Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Lord Myners – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Myners – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-05-23.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they support Turkey joining the EU, and what pre-conditions they believe should attach to such admission.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The Government supports the process of Turkey’s EU accession, which remains the most effective means of encouraging reform, stability and democracy in Turkey. But as the Prime Minister, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron), has made it clear that the question of Turkey actually joining the EU is ‘not remotely on the cards’, indeed that he does not believe it will happen ‘for decades’. Every Member State has a veto, at every stage of the process.

    Turkey would need to undergo substantial reform before we could consider Turkish accession to the EU, particularly in terms of rule of law, freedom of speech, and socio-economic convergence with EU standards. Furthermore, the Government will not agree to any further EU enlargement without new arrangements for transitional controls on freedom of movement. We do not want to take the risk, as we did in 2004, of very large movements of people after a new accession. Under the European Union Act 2011, any new Accession Treaty would require parliamentary approval by primary legislation before it could be ratified.

  • Calum Kerr – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Calum Kerr – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Calum Kerr on 2016-07-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she will take to protect businesses in the digital sector as the UK prepares to leave the EU.

    Matt Hancock

    The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is working closely with all of our sectors to make sure they have a voice as we prepare for negotiations to exit the European Union. We will continue to have regular engagement with organisations from across the digital sector to make sure their views and concerns are represented fully in our preparations for exit negotiations.

  • David Hanson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    David Hanson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Hanson on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people were prosecuted in their absence for (a) serious sexual offences, (b) class A drug use and (c) manslaughter in each year since 2010.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    Information on whether or not a defendant is in attendance at their hearing is not held centrally and can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

  • Justin Madders – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Justin Madders – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2015-11-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of the NHS workforce he expects to receive a real-terms pay increase over the next four years; and if he will make a statement.

    Alistair Burt

    The Government announced that it would fund public sector pay increases at an average of 1% for four years from 2016/17. For National Health Service staff, the NHS Pay Review Body and Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration will take evidence from a range of stakeholders, including Government, trades unions, NHS Providers, NHS Employers, NHS England and Health Education England and will make recommendations to Government.

  • Baroness King of Bow – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Baroness King of Bow – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness King of Bow on 2015-11-26.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have undertaken research to establish the number of households likely to be affected by the Benefit Cap in each local authority area.

    Lord Freud

    The Government set out its assessment of the impacts of the policies in the Welfare Reform and Work Bill on 20th July. These are available on the Parliament website.

  • Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2016-01-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans she has to collect data on the loss of ancient woodland to development.

    Rory Stewart

    This Government recognises the importance of England’s trees, woods and forests. Our ancient woodlands are especially valuable to us. Indeed they reflect our heritage and identity, as well as providing a unique and rich habitat for our wildlife.

    That is why Natural England is working with partners to update and improve the Ancient Woodland Inventory. The planning system records the loss of ancient woodland where development proposals require an Environmental Statement and these losses are then a matter of public record.

    Given this, we have no plans to collect data from Local Authorities on the loss of ancient woodland to development.

  • Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Jess Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2016-01-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the relevant per pupil outturn expenditure on Education Services Grant-supported activities for the highest, median and lowest spending local authorities was for the 2014-15 financial year; and if she will publish the same statistics for planned expenditure for the 2015-16 financial year.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    The Education Services Grant (ESG) is unringfenced and local authorities therefore have complete discretion on how to spend this funding. The Department for Education has previously set out a list of activities that the grant is intended to fund, which can be found online here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/335723/ESG_AnnexA_reformatted.pdf

    Local authorities report their planned expenditure on the related budget lines through their section 251 returns and the data from these returns are published online. The data for 2014-15 can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-authority-benchmarking-tables-2014-to-2015 and the data for 2015-16 can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/section-251-2015-to-2016

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  • Stephen Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Stephen Phillips – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Phillips on 2016-02-24.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of successful prosecutions for tax evasion.

    Mr David Gauke

    At Summer Budget 2015, the Government announced an investment of £800 million to tackle non‑compliance and tax evasion.

    This investment includes £266 million and 670 new HMRC staff to tackle tax fraud, which will lead to a tripling of the number of criminal investigations into the most serious and complex tax crimes.

    The Government is also consulting on new criminal powers to tackle offshore tax evasion and corporate facilitation of tax evasion.

    This all builds on the Government’s earlier investment into HMRC, which enabled the Department to achieve a seven-fold increase in the number of prosecutions over the course of the last parliament and contributed to the protection over £2 billion of vital public revenue last year.

  • Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the contribution of the UK’s membership of the EU to the UK’s work in (a) preventing and (b) identifying and detaining terrorists.

    James Brokenshire

    Terrorism and serious organised crime are global threats that cross national borders. Our unique relationship with the EU gives UK law enforcement access to EU tools and instruments that help keep people safe and tackle serious and organised crime, but also mean we are not obliged to participate in new measures when we do not judge them to be in the national interest.

    The tools and instruments that the UK participates in include Europol, an EU agency which supports cross-border police operations and intelligence sharing, and can assist in the identification of terrorist threats; the European Arrest Warrant, which allows swift extradition between EU countries of individuals accused or convicted of a criminal offence; and the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II), which enables law enforcement agencies around the EU to share live alerts, for example, for missing people and stolen vehicles. The UK is also in the process of implementing Prum, which will give us access to fingerprint and DNA data from other member states.

    Since 2004, using the European Arrest Warrant, over 1,000 individuals accused or convicted of a criminal offence have faced justice in UK courts and over 7,000 have been extradited from the UK.

  • David Anderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    David Anderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-04-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, whether her Department has made a detailed assessment of the effect of the Government’s energy policy carbon dioxide emissions in the UK in each year since 2010; and if she will make a statement.

    Andrea Leadsom

    Provisional statistics for 2015 indicate that greenhouse gas emissions have fallen 38% since 1990 and 17% since 2010.

    Reduction in greenhouse gas emissions since 1990

    Units: MtCO2e

    2010

    2011

    2012

    2013

    2014

    2015(p)

    Emissions reduction since 1990

    -24%

    -31%

    -28%

    -30%

    -35%

    -38%

    Source: DECC (2016) Provisional UK greenhouse gas emissions national statistics 2015

    A significant proportion of this reduction is being driven by policies. For those policies where we have been able to estimate the emissions impacts, annual estimates are detailed in Annex D of our Energy and Emissions Projections, available at:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/updated-energy-and-emissions-projections-2015.

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