Tag: Parliamentary Question

Mrs Anne Main – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mrs Anne Main on 2016-03-10.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the cost to UK firms of implementing Capital Requirement Directive IV.

Harriett Baldwin

The Capital Requirements Directive IV (CRD IV) implements, in the EU, the prudential banking standards agreed by the international Basel Committee. The Government supports these global standards to ensure that we do not again face severe economic impacts as a result of inadequate banking regulation and would have implemented these with or without EU legislation.

It is difficult to isolate the costs and benefits from other prudential banking measures introduced since the global financial crisis. And the benefits in particular are hard to capture as they take time to materialize. However, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) stated in its cost-benefit analysis carried out 2013 that ‘the CRDIV package is net beneficial to the UK economy.’

Taking all of the prudential measures together, the PRA has estimated that the net economic benefit is £8.25bn per annum.

01/01/2023
Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-04-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if her Department will take steps to ensure that (a) the UK is energy secure and independent and (b) reliance on foreign gas supplies and cross border electrical connections coupled with decommissioning of UK energy resources does not result in an energy shortage in the UK in the next 10 years.

Andrea Leadsom

Energy security is my top priority. The Department will take the steps needed to ensure hard working families and business have the energy they need, including from overseas where this adds to the diversity and cost effectiveness of our energy supplies.

Interconnection provides greater security of supply as we import from a diverse generation mix, allowing us to access, for example, Norway’s large amounts of hydropower.

The UK has an open and competitive gas market in which gas is traded freely. Gas enters the UK system from a range of sources including the UK Continental Shelf, Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as the LNG imports. This diverse and flexible range of domestic and foreign supplies ensures security of supply, encourages competition and helps to lower energy costs for British consumers and industry.

01/01/2023
Lord Chadlington – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Chadlington on 2016-05-18.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the relationship between the inability to pay high rents and the risk of homelessness, what they are doing to ensure access to social housing.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

The statutory requirement to consider ‘reasonable preference’ prioritises social housing for those who need it the most. The provisions in the Housing and Planning Act that ensure new tenancies are regularly reviewed will enable councils to get the best use out of their social housing.

To enable local authorities to help claimants affected by changes to Housing Benefit who need extra support, we have also increased the level of funding for Discretionary Housing Payment to £870 million in total across this Parliament – a notional 55 per cent increase compared to the previous Parliament.

Whilst households who face homelessness need suitable, settled accommodation it does not always need to be social housing. That is why we changed the law to allow authorities to make offers of good quality private rented sector accommodation. Since 2010 our homelessness prevention funding has helped local authorities and homelessness charities prevent almost a million households from becoming homeless. We want this work to continue and that is why we have maintained and protected homelessness prevention funding though the local government finance settlement totalling £315 million by 2019/20.

The government is also committed to delivering affordable housing. Twice as much council housing has been built since 2010 than in the previous 13 years. The Spending Review in 2016 allocated £8 billion to deliver 400,000 affordable homes this parliament.

01/01/2023
Chris Law – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Law on 2016-07-13.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to update the Government’s long-term economic plan in response to the outcome of the EU referendum.

Simon Kirby

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given by the Chancellor earlier today to the Hon Member for Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill.

01/01/2023
Kerry McCarthy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kerry McCarthy on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 12 September 2016 to Question 44687, on trapping, which animal welfare experts were consulted on trap designs and the decision to delay implementation; and for what reason the DOC trap does not meet the Agreement on International Humane Trapping standards.

Dr Thérèse Coffey

The Government uses the Animal and Plant Health Agency’s National Wildlife Management Centre for advice on trap humaneness.

Of the species currently covered by the Agreement on International Humane Trapping standards (AIHTS), the stoat is the only species regularly and widely trapped in the UK using spring-traps.

When we implement the AIHTS for stoat, the most widely used spring-trap (Fenn type) will no longer be approved for use against stoats. To address this issue, Defra aims to implement the AIHTS as soon as is practically possible, but to use a permitted transition provision to allow delayed implementation of the agreement for stoats whilst a suitable compliant design is identified.

