Tag: Parliamentary Question

Andrew Gwynne – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Gwynne on 2016-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the implications for his Department’s policies of the recent National Evaluation of the Troubled Families Programme report.

Mr Marcus Jones

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research Impact Study was just one of 6 reports comprising the independent evaluation of the first Troubled Families Programme. The evaluation found that the programme had many positive achievements. These include:
- Families feeling more confident and optimistic about being able to cope in the future
- Joining up local services for families by encouraging a single keyworker approach to work with the whole family on all of its problems
- Raising the quality and capacity of local data systems
- Better joint working with partners such as Jobcentre Plus
The data shows that nearly 120,000 of the families on this programme saw their lives improve – more children attending school, youth crime and anti-social behaviour significantly cut and, in more than 18,000 families, an adult holding down a job. The evaluation does not dispute this fact.

Unsurprisingly, the ambitious and innovative impact study which used national administrative datasets to track changes in families circumstances over comparatively short time periods, was unable to specifically attribute positive outcomes achieved in employment, youth crime or school attendance to the Troubled Families Programme.

This was because at that time the level of change achieved was not significantly different from that seen in a group of families not on the programme with whom comparisons were made. This is not the same, however, as saying that the evaluation shows family outcomes did not improve, as some have wrongly inferred.

Of course, we will continue to review all evidence of how the programme is working, to learn from it and see if there’s more we can do to help families facing such multiple problems. In fact, we have already adapted the new programme in a number of ways, including extending the length of time over which family outcomes will be tracked – from 12 months to 5 years.
01/01/2023
Daniel Zeichner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2015-11-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will expand the Cycle to Work salary-sacrifice scheme to provide employees with access to tax-free physical activity accessories and personalised activity plans for themselves and their families.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Finance Act 1999 and the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003 introduced an annual tax exemption, which allows employers to loan cycles and cyclists’ safety equipment to employees as a tax-free benefit. The Cycle to Work scheme is not run by Government but was created by the cycle industry to take advantage of the tax exemption. The Department, in co-operation with the then Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), Office of Fair Trading (OFT) and the cycle industry, published guidance in June 2005. As there are qualifying criteria in order to be eligible for the tax exemption, any changes to the scheme should be referred to HM Revenue and Customs.

01/01/2023
Lord Brabazon of Tara – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Brabazon of Tara on 2015-12-07.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the value, in current prices, of the £10 Christmas Bonus for pensioners when it was first introduced.

Baroness Altmann

The Christmas Bonus was introduced in 1972 and was £10. In current (October 2015) prices, the value of the 1972 Christmas Bonus was £115.41.

01/01/2023
Paul Blomfield – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-01-18.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 11 January 2016 to Question 20785, what proportion of tax credit recipients had their credits erroneously withdrawn when their children progressed into post-16 education in each of the last five financial years.

Mr David Gauke

HM Revenue and Customs do not hold the requested data.

01/01/2023
Nusrat Ghani – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nusrat Ghani on 2016-02-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many people in Wealden constituency have a full driving licence.

Andrew Jones

On 30 January 2016, there were 188,244 full driving licence holders in the Wealden constituency postal code areas.

01/01/2023
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.

01/01/2023
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.

01/01/2023

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.

01/01/2023

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.

01/01/2023
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.

01/01/2023