Tag: Parliamentary Question

Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-05-04.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many companies in each business sector have been registered with HM Revenue and Customs’ Supervised Business Register in each year since 2009-10; and what estimate his Department has made of the proportion of companies which were not registered with a professional body as required by anti-money laundering regulations in each such year.

Mr David Gauke

The number of HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) anti-money laundering supervision registrations by sector in each year since 2009 are given in the table below. HMRC does not have an estimate of businesses not registered for supervision that should be, but as part of its supervisory role actively undertakes to identify such businesses by using its own data and working with other supervisors and agencies.

End of year…	2009/2010	2010/2011	2011/2012	2012/2013	2013/2014	2014/2015	2015/2016
Money Service Business registrations*	3,585	3,633	3,691	3,480	2,850	2,373	2,177
High Value Dealer registrations	1,173	1,193	1,332	1,336	1,294	1,035	881
Accountancy Service Provider registrations	12,689	12,941	13,009	13,151	13,246	13,120	13,131
Trust or Company Service Provider registrations	2,301	2,340	2,442	2,531	2,577	2,640	2,729
Estate Agency Business registrations**					7,809	8,710	9,305
Total registrations***	18,219	18,570	18,799	18,740	18,182	26,032	26,371

* From 2011/2012, the Money Service Business (MSB) sector includes a very small number of Bill Payment Service Providers (BPSPs) and Telecommunications, Digital and IT Payment Service Providers (TDITPSPs)

** Before 2013/2014 Estate Agency Businesses (EABs) were supervised by the Office of Fair Trading. HMRC is now the sole supervisor of EABs.

*** The sums of sector breakdowns are less than the total registration figures because a business may be registered for more than one sector. HMRC does not double-count businesses when calculating total registrations.

January 1, 2023

Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-06-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the number of staff who have returned to permanent NHS jobs as a result of the introduction of caps on the number of NHS agency staff.

Alistair Burt

The information requested is not held centrally by the Department. The latest NHS Workforce statistics (February 2016) are available on the Health and Social Care Information Centre website at:

http://www.hscic.gov.uk/searchcatalogue?productid=20878&topics=1%2fWorkforce%2fStaff+numbers&sort=Relevance&size=10&page=1#top

January 1, 2023
Baroness Altmann – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Altmann on 2016-09-06.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many letters the Department for Work and Pensions has received from Members of Parliament since May 2015 on behalf of women who have complained about the impact of an increase in their state pension age.

Lord Freud

The information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate costs.

January 1, 2023
Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-10-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make it his policy to regulate dance movement psychotherapy.

Mr Philip Dunne

The Government is committed to proportionate regulation of healthcare professions. Whilst statutory regulation is sometimes necessary where significant risks to users of services cannot be mitigated in other ways, it is not always the most proportionate or effective means of assuring the safe and effective care of service users.

Occupational and professional groups that are not subject to statutory regulation, such as Dance Movement Psychotherapists, may consider setting up a voluntary register. The Professional Standards Authority accredits those registers that meet its standards, providing patients, the public and employers with assurance about the standards and competence of registrants.

January 1, 2023
Peter Kyle – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Peter Kyle on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what level of spending will be required from (a) the Government, (b) other public sector bodies and (c) private employers to create three million quality apprenticeships by 2020.

Nick Boles

The budget for apprenticeships in England is demand-led and the level of spending responds to local employer and learner demand. Apprenticeships are jobs with training – availability is determined by employers offering opportunities.

The Government is introducing a UK-wide levy for all larger employers in the public and private sector to help fund the increase in quantity and quality of apprenticeship training. This levy will put employers in charge of how apprenticeship budgets are spent by creating a fund which they can use to pay for the cost of external training for their apprentices.

Further details on the rate and scope of the levy will be set out by my Rt hon Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the autumn Spending Review.

January 1, 2023
Douglas Carswell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2015-12-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 17 September 2015 to Question 9945, who conducted the independent evaluations of 2007 and 2013; against what criteria the evaluations concluded that the curriculum promoted values of democracy, pluralism and peace; and what sources of information other than those independent evaluations her Department used to assess the quality of the curriculum in Khyber, Pakhtunkwa and Punjab.

Mr Desmond Swayne

The independent evaluations were conducted by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the delivery agency of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, as part of their regular reporting to the National Education Development Partners Group (NEDPG) in Pakistan.

