Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what criteria Arts Council England uses to allocate funding to theatre companies; and how much such funding has been disbursed to theatre companies in each of the last three years.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    Arts Council England (ACE) assesses all applications for funding against the specific criteria for each programme, as well as one or more of its 5 goals of excellence, opportunity, resilience, leadership and young people. ACE investment in theatre over the last 3 years is:
    £136,024,252 in 2013/14; £148,745,455 in 2014/15; and £138,018,756 to date (23 Feb 2016) in 2015/16.

  • Baroness Jones of Whitchurch – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Baroness Jones of Whitchurch – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch on 2016-03-21.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Food Standards Agency achieved its target of halving the incidence of campylobacter food poisoning in 2015.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    Although progress continues to be made, the Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) agreed target with industry to reduce the numbers of the most contaminated birds at the end of slaughter to less than 10% by 2015 was not met. However, given the interventions expected to come on stream within industry, the FSA Board agreed to roll the target to 2016, when it is expected that the target will be met. If the target is met, then a decrease of around 50% in the number of human cases of campylobacteriosis would be expected.

  • Maria Caulfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Maria Caulfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Maria Caulfield on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many times Southern Trains has cancelled a scheduled stop at Plumpton Station in East Sussex in the last 12 months for which information is available.

    Claire Perry

    We do not hold information to this level of detail. Govia Thameslink Railways, that operates Southern Trains, might hold this data.

  • Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Tulip Siddiq – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-05-06.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much was raised by the diverted profits tax in 2015-16.

    Mr David Gauke

    The Diverted Profits Tax is designed to counteract contrived arrangements used to avoid tax in the UK, and incentivise businesses to change their behaviour and pay tax on profits from economic activities in the UK. The Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) recent assessment at Budget 2016 is that overall yield (including Corporation Tax from behavioural change) is expected to be close to that originally scored.

    The OBR noted on page 122 of its “Economic and fiscal outlook” March 2016: “Our forecast assumes that overall yield from the measure will be close to that originally scored, but we now expect that around two-thirds of the yield will come through higher Corporation Tax payments (as firms restructure their tax affairs) rather than via the diverted profits tax itself.” This is available at: http://cdn.budgetresponsibility.org.uk/March2016EFO.pdf.

  • Baroness Tonge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Baroness Tonge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Tonge on 2016-06-27.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations they intend to make to the government of Israel asking them to take financial responsibility for the territories they occupy.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    We have no plans to make any representations to the Israeli authorities on this issue.

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-09-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to her article in the Daily Mail, entitled Too much of your money is simply stolen or squandered, published on 13 September 2016, in what areas of her Department’s spending funding is being stolen or wasted.

    Rory Stewart

    DFID has a zero tolerance approach to fraud and has a wide range of robust measures and controls in place to protect UK aid and ensure we maximise value for money. My department works in challenging areas and operates a comprehensive risk management framework which assesses and responds to the risk of fraud at every stage of the project cycle. The Counter Fraud Section responds firmly to any allegation of fraud recovering funds wherever possible. We expect our partners to account for losses from their own funds to minimise the impact on UK taxpayers and the recipients of aid.

  • Danny Kinahan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Danny Kinahan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Danny Kinahan on 2015-10-28.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of safety measures used on the road network to protect road maintenance workers.

    Andrew Jones

    The Department for Transport and Highways England are working closely with the Highways Maintenance Term Association and the wider construction sector on safety initiatives to ensure the safety and protection of operatives working on the highway network in England.

  • Gregory Campbell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Gregory Campbell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2015-11-24.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many times explosive ordinance officers were deployed to deal with incidents in Northern Ireland between 1 January 2015 and 1 July 2015.

    Penny Mordaunt

    I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to him by my predecessor, the right hon. Member for Rayleigh and Wickford (Mark Francois) on 27 February 2015 to Question 225158. The Report of the Independent Reviewer of the Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Act 2007 which contains the requested information is published annually. The next report will be published in January 2016.

  • John Spellar – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    John Spellar – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Spellar on 2016-01-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of new HGV drivers who will be required in each of the next five years.

    Andrew Jones

    The Department is working with other parts of Government to encourage and enable more people to become lorry drivers, including via apprenticeships and action related to Jobcentre Plus.

    The Department is taking steps to ensure that the increased demand for driving tests is accommodated through recruiting driving examiners and providing increased numbers of test appointments.

  • Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-01-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what factors she takes into account in considering a request from a local authority to dispose of school sites under Schedule 14 of the Education Act 2011.

    Edward Timpson

    Since January 2013, the Secretary of State for Education has received:

    • 1 application from Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council, this is currently being considered.
    • 4 applications from Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council, all have been approved.
    • 19 applications from the Greater Manchester combined authority, 1 is being considered and the other 18 have been approved.

    These figures include applications in those local authorities relating to land held by Academy Trusts under a lease from the local authority.

    The Education Act 2011 requires that the Secretary of State must give consent prior to the disposal of land which has been used for any school or academy in the last eight years. Secretary of State consent is also required under section 77 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 where local authorities wish to dispose of playing field land that has been used by a school in the last ten years. A key consideration for the government is whether the land proposed for disposal could be suitable for use by a new school.

    There are a range of reasons for these disposals. Some disposals are leases from the academy trustees back to the local authority, which allow a children’s centre on site to continue or which provide land for another school. A substantial number of consents refer to local authority maintained school sites for outright disposals where the school has closed or relocated to a new build site.