Tag: Parliamentary Question

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

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-05-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will investigate the case for sales of gift vouchers by retailers to be backed by cash collateral held in independent escrow.

Baroness Neville-Rolfe

Her Majesty’s Government has asked the Law Commission to consider the treatment of gift vouchers and pre-payments in the event of retailer insolvency. The Government will consider carefully any recommendations that may emerge on this question once the Law Commission’s report is published in the summer of 2016.

01/01/2023
Justin Madders – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Justin Madders on 2016-06-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the effect on the role of chief nursing officer will be of the decision to abolish the nursing, midwifery and allied health professionals policy unit.

Ben Gummer

As part of the DH 2020 plan, the Department is making significant changes to the way it works. The Department’s approach is to flexibly access professional advice from a wide range of sources, including arm’s length bodies, regulators and professional bodies, rather than from a fixed standing team of internal advisers.

These changes do not affect the role of the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO), who as CNO of the Department already advises, and will continue to advise all Ministers and the Department on the range of nursing issues.

All staff in the Department, including staff in the current nursing, midwifery and allied health professions policy unit are eligible to apply for new roles in the organisation or to apply for a voluntary early severance scheme.

01/01/2023

Andy McDonald – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andy McDonald on 2016-09-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the cost to his Department was of each re-tendering exercise held for franchises for (a) long distance and (b) regional passenger rail services in each year since 2005-06.

Paul Maynard

Prior to the re-launch of the Franchising Programme in spring 2013, the costs of different franchising projects were not individually recorded.

The cost of each re-franchising project since the re-launch is as follows:

Franchise	Cost (£M)	Notes
Essex Thameside	4.815	1
Thameslink, Southern & Great Northern	7.288
East Coast	8.429	2
Northern	8.668 (to date)	3
TransPennine Express	7.577 (to date)	3
East Anglia	7.413 (to date)	3

These figures include adviser costs (financial, technical and legal advisers), pay costs for the project team, “non-pay” costs (such as bidder day seminars, public consultations, etc), and VAT where applicable, for the duration of the procurements.

Note that the sums invested in each re-franchising project are dwarfed by the (Resource) Support for Passenger Rail Services benefits to the Department from the re-franchising – £200 for every £1.

Notes

NOTE 1: The Essex Thameside figure represents the work done after the relaunch of the Franchising Programme. There was a significant amount of work completed prior to the pausing of the programme in autumn 2012 which is not included here.

NOTE 2: The Intercity East Coast costs were not charged to the public purse, but were covered by the Performance Bond that National Express put forward following its default of the previous East Coast contract.

NOTE 3: The figures for Northern, TransPennine Express (TPE) and East Anglia are the latest figures (as at the end of August 2016). East Anglia is still a ‘live’ project. Whilst Northern and TPE have concluded, there are still some residual costs that may affect the final figures.

01/01/2023

Thangam Debbonaire – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2015-11-10.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Government is taking to support international efforts to improve tax transparency and accountability.

Mr David Gauke

A major focus of the UK’s G8 Presidency was tax transparency and combatting offshore tax evasion. As part of this the UK promoted the development of a new global standard for reciprocal automatic exchange of financial account information in order to effectively tackle the global problem of tax evasion. Due in large part to the UK’s leadership, over 90 countries and jurisdictions have now committed to the new global standard – known as the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) – and will begin automatically exchanging information under the standard by 2017 or 2018. The receipt of large amounts of information on offshore accounts under the CRS will mark a step change in HMRC’s ability to crack down on tax evasion.

During our G8 Presidency, we also drove forward the international work on country-by-country reporting (CBCR), calling on the OECD to develop a template for CBCR reporting as part of the OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project. The OECD template is aimed at providing tax authorities with information on the global allocation of profits and taxes paid and accrued by multinationals, as well as indicators of economic activity in each country. The UK was one of the first countries to commit to implementing the OECD template for CBCR with legislation in the Finance Act 2015.

