Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Christian Matheson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Christian Matheson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christian Matheson on 2015-11-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate her Department has made of the change in the number of jobs in the energy efficiency, solar and low-carbon heating industries during 2015 to date; what estimate it has made of the equivalent change in 2016; and what estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse will be of support packages provided by the Government to people who have lost or will lose their jobs in those industries.

    Andrea Leadsom

    In March 2015, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills published a report on ‘The size and performance of the UK low carbon economy’ which contains estimates for the number of jobs supported by various low carbon sectors. The latest data is for 2013 and suggests that in the UK there were 54,400 directly employed in the energy efficiency products sector, 20,300 directly employed in the solar photovoltaic sector and 19,300 directly employed in the low carbon heating sector (excluding use of biomass). Further employment occurs in the supply chains to these sectors.

    Information is not available to robustly estimate the potential cost to the public purse of the changes. However a Government consultation has been run on the changes to the financial support for solar PV within the Renewable Obligationfrom 22 July to2 September and a consultation on the feed-in tariff review from 27 August to 23 October. We welcomed evidence from the sector during these consultations and we will respond in due course. The government is committed to reducing emissions from heating and improving energy efficiency, including a goal to install one million more energy efficiency measures before the end of this Parliament.

    Figures quoted above have been rounded to the nearest hundred. The full report and data can be found at the following link:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/low-carbon-economy-size-and-performance.

    “

  • Jim Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Jim Cunningham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Cunningham on 2015-11-23.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to increase (a) income tax and (b) corporation tax receipts; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr David Gauke

    The Government wants to deliver a low tax, high wage economy.The personal allowance has been increased from £6,475 in 2010-11 to £10,600 in 2015-16, and the headline rate of corporation tax has been cut from 28 per cent to 20 per cent since 2010.

    The Government has committed to going further in this parliament by raising the personal allowance to £12,500 and the higher rate threshold to £50,000.Corporation tax will be cut to 18 per cent by 2020, benefitting over a million companies.

    Due to the strength of our economy, tax receipts are growing strongly. Onshore corporation tax receipts have risen nearly 30% since 2010.Income tax receipts are £8bn higher in the first 10 months of 2015 compared to the first 10 months of 2014. In its most recent Economic and Fiscal Outlook the Office for Budget Responsibility have raised their forecast for receipts over the parliament.

    At the same time the government has taken a number of steps to clamp down on avoidance and evasion. For instance it will invest over £800m in HM Revenue and Customs to help them to tackle evasion and non-compliance over the course of the parliament. These measures are forecast to raise £7.2bn by 2020-21.

  • Gareth Thomas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Gareth Thomas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Thomas on 2016-01-05.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether the Ross Fund will include funding to tackle HIV/AIDS; and if she will make a statement.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    Whilst the Ross Fund is not directly focused on HIV and AIDS, the UK continues to invest in research on HIV and AIDS. This includes research into understanding the structural drivers that can increase HIV (including gender inequality, stigma and limited livelihood opportunities), HIV prevention technologies (such as microbicides and vaccines) and studies to identify cost-effective ways to deliver HIV services.

    The Ross Fund will target infectious diseases including malaria, diseases with epidemic potential, neglected tropical diseases which affect over a billion people globally, and antimicrobial resistance which poses a substantial and growing threat to global health. The goal of the Ross fund is to develop, test and deliver a range of new products (including vaccines, drugs and diagnostics) to help combat these diseases in developing countries.

  • Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-01-29.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether Concentrix has met its targets set in its service level agreement.

    Mr David Gauke

    In HM Revenue and Customs’ contract with Concentrix there are three Key Performance Indicators. These cover post and telephony expectations, and all three are currently being met. There is also one Quality Performance Indicator, where the most recent indicative result is 95.2% against an expectation of 97%.

  • Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Luciana Berger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Luciana Berger on 2016-02-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to paragraph 3 on page 5 of the Five Year Forward View Mental Health Task Force report, published on 15 February 2016, if he will make it his policy to provide equal funding for mental health services.