The NEDPG, which consists of both bilateral and multilateral donors, including the UK, UNESCO, UNICEF, The World Bank, the US, Germany and Australia, has prioritised scrutiny of the curriculum in its dialogue with the government of Pakistan. There is an implicit set of internationally agreed professional norms and standards for all aspects of education, set through the UNESCO Annual Global Monitoring Reports against which conclusions can be drawn.

While GIZ has led evaluation on behalf of the Partners Group, other members carry out reviews of the education sector, including curriculum quality, and these are pooled and used by all. In addition, DFID staff scrutinise the curriculum and its implementation as part of regular monitoring of the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa education programmes.

January 1, 2023
Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-01-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what criteria his Department uses to determine who receives Start-Up Loans; and what processes are in place to ensure that people with mental health problems have their applications considered fairly.

Anna Soubry

The Start-Up Loans programme provides loans and mentoring support to enable entrepreneurs aged 18 and over from all parts of society and based in the UK to start a business. So far, over 34,300 entrepreneurs have received support from the programme, which in turn has facilitated over £187 million worth of lending to date.

The programme operates through a network of Delivery Partners, who make individual lending decisions based on criteria set by the Start-Up Loans Company. Delivery Partners are required to be authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. A condition of this authorisation is that they adhere to the FCA’s Treating Customers Fairly principles, which include reference to the treatment of customers with mental health issues.

A full list of principles is available on the FCA’s website

January 1, 2023
Nick Clegg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Clegg on 2016-02-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has allocated funding for primary and secondary schools to employ a dedicated mental health practitioner to provide services to pupils on site.

Mr Sam Gyimah

The most recent prevalence survey estimated that 1 in 10 children have a diagnosable mental health disorder, and more have lower level problems. This is why the Government has made good mental health, character and resilience a high priority. The Department of Health is commissioning a new prevalence survey to update this estimate for a wider range of ages, from 2-19. It is due to report in 2018. We do not routinely collect data that allows us to measure the amount schools spend specifically on addressing mental health issues.

We are committed to better understanding what schools are doing on this matter, which is why my department is commissioning an extensive survey. This survey will provide a robust national picture of mental health support provided by schools and colleges.

It is for head teachers to determine how they spend their individual school budgets to best meet the needs of all their pupils. In the Spending Review we announced that the core schools budget will be protected in real terms through this Parliament. We are also protecting the Pupil Premium, which many schools use to fund mental health provision, at current pupil rates. Within these protections, we announced in December 2015 that an additional £92.5 million will specifically be provided in the high needs element of the Dedicated School Grant (DSG) next year.

We have also made £1.4 billion available over the next five years to transform local children and young people’s mental health services to deliver more integrated and accessible services. Clinical Commissioning Groups have been required to work with others services locally, including schools, to produce plans that set out how they will transform children and young people’s mental health services locally to make them more accessible and increase the focus on prevention.

We are also contributing to a £3 million joint pilot with NHS England for training single points of contact in schools and specialist mental health services, to ensure that children and young people have timely access to specialist support where needed. There are 22 pilot areas covering more than 200 schools across 27 CCGs.

January 1, 2023
Jim Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2016-03-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what representations he has received from (a) consumer groups and (b) railway franchise holders on the level of staffing at small railway stations; and if he will make a statement.

Claire Perry

Whilst we regulate Ticket Office opening times through the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement, station staffing levels are primarily a matter for operators as we believe that they themselves are best placed to determine how to meet the needs of their passengers.

Since February 2015, 3 ticket offices have reduced their opening hours after train companies followed the procedure as set out in the Ticketing and Settlement Agreement, which includes making representation to the Department.

Passenger Focus (as was) and London TravelWatch provided responses to the East Anglia franchise public consultation with regard to staffing.

More recently, both Transport Focus and London TravelWatch have made representations to the Department with regard to the South Western franchise consultation and staffing.

Representatives from Govia Thameslink Railway have also briefed officials at the Department on their plans to carry out a consultation on proposals to change ticket office opening hours at some stations.

January 1, 2023
Richard Burgon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burgon on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what process Tier 2 intra-company transfer visas for IT undergo when they reach her Department.

Mike Penning

The process for handling Tier 2 intra company transfer (ICT) visas for IT is the same as that for any other application under the Tier 2 intra company transfer arrangements. All applications are validated to ensure the correct fees have been paid, all mandatory questions have been answered on the forms, and applicants have submitted their biometric information. Checks are also undertaken on every application to assess any adverse immigration or security issues.

January 1, 2023