Tag: Parliamentary Question

David Lammy – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Lammy on 2016-04-12.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will provide dedicated funding to HM Revenue and Customs for the investigation and tackling of tax evasion and avoidance through the use of offshore companies, in light of the leaked documents relating to the operations of Mossack Fonseca.

Mr David Gauke

The Government has introduced tough new powers and game-changing measures to tackle offshore and onshore tax evasion, and as recently as the summer Budget 2015 gave HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) an additional £800 million to invest in expanding compliance and tax evasion work. This is expected to recover £7.2 billion in tax over the next five years.

The Government is introducing a criminal sanction for corporates facilitating tax evasion, and launching a taskforce, jointly led by HMRC and the National Crime Agency (NCA). Drawing on investigators, compliance specialists and analysts from HMRC, NCA, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), its purpose will be to swiftly obtain and analyse the Mossack Fonseca papers and take rapid action where there is evidence of wrongdoing. The taskforce will look beyond tax into all potential areas of financial crime and other regulatory breaches.

The taskforce will provide a progress report to the Chancellor and Home Secretary later this year. The report will set out the their initial assessment of the information in the Panama papers and proposed actions for further analysis and strategy for pursuing any evidence found of wrongdoing and regulatory breaches.

Additional resourcing of £10m will ensure that the taskforce’s work can be done on top of departmental commitments. Where resource is moved into the task force, existing roles will be back filled as soon as possible.

01/01/2023
Lord Marlesford – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Marlesford on 2016-05-19.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the legal requirements for MOT testing are a devolved matter in Scotland; what assessment they have made of the requirement for new vehicles to be subject to MOT testing after the first three years of use; and which other EU countries follow the present UK practice.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The legal requirements for MOT are not a devolved matter in Scotland. Following the commitment made by the Chancellor in the July 2015 budget statement, the Department for Transport is currently developing a public consultation and impact assessment which will consider options for extending the frequency of the first test for some vehicles. The consultation will take into account the potential benefits to consumers, the government’s safety priorities, as well as the impact a change may have on MOT garage businesses. I anticipate that the consultation will be published in the summer. The other EU countries currently requiring a vehicle to have an initial roadworthiness inspection at 3 years, as per the current GB practice are; Germany, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovak Republic, Slovenia