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Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Matthew Pennycook – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Matthew Pennycook – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Matthew Pennycook on 2016-03-01.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he plans to bring forward proposals to add junior doctors to the definition of worker in section 43K(1) of the Employment Rights Act 1996.

    Ben Gummer

    The Employment Rights Act 1996, as amended by the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 and more recent legislation, forms part of the wider employment rights legislation.

    Junior doctors are protected by the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998, as they are employees of the National Health Service trusts at which they are based.

    The Department supports NHS staff who wish to raise concerns and is implementing a range of measures to support the development of a culture in which staff are able to raise concerns without fear of repercussion or reprisal. The Department has made clear to NHS organisations that they should have policies and procedures to support and encourage staff to raise concerns, and that those concerns should be considered and, where appropriate, acted upon.

  • Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-04-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will estimate the number of (a) UK firms based in Scotland that trade with other EU member states and (b) people employed by those firms.

    Anna Soubry

    HMRC Regional Trade Statistics on the number of firms trading with the EU are publically available through the UKTradeInfo website.

    HM Treasury has published estimates of the number of UK jobs linked to EU exports broken down by region. These are available through the GOV.UK website.

  • 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 2016-05-03.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 18 April 2016 to Question 32849, which 90 countries will provide automatic offshore account and trust data to the UK; which responsible authorities in the UK will be able to access that data; and whether the 90 countries referred to will also be able to access automatic offshore account and trust data held by the UK.

    Mr David Gauke

    The UK expects to receive information from the following jurisdictions under the automatic exchange of information agreements it has, or will soon have, in place.

    Albania

    Colombia

    Hong Kong

    Marshall Islands

    Seychelles

    Andorra

    Cook Islands

    Hungary

    Mauritius

    Singapore

    Anguilla

    Costa Rica

    Iceland

    Mexico

    Sint Maarten

    Antigua & Barbuda

    Croatia

    India

    Monaco

    Slovak Republic

    Argentina

    Curacao

    Indonesia

    Montserrat

    Slovenia

    Aruba

    Cyprus

    Ireland

    Netherlands

    South Africa

    Austria

    Czech Republic

    Isle of Man

    New Zealand

    Spain

    Bahamas

    Denmark

    Israel

    Niue

    Sweden

    Barbados

    Dominica

    Italy

    Norway

    Switzerland

    Belgium

    Estonia

    Japan

    Poland

    Trinidad & Tobago

    Belize

    Faroe Islands

    Jersey

    Portugal

    Turkey

    Bermuda

    Finland

    Korea

    Qatar

    Turks & Caicos Islands

    Brazil

    France

    Kuwait

    Romania

    United Arab Emirates

    British Virgin Islands

    Germany

    Latvia

    Russian Federation

    Uruguay

    Brunei Darassulam

    Ghana

    Liechtenstein

    St Kitts & Nevis

    United States*

    Bulgaria

    Gibraltar

    Lithuania

    St Lucia

    Canada

    Greece

    Luxembourg

    St Vincent & the Grenadines

    Cayman Islands

    Greenland

    Macao

    Samoa

    Chile

    Grenada

    Malaysia

    San Marino

    China

    Guernsey

    Malta

    Saudi Arabia

    *The United States has committed to move to full reciprocation of data exchange under the Inter-Governmental Agreement of 12 September 2012. The domestic legislation required in the US for this to happen has not yet been put in place and we have no indication of when this will happen. Until then the UK will continue to receive limited information collected by the Internal Revenue Service under existing regulations –this pertains to interest bearing financial accounts, but not trusts.

    The use of the information received is governed by the international agreements under which it is exchanged. As these are international agreements concerned with taxation matters, the information is restricted in its use to the administration, assessment, and collection of taxes covered by the agreement in question for each jurisdiction. As these are functions of HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), only HMRC can use the information without further recourse to the sending jurisdiction and the primary use must be the functions of HMRC. Sharing the information found to be relevant to other Government Agencies with those other Agencies is only permitted where the international agreement allows it, and the sending jurisdiction gives express permission that it can be so shared by HMRC. HMRC will always seek to share the information where relevant and possible, and it is our policy to ensure that new agreements and amendments to existing agreements allow such sharing.

