles

    The table below shows the number of referrals (complaints) from the Pay and Work Rights Helpline (PWRH) to relevant enforcement authorities for the 2014/15 financial year.

    Table 1: Referrals from the PWRH to each enforcement agencies, 2014/15

    2014/15

    HMRC

    3,510

    EAS

    800

    HSE

    260

    DEFRA

    90

    GLA

    50

    Notes

    1. Numbers are rounded to the nearest 10.

    2. Calls can be referred to more than one agency so the sum does not amount to the total number of calls referred for the period.

    3. Calls referred to agencies include complaints, complex queries and calls where intelligence was passed to other agencies.

    4. Figures include referrals via all PWRH communication channels, including telephone calls, post and online complaints.

    5. These figures are based on final data submitted by BSS on closure at the end of March 2015. They may not reconcile with provisional data provided while the old helpline was operational.

  • Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2016-09-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will place in the Library all emails, notes, letters or other documents or records relating to his Department’s exercise of reviewing all correspondence and parliamentary proceedings on the subject of allegations of breaches of international humanitarian law in Yemen by the Saudi-led Coalition and on the publication of the Written Ministerial Statement Corrections to Parliamentary Questions and Westminster Hall Debates, HCWS125.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    This information has been requested under the Freedom of Information act and will be placed on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office website in due course. I would also be happy to place this in the Library.

  • Bridget Phillipson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Bridget Phillipson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bridget Phillipson on 2016-10-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 8 June 2016 to Question 37587, how many child refugees are planned to be resettled in the UK in the next year in accordance with subsection (1) of 67 of the Immigration Act of 2016.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    Local authorities are already caring for more than 4,000 unaccompanied asylum seeking children. The Government has consulted widely and extensively with local authorities across the UK in order to assess their capacity to care for additional unaccompanied asylum seeking and refugee children.

    The Home Office has also significantly increased the funding available to local authorities that are supporting unaccompanied children and offered additional funding to bolster regional structures for the National Transfer Scheme, which is the mechanism for ensuring there is a more even distribution of unaccompanied children across the UK.

    Between 12 May and 1 October 2016 over 50 children who meet the criteria in the Immigration Act were accepted for transfer, of which over 35 have been transferred. We continue to work with the French, Greek and Italian authorities to establish the number of children who may be eligible and have seconded UK experts to France, Greece and Italy to support the commitment to transfer eligible children to the UK, where it is in their best interests.

  • Ian C. Lucas – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Ian C. Lucas – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian C. Lucas on 2015-11-03.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what meetings he has had with Ministers from the Cabinet Office at which the privatisation of Channel 4 was discussed in August and September 2015.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    The Secretary of State meets regularly with Ministers from the Cabinet Office to discuss matters relating to DCMS policy. The government has made no decisions regarding reform of Channel 4. The government is considering a range of options as to how best to ensure Channel 4’s future sustainability while maintaining its ability to deliver against its remit, including options put forward by Channel 4.

  • Alison McGovern – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Alison McGovern – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alison McGovern on 2015-12-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assistance and advice her Department is providing to UK volunteers offering assistance to refugees in Calais.

    James Brokenshire

    The Home Office is in regular discussions with French counterparts at ministerial and official level on all aspects of the migrant situation in Calais. The French Government is responsible for the care of migrants in Calais, including support over the winter. However, both governments are committed to finding a sustainable solution to the situation in Calais. One aspect of the UK-France Joint Declaration of 20 August, committed the UK to providing a £3.6 million (or €5 million) per year for two years to help support a range of work to manage the migrant population in Calais, in particular to provide support and facilities elsewhere in France. Additionally, the UK has provided £530,000 (€750,000) to fund a project to identify those in the camps at risk of trafficking and exploitation, to transfer them to places of safety; and to provide them with appropriate support within the French system.

    The UK and French Governments are unified in their response to the migratory phenomenon and both governments recognise the importance of close partnership and collaboration to reach a long-term solution. This is a global challenge, and we will also work together to ensure that other EU states, as well as source and transit countries outside Europe, are doing everything they ought to be to stop people making these dangerous journeys in the first place.

  • Kirsten Oswald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Kirsten Oswald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kirsten Oswald on 2016-01-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to the UN and the International Criminal Court to ensure they take action in cases in which civilian populations are besieged and deprived of food and medicines as a method of waging war.

    James Duddridge

    The United Kingdom has co-sponsored resolutions at the United Nations Security Council that call for an end to indiscriminate attacks on civilians, including illegal siege tactics and obstructing the flow of humanitarian aid. The International Criminal Court can take action when a war crime or crime against humanity is suspected to have been committed in or by a country which is party to the Rome Statute, or when a situation is referred to them by the UN Security Council. The starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is prohibited in international and internal conflicts. We will continue to work with our international partners to look at every available option to ensure all State and non-state actors engaged in armed conflict respect International Humanitarian Law and act in accordance with their obligations there under.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Emily Thornberry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2016-02-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2016 to Question 24141, what assessment he has made of the reasons for the increase in the number of (a) unauthorised entries to military bases and (b) thefts or losses of classified material between 2014 and 2015.

    Mark Lancaster

    The apparent increase in incidents is attributed to security awareness programmes and a strengthened reporting regime. These have led to an increasing readiness to report even minor breaches and do not represent systematic failings in security protection.

  • Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Jonathan Ashworth – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jonathan Ashworth on 2016-02-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much his Department spent from the public purse on industrial tribunals in the last 12 months.

    Mr Tobias Ellwood

    The Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s (FCO) legal fees for employment tribunals for the last twelve months, where invoices have so far been received (January 2015 – December 2015), total £46,385.52. The FCO is in the process of recovering £3,000 of this following a Costs Order in our favour.

  • Roger Mullin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Roger Mullin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Mullin on 2016-03-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he has taken to promote the take-up of employee ownership schemes by small and medium-sized businesses in each nation of the UK.

    Anna Soubry

    In 2012, the previous Government asked Graeme Nuttall to advise on what more could be done to increase the number of businesses with employee ownership. The Nuttall Review identified 28 recommendations to address three main constraints: lack of awareness of the concept; lack of resources to support the model; and actual or perceived legal, tax and other regulatory barriers. The action taken to address the recommendations is explained in the ‘The Nuttall Review of Employee Ownership – One Year On’ report published in November 2013 and available on the gov.uk website.

    The Government now expects the private sector to make the business case for this model through organisations such as the Employee Ownership Association – the representative body for employee-owned businesses.

    Ongoing encouragement for employee ownership is provided through four approved share schemes which have tax-advantages for both employees and employers. These are the Company Share Option Plan (CSOP), Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI), Save As You Earn (SAYE) and Share Incentive Plan (SIP) which are administered by HMRC. In 2013-14 the total value of shares and options awarded under these schemes was around £3.45bn with over £1bn of income tax and national insurance relief given.

  • Lord Scriven – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lord Scriven – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Scriven on 2016-04-26.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether an equality assessment has been carried out regarding the move of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills office from Sheffield to London, and if so, what the findings were.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    An Equality Analysis on both the proposed move of all policy posts to London, and the proposed closure of the Sheffield office, has been carried out.

    The Equality Analysis and findings have already been shared with the Departmental Trade Unions as part of the consultation.