Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Nusrat Ghani – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Nusrat Ghani – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nusrat Ghani on 2016-01-25.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many and what proportion of people aged (a) 21 to 64 and (b) 65 and over who pay income tax pay tax at the higher rate.

    Mr David Gauke

    The information is not held in the form requested.

    Information on the number of taxpayers liable at the higher and additional rates of tax is set out in HM Revenue and Customs’ National Statistics table 2.1. This is available at the following internet address:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/429111/Table_2.1.pdf

    This data covers the number of taxpayers aged under 65 years old as well as those aged 65 and over.

    “

  • John Redwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    John Redwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Redwood on 2016-02-22.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an estimate of the revenue the Government received from VAT on hotel stays and restaurant meals in each of the last five years.

    Mr David Gauke

    This level of detail is not requested on VAT returns and therefore data is not available on how much VAT was raised on hotel stays and restaurant meals in each of the last five years.

  • Kelvin Hopkins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Kelvin Hopkins – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kelvin Hopkins on 2016-03-16.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many companies have applied for the lower rate of corporation tax under Patent Box.

    Mr David Gauke

    Due to companies being able to make a Patent Box election up to two years after the relevant accounting period, we will not be able to get full figures for the first year of the Patent Box until April 2016. The following figures are therefore projections.

    The estimated amounts of Patent Box relief can be found at the link below;

    https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/487119/Dec15_expenditure_reliefs_Final.xlsx.pdf

    About 480 companies made Patent Box relief elections for the first year 2013-14 alone.

    “

  • Cat Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Cat Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cat Smith on 2016-04-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the prevalence of mental health issues among firefighters; and if she will make a statement.

    Mike Penning

    The physical and mental well being of fire fighters is of utmost importance and we recognise that from time to time some fire fighters may experience challenging times because of the stressful and demanding functions of the role. The responsibility for ensuring the health and safety of fire fighters rests with individual fire and rescue authorities. The Chief Fire Officers’ Association supports them in this work through its lead on fire and rescue occupational health matters.

    The Government announced in October last year the allocation of nearly £10 million to help support 200,000 emergency services personnel and volunteers, funded through the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) fines. Of this funding up to £4 million was allocated to mental health charity MIND to develop a programme of targeted mental health support and information for all emergency services personnel across England. The programme includes an anti-stigma campaign, a confidential advice line for emergency service staff, training, peer learning events and other resources to help promote better mental health in the work place.

  • Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Andrew Percy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-05-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the extent of access to biological treatments for people with inflammatory bowel disease.

    George Freeman

    The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended four different biological drugs for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), the collective term for Crohn’s disease and colitis, for use after the failure of conventional therapies or in patients for whom such therapies are not appropriate. The National Health Service is legally obliged to fund medicines and treatments recommended by NICE’s technology appraisals.

    Although information concerning the exact number of people with IBD who have been treated with biological drugs in each of the last five years is not available, and no specific assessment of access has been made, some data are collected as part of the IBD audit. The IBD audit programme is commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership on behalf of NHS England and Wales (with additional funding from Healthcare Improvement Scotland), as part of the National Clinical Audit and Patient Outcomes Programme, and carried out by the Royal College of Physicians.

    The biological therapies part of the IBD audit aims to assess nationally: the efficacy of biological therapies in the treatment of IBD; the safety of biological therapies in the treatment of IBD; and IBD patients’ views on their quality of life at defined intervals throughout their use of biological therapies. The latest round of audit findings, published in September 2015, showed treatment continued to be effective and that patients were receiving treatment with biological therapies at earlier stages of disease. More information can be found at the following link:

    www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/ibd-biological-therapy-audit

    “

  • Baroness Lister of Burtersett – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Baroness Lister of Burtersett – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Lister of Burtersett on 2016-07-18.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government why the Department for Work and Pensions report of the Household Below Average Income Statistics was over 100 pages in length in previous years and this year is 13 pages in length; and why this year’s report contains details published in Excel tables only.

    Lord Freud

    The change in publication format for the 2014/15 Households Below Average Income (HBAI) National Statistics release was made to bring this report into line with the new standard DWP Statistics template, with the aim of giving more focussed and accessible publications, without sacrificing the breadth of statistical analysis previously published.

    No information has been lost from this publication, rather this restructuring is intended to allow the lay user to better understand these important statistics.

    This approach is in line with the UK Statistics Authority’s “Better Statistics, Better Decisions” strategy and the specific change in format for HBAI was trailed in a Statistical Notice released in April 2016.