    The UK expects that most of the automatic exchange agreements with the jurisdictions listed above will be reciprocal. However, not all jurisdictions require information from the UK and in those cases the UK will receive information but send nothing the other way.

  • Kevan Jones – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Kevan Jones – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kevan Jones on 2016-06-15.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, where the engines for the P-8 Poseidon aircraft to be procured by the UK will be manufactured.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    As the main investment decision on the UK’s Maritime Patrol Aircraft programme has not yet been taken by Ministers, no contracts have yet been placed for the procurement of a UK fleet of P-8 Poseidon aircraft. It is therefore not possible to confirm where the engines in such a fleet would be manufactured.

  • Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Trade

    Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Trade

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2016-09-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with reference to the Answer of 17 March 2016 to Question 30754, how many arms export licenses to Saudi Arabia have been revoked in each year since 2009-10.

    Mark Garnier

    Data relating to export licences issued, refused or revoked for all destinations is published as official statistics on the GOV.UK website.

  • Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2016-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 26 May 2016 to Question 37452 to the hon. Member for Bristol West, on museums and galleries, which museums wholly reliant on local authority funding have closed in each year since 2009-10.

    Matt Hancock

    The Government is committed to ensuring that arts and cultural experiences, including those offered by museums and galleries, are available to everyone and not just the privileged few. Government provides support to local museums through Arts Council England (ACE), including a £10m Resilience Fund supporting museums at risk to explore new funding models and become more sustainable. Earlier this month, ACE ​announced the 2018-2022 investment round of £409m per year, which includes a £37m/year increase to focus on improving the amount spent outside London and on integrating museums into the arts portfolio.

    The modern model of museums funding is that there are very few museums entirely reliant on local authority funding. Where museums are run by local authorities, decisions on service provision are for those local authorities to take.

  • Chris Leslie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Chris Leslie – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Leslie on 2015-11-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when he plans to transfer housing benefit fraud investigation powers from local authorities to national investigation service.

    Justin Tomlinson

    The current intention is for Local Authority powers to prosecute Housing Benefit cases to be turned off from 02 April 2016, at which time the Department for Work and Pensions Fraud and Error Service will assume overall responsibility, following the full implementation of the Single Fraud Investigation Service Project.

  • Lord Hylton – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Hylton – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2015-12-07.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government when further peace talks in Vienna on Syria will take place.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The next meeting of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) will take place before Christmas. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), will represent the UK. The ISSG agreed in Vienna on 14 November 2015 on the need “to convene Syrian government and opposition representatives in formal negotiations under UN auspices, as soon as possible, with a target date of January 1.”

  • Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Alex Cunningham – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Cunningham on 2016-01-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness and operation of the Rating (Empty Properties) Act 2007.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    In July 2012 the Department for Communities and Local Government published a post – legislative assessment of the then Government’s Rating (Empty Properties) Act 2007 which can be found at the following link:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/236094/8411.pdf

    We do not hold the figures requested. Details of empty property rate relief granted can be found at the following link:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/417995/150326_Table_2_-_3_years.xlsx

    “

  • David Anderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    David Anderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-02-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what sanctions can be taken against the Office of the Independent Adjudicator if it misses the 90-day target in issuing complaint outcomes set by the European Directive on Alternative Dispute Resolution.

    Joseph Johnson

    Should an approved Alternative Dispute Resolution provider, such
    as the Office for the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA),be found
    to be continually failing to comply with the Alternative Dispute Resolution Regulations
    2015, the Government has set out a process that enables an appointed body (the
    Chartered Trading Standards Institute) to monitor compliance, recommend
    improvements and, ultimately, remove a body from the approved list.

    The OIA is independent of Government and funded by compulsory subscriptions
    from higher education providers. All higher education providers in receipt of
    student support funding are required, through legislation, to join the OIA and pay
    subscription fees. The OIA makes an assessment each year of the level of
    funding it requires to ensure that its costs can be met.