    Alistair Burt

    We are committed to achieving parity of esteem between mental health and physical health. The Mental Health Taskforce estimates that the priority recommendations for the National Health Service set out in their report will cost an additional £1 billion annually by the year 2020/21. By the end of this Parliament we will make the Taskforce’s recommendations a reality.

    This builds on the £1.4 billion over this Parliament that has been previously announced for transforming children and young people’s mental health and improving support for eating disorders.

    All of the Taskforce report recommendations are funded from within the overall envelope agreed in the Spending Review. All of the £1 billion announced with the Taskforce report represents additional investment over and above what was allocated to the NHS in 2015/16.

    We are already spending more money on mental health than ever before – an estimated £11.7 billion last year. This shows our commitment to achieving an equal status between mental and physical health services. We have been clear that commissioners must continue to increase investment in mental health services each year at a level which at least matches their overall expenditure increase.

    We will monitor this closely to ensure this happens and know that clinical commissioning group spend is on track to increase as expected.

  • Frank Field – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Frank Field – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Frank Field on 2016-03-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of incorporating flood rescue into the statutory duties of the fire and rescue services.

    Mike Penning

    The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 and the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 already set out clearly the roles and powers of fire and rescue authorities in respect of emergency response and rescue in a wide range of situations, including flooding.

    Fire and rescue authorities are required to produce Integrated Risk Management Plans which identify the full range of risks to which an authority’s service is expected to respond, and these plans are subject to consultation with local communities. This approach is enshrined in the National Fire Framework which was given statutory effect in August 2012.

  • Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Julie Cooper – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Julie Cooper on 2016-04-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many e-courts there are in Lancashire.

    Mr Shailesh Vara

    Excluding one closing court, in Lancashire all criminal courts (4 Crown courts and 6 magistrates’ courts) are equipped to work digitally through services such as in-court evidence presentation, video links, a shared file store, Wi-Fi and a new digital case management system in the Crown courts.

  • Lord Judd – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Judd – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Judd on 2016-05-24.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the potential value in career development of service by police on international deployments.

    Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

    The National Police Chiefs’ Council has established the new Joint International Policing Hub to triage requests for international police assistance through a single point. The Hub joins up the police at a national level and with Home Office and Foreign and Commonwealth Office and is intended to promote the UK model of policing by consent. Decisions on who to recommend to deploy, and where, lies with Chief Constables, in conjunction with their Police and Crime Commissioners.

    As the first professional body for all of policing in England and Wales, the College of Policing develops standards and guidance for policing. The College is considering flexibility and the structure of entry, exit and re-entry of officers. It is also considering routes for officers to gain external experience, such as secondments, as part of the Leadership Review.

    The Government has no plans to publish the details of police, law enforcement specialists and other relevant civilian experts in service in UN operations and at the UN Headquarters. Any personnel deployed as part of a national contingent are listed on the UN website: http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/contributors/2016/apr16_4.pdf

  • Alan Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Alan Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alan Brown on 2016-07-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to reduce approval process timescales for woodland planting.

    Dr Thérèse Coffey

    Forestry is a devolved matter and the answer refers to England only.

    We have improved the process for Countryside Stewardship applications for woodland creation in the 2016-17 planting season. Any amendments that may be required for existing Environmental Stewardship Schemes can be made earlier in this year than in previous years. The Rural Payments Agency has new systems for digitisation of land registration and parcel amendments to support smoother application processing. Scoring has been simplified and we have introduced a self-calculating and self-populating application form to ease the application process.

  • Laurence Robertson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Laurence Robertson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Laurence Robertson on 2016-10-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what his policy is on requiring areas which are bidding for devolved powers to introduce directly elected mayors.

    Andrew Percy

    The Government is clear that devolution deals are locally-led and bespoke – not one-size-fits-all. The Government has, however, been consistent in stating that the most ambitious deals in terms of the powers and funding devolved will be those that are the most ambitious in their governance proposals, for example those willing to offer a directly elected, single point of accountability by establishing mayoral combined authorities.