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Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Caroline Lucas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will publish (a) the revised list of the membership of the Department’s Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment and (b) a revised register of interests of the Committee’s members.

    George Eustice

    The current membership of the Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE) is:

    Professor Rosemary Hails MBE (chair), Centre for Ecology and Hydrology

    Dr Kathy Bamford, Imperial College

    Professor Michael Bonsall, University of Oxford

    Dr Rosemary Collier, University of Warwick

    Professor Ian Crute CBE, self-employed consultant

    Dr Matthew Heard, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology

    Professor David Hopkins, The Royal Agricultural University

    Simon Kerr, National Institute of Agricultural Botany

    Dr Peter Lund, University of Birmingham

    Dr Ben Raymond, University of Exeter

    Dr Andrew Wilcox, Harper Adams University

    An updated register of the interests of the Committee members will be published as soon as possible on the ACRE pages of the GOV..UK website. (at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/advisory-committee-on-releases-to-the-environment).

    “

  • Richard Arkless – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Richard Arkless – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Arkless on 2015-11-17.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what progress has been made towards a resolution of the Scottish Power cashback mis-selling dispute since his meeting in July 2015 with the CEO of the Insolvency Service.

    Sajid Javid

    I have asked my officials to seek an update from Scottish Power on what steps they are taking in this matter.

  • Lord Naseby – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Lord Naseby – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Naseby on 2015-12-15.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government on how many occasions between 2013 and 2015 the Department of Health received representations from Action on Smoking and Health regarding the standardised packaging of tobacco products.

    Lord Prior of Brampton

    To identify what representations the Department has received about standardised packaging between 2013 and 2015 would require extensive searching of Departmental records to identify which representations were relevant and would result in disproportionate cost.

  • Seema Malhotra – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Seema Malhotra – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Seema Malhotra on 2016-01-26.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what information his Department holds on accumulated pension wealth on the lifetime allowance basis.

    Harriett Baldwin

    The Government does not hold its own records on total accumulated pension wealth, only on pension contributions. For the purposes of the Lifetime Allowance, officials have used data from the ONS Wealth and Assets Survey, which includes estimates of pension wealth.

    The Government assessed the effects of changes to the Annual Allowance and Lifetime Allowance by considering how many people would have to reduce their saving in response to these reductions. This methodology was agreed with the OBR.

    The reduction in the Lifetime Allowance will affect only 4% of savers currently approaching retirement. The Lifetime Allowance will be reduced to £1 million from April, but the average pension savings of someone approaching retirement is only £85,000.

    Just 1% of savers make contributions of £40,000 per year, the level of the Annual Allowance since April 2014. The average saver contributes £6,000 per year.

    The introduction of the Tapered Annual Allowance for individuals who earn over £150,000 in April 2016 will impact less than 2% of people saving into a pension.

    The Government laid out its modelling on the effect of changes to the Annual and Lifetime Allowances on pension contributions in its policy costings documents at the March and Summer Budgets 2015.

    For changes to the Lifetime Allowance, the Wealth and Assets Survey was used to estimate pension wealth, and this was projected forward using assumed pension contributions and estimates of the real rate of return on pensions savings taken from the OECD and the Government Actuary’s Department.

    For the Tapered Annual Allowance, modelling used estimates from the Survey of Personal Incomes, HMRC operational data on personal pension contributions, the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, and the Occupational Pension Scheme Survey.

  • Lord Truscott – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Lord Truscott – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Truscott on 2016-02-11.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, in the light of the experience in Oklahoma in the US, they plan to commission a detailed study into the potential correlation between fracking in the UK and more frequent earthquakes.

    Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth

    Waste water re-injection in the US has been linked to seismic activity, but this technique has not been proposed in the UK and the Environment Agency will not permit re-injection of waste water into any formation at this stage.

    In the UK, we have over 50 years’ experience regulating the onshore oil and gas industry. Our regulator regime is robust and we have strong controls in place to mitigate the risk of any seismic activity in the UK.

  • Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Prevent strategy.