The final package of measures developed under the BEPS project was published by the OECD on 5 October 2015, and endorsed by G20 Finance Ministers at their meeting on 8 October and the G20 Leaders at their summit on 15-16 November. The UK welcomes the outcomes of the BEPS project and will give full consideration to the OECD’s recommendations.

In addition, the UK has actively supported the revision of the Directive on Administrative Cooperation, to ensure the effective exchange of information about cross-border tax rulings between EU Member States. This directive was agreed in October 2015, and will come into force from 1^st of January 2017.

01/01/2023
Brendan O’Hara – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brendan O’Hara on 2015-12-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Reaper drones are currently deployed in (a) Iraq and (b) Syria.

Penny Mordaunt

To safeguard operational security I am withholding operational information on the number of RAF Reaper aircraft deployed.

01/01/2023
Lord Truscott – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Truscott on 2016-01-14.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether any part of the proposed HS2 rail line is to be built on a flood plain.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

Given HS2 is a national infrastructure project of over 350 miles, HS2 does currently plan to cross floodplains. For Phase One, the assessment of all sources of flood risk can be found in Volume 5 of the Environmental Statement. For Phase Two, flood risk is detailed in the Appraisal of Sustainability.

HS2 Ltd has a design aim that, for the lifetime of the development, there should be no increased risk of flooding for vulnerable receptors, including residential property, taking projected climate change impacts into account. The design of HS2 does consider the practicalities of a range of environmental factors, including flooding.

01/01/2023
Jim McMahon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim McMahon on 2016-02-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what proportion of the Housing Investment Fund devolved to Greater Manchester Combined Authority homes over 10 years is in the form of (a) loans and (b) grants.

Brandon Lewis

The Housing Investment Fund is a loan, supported by a legal agreement in place between Manchester City Council (as the lead authority for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority) and DCLG. All of the Housing Investment Fund must be used as financial transactions to private sector organisations for the funding to qualify under the terms of that legal agreement.

01/01/2023
Daniel Kawczynski – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Kawczynski on 2016-03-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what notification was given to women affected by the Pensions Act 1995.

Justin Tomlinson

Following the Pensions Act 1995, State Pension estimates, issued to individuals on request, made the changes clear. The DWP’s State Pension estimates have been providing individuals with their most up-to-date date of reaching State Pension age since 1995. Over that period, we have encouraged anyone seeking to plan for their retirement to get a pension statement. Since April 2000, the Department has issued more than 11.5 million personalised State Pension statements to people who requested them. We continue to encourage people to request one, as part of our on-going communications.

DWP also ran a pensions education campaign in 2004, which included informing people of the future equalisation of SPA. The campaign included:
- Advertising features in the press and women’s magazines
- A ‘Women’s Pensions Pack’ containing leaflets for women about changes in State Pension age, made available through the Pensions Service
- Direct mailings targeted specifically at women highlighting that women’s SPA is changing
- Sending State Pension forecast letters and accompanying leaflet showing the person’s SPa and explaining who is affected by the changes to women’s SPa (issued to those who requested them)
- Developing an interactive State Pension date/age calculator facility on the Pensions Service website
In addition to these efforts, all those affected by the 1995 Act changes were sent letters between April 2009 and March 2011 using the address details held by HMRC at that time.
01/01/2023
Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 22 February 2016 to Question 27141, what timetable he has set for the introduction of a Pharmacy Access Scheme.

Alistair Burt

We have been in discussions with the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) since December 2015 regarding the Government’s proposals for community pharmacy in 2016/17 and beyond. In parallel, we have sought views on our proposals from other pharmacy organisations and from patient groups. The details of the Pharmacy Access Scheme, including any criteria and a timetable for implementation, form part of this consultation.

We announced on 16 March 2016 that the consultation period was to be extended to allow more time to develop the proposed changes with the PSNC and others. It will now close on 24 May 2016.

Once we have carefully considered the outcomes from the consultation, we are looking to communicate final decisions as soon as possible, so that pharmacy contractors are fully informed some months before the funding reduction starts from October 2016.

01/01/2023
Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-05-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps the Government is taking to increase British trade with Mexico.

Anna Soubry

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

01/01/2023