  • Matthew Pennycook – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Matthew Pennycook – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Matthew Pennycook on 2016-10-10.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of isolation in the workplace on disabled people and the effect of such isolation on developing skills and career progression for disabled people.

    Penny Mordaunt

    The Department for Work and Pensions has not made a recent assessment of the effect of isolation in the workplace on disabled people.

    However, we are committed to halving the employment gap between disabled and non-disabled people. The Department for Work and Pensions and the Department of Health have created a cross departmental Work and Health Unit to develop a strategy for system-wide reform on health, disability and employment, in order to reduce the numbers of people who are economically inactive due to a health condition or disability. The treatment of disabled people in the workplace will be among the factors the unit takes into account.

    Meanwhile, employers and disabled employees continue to benefit from the support offered through Access to Work, which provides practical support, advice and guidance for both disabled people in work or entering work and their employers.

    In addition, the Government’s Disability Confident scheme supports our commitment to halve the disability employment gap by focusing on employers, who have a crucial role to play in ensuring disabled people are recruited, retained and developed in their careers. Employers signing-up to Disability Confident on Gov.UK get access to a wide range of information, good practice and other resources, including links to DWP programmes which offer practical support.

  • Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Emily Thornberry – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emily Thornberry on 2015-11-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people claiming which benefit have been referred to Help to Work since April 2014.

    Priti Patel

    The number people claiming Jobseekers Allowance or Universal credit who have been referred to Help to Work between April 2014 and June 2015 is approximately 162,000. This breaks down as 51,430 people referred to Community Work Placement, 70,510 referred to Mandatory Intervention Regime, 40,060 referred to Daily Work Search Review.

    The Help to Work quarterly statistics: provides Official statistics to June 2015 on the numbers of people joining the Help to Work Scheme. This information can be found on the Gov.UK website.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/help-to-work-quarterly-statistics

    “

  • Daniel Kawczynski – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Daniel Kawczynski – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Kawczynski on 2016-01-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations his Department has made to the Chinese government on the sovereignty of the Spratly Islands archipelago; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr Hugo Swire

    The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), expressed our concerns about the situation in the South China Sea most recently during his visit to Beijing on 5 January. He stressed the need to avoid raising tensions and underlined the importance of maintaining freedom of navigation.
    I set out the UK’s position during the Asia-Europe Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Luxembourg on 5-6 November 2015.

  • Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Andrew Rosindell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Rosindell on 2016-01-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to reduce the number of accidental fatalities in the armed forces which occur during training exercises.

    Penny Mordaunt

    Deaths in training are rare. We do, however, take our duty of care to our personnel very seriously. Risk is inherent in many activities carried out by the Armed Forces, from adventurous training to training exercises and operations. This is especially true where activities involve weapon systems, vehicles or strenuous physical activity.

    This risk is rendered as low as reasonably practicable during training by ensuring that its design and delivery are subject to strict safety procedures and rigorous risk analysis. This allows the Services to provide realistic and effective training which balances the risks with the need to provide a safe training environment.

    We have a range of mechanisms to ensure supervision and welfare support for trainees of all ages, such as the tiered Duty Holder construct which make specific individuals personally accountable and responsible for potential Risk to Life decisions. Training regimes are also subject to internal or external assurance and audit inspections including by OFSTED.

    In the event of a training fatality, or indeed any other fatality, a thorough investigation would be convened. This can include a Service Inquiry, internal investigation, police investigations or investigations by, for example, the Health and Safety Executive. Fatalities will normally be the subject of a Coroner’s Inquest. A Service Inquiry may take place if it is considered that anything further of consequence to any of the regular or reserve forces may be learned. This is an independent investigation designed to establish the circumstances surrounding an accident and make recommendations in order to prevent reoccurrence and enhance safety.

    On 1 April 2015 we established the Defence Safety Authority (DSA). This brings together the Defence safety regulators across all environments (including maritime, air, land, nuclear, ordnance and fire) and accident investigators into a single independent organisation led by a 3 star officer. The DSA is responsible for the regulation of Defence Health, Safety and Environmental Protection. Its purpose is to provide independent assurance to the Defence Secretary that his policy on safety in Defence is being promoted and implemented in the conduct of Defence activities. The Director General of the Defence Safety Authority is now the primary Convening Authority for all Service Inquiries pertaining to safety-related fatalities and major equipment loss across the whole of Defence.