The Fenn type trap is a run-through trap designed to trap animals as they travel through their usual pathways across the landscape.

The DOC trap meets the required standards but it is only permitted for use as a blind end baited trap. A significant disadvantage of baited traps, such as the DOC, is that stoats will avoid entering baited traps when there is an abundance of preferred food available. These conditions coincide with peak trapping effort to protect game birds and other ground nesting species.

This has led the Government to conclude that the DOC is not a suitable alternative to the Fenn type trap.

01/01/2023
Lord Beecham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2015-11-17.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many (1) local authority, and (2) housing association, supported housing schemes there are in England, and how many residents participate in each type of scheme.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

We do not hold this information. More information on the scale, shape and cost of the supported accommodation sector should be available through the evidence review jointly commissioned by the Department for Communities and Local Government and the Department for Work and Pensions. The review is due to report by April 2016.

01/01/2023
Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-12-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to reduce and treat irregular heartbeats in infants that can lead to premature death.

Ben Gummer

Sudden loss of life can occur through diagnosed and previously undiagnosed heart conditions in children of any age. This is a devastating event to the families involved and there is no simple solution to prevent every case.

A large part of the review of congenital heart services that reported in July 2015 focused on producing gold standards for the care of children and infants with heart problems. These standards have now been agreed and will be implemented in April 2016.

One of the key workstreams arising from the review is improvement in detection of heart disease early in life and there are increasing numbers of specialists involved in this area of cardiology. Research and development strives to improve identification of high risk cases and refine screening programs to aid in reducing these shocking events.

01/01/2023

Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-01-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many seafarer (a) cadets and (b) ratings were trained by shipping companies operating in the UK in each year since 2000-01.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) does not collate figures for seafarer cadets and ratings who have been trained by shipping companies operating in the UK.

However, the MCA does collate the number of new cadets, the number of cadets in training and the number of trainee watch ratings who start training each year and these can be found in the tables below.

The figures in Table 1 show the number of cadets supported by the Support for Maritime Training (SMarT) scheme who started training in each year since 2000-01.

Year	Officer cadets currently in training	Number of which are SMarT1 new entrants
2000/01	1020	470
2001/02	1010	450
2002/03	1000	560
2003/04	1030	660
2004/05	1050	560
2005/06	1110	570
2006/07	1430	690
2007/08	1700	850
2008/09	1800	930
2009/10	1830	750
2010/11	1840	850
2011/12	1900	900
2012/13	1990	780
2013/14	1940	790
2014/15	1920	820

Table 1: UK officer cadets under SMarT1 scheme (1999-2015)

These figures are derived from SMarT returns for SMarT1 training and may include a small number of EU trainees resident in the UK. Numbers are rounded to nearest 10.

The figures in Table 2 below show the number of watch rating trainees who have been supported by SMarT each year since 2011-12. The data held by the MCA for ratings training prior to 2011-12 includes concessionaire training and does not provide an accurate reflection of watch rating training.

Year	Watch Rating Trainees
2011/12	32
2012/13	13
2013/14	12
2014/15	4

01/01/2023

Fiona Bruce – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Fiona Bruce on 2016-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking in cooperation with his international counterparts to pursue criminal responsibility of the leadership of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Mr Hugo Swire

We remain deeply concerned about the human rights situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

The British Government supports the principle that there must be no impunity for those accused of human rights violations and that crimes against humanity are appropriately investigated.

We will continue to work with members of the international community through multilateral fora, including the UN Security Council and the UN Human Rights Council, to ensure the regime is held to account for its appalling human rights record.

01/01/2023
Michelle Donelan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michelle Donelan on 2016-03-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what representations her Department has received from businesses on the inclusion of design technology within the EBacc qualification.

Nick Gibb

The consultation on implementing the EBacc closed on 29 January. We have received responses from a wide range of stakeholders, including businesses. The Government response, including a list of responding organisations, will be published in due course.

01/01/2023