    Mr John Hayes

    As part of the Prevent Strategy we have trained over 450,000 frontline workers in spotting signs of radicalisation. In Channel, hundreds of people have been successfully provided with support. 130 community based projects were delivered in 2015, up from 70 in 2014, reaching over 25,300 participants. Our local coordinator network has dramatically increased its reach, working with over 2,790 different institutions and engaging nearly 50,000 individuals over the course of 2015.

    Following referrals from the Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit, social media providers removed 58,000 pieces of illegal terrorist material in 2015, compared with 46,000 in 2014. This brings the total to 140,000 since February 2010 when the police Counter Terrorism Internet Referral Unit was set up.

    We report on Prevent delivery annually through the CONTEST Annual report. The next report will be published shortly.

  • Gordon Marsden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Gordon Marsden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gordon Marsden on 2016-04-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 14 March 2016 to Question 30445, to which regions the 173 volunteer Enterprise Advisers have been appointed.

    Mr Sam Gyimah

    The Careers & Enterprise Company (CEC) is continuing to make excellent progress to transform the provision of careers, enterprise and employer engagement experiences for young people, including growing its Enterprise Advisers Network. The CEC is responsible for the administrative resources provided to the network. We therefore suggest contacting the company directly for detailed information about the network, including regions to which Enterprise Co-ordinators and Advisers have been appointed. The CEC can be contacted at info@careersandenterprise.co.uk.

    “

  • Lord Blencathra – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Lord Blencathra – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

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

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what information they have collected on the number of racoon dogs in the UK; whether they have any plans to ban the ownership of racoon dogs outside licensed zoos; and what action they plan to take to exterminate any in the wild.

    Lord Gardiner of Kimble

    No data is collected on the number of raccoon dogs in the UK.

    There are currently no plans to ban the ownership of this species inside or outside licensed zoos.

    It is currently an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to release a raccoon dog, or allow one to escape, into the wild. If an animal were to escape it would first be the responsibility of the owner to recapture the animal. If, however, there was a threat that the species were to become established in the wild, action would be undertaken to capture and remove the animals in accordance with a draft rapid response protocol currently being prepared as part of the GB non-native species strategy.

  • Thangam Debbonaire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Thangam Debbonaire – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thangam Debbonaire on 2016-07-13.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what training Job Centre Plus staff are required to undertake on the support that is available to people who have been granted refugee status.

    Damian Hinds

    Jobcentre Plus staff are trained to consider a person’s circumstances and to tailor support according to individual need. All staff complete customer awareness training that covers a wide range of customer circumstances that includes asylum seekers and refugees.

    Jobcentre Plus staff supplement national instructions with information on services and support available in their local area. This is accessed via the District Provision Tool which contains a wealth of information on the support available for vulnerable claimants including refugees. Staff are encouraged to access this regularly.

  • Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the impact on the domestic ivory market of plans by other OECD countries to make it illegal to import and export ivory; and if she will make it her policy to impose a total ban on the domestic ivory trade.

    Dr Thérèse Coffey

    The Government is deeply concerned by the continued poaching of elephants for their ivory, which is why we are committed to maintaining the current global ban on any international trade in new ivory. The UK has made no formal assessment of the impact of other countries’ additional measures to restrict trade in ivory. However, as a further step in delivering the Government’s manifesto commitment to press for a total ban on ivory sales, on 21 September the Secretary of State announced plans for a ban on sales of items containing ivory dated between 1947 and the present day, putting UK rules on ivory sales among the world’s toughest. We will consult on plans for the ban early next year. This will complement the existing UK approach not to permit the trade of raw ivory tusks.

    The Government also successfully lobbied for the EU-wide adoption of the existing UK ban on sales of raw ivory tusks, which was advocated through the EU Council Conclusions on an EU Action Plan on Wildlife Trafficking and adopted in June. This urged EU Member States not to issue export or re-export documents under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) for raw, pre-Convention ivory (pre-1990) and to consider further measures to put a halt to commercial trade in ivory from elephants.

    At the CITES Conference that took place from 24 September to 5 October the UK was involved in negotiations that successfully secured a strong agreement calling for the closure of domestic ivory markets where they contribute to poaching or illegal trade. This was agreed by all 183 Parties to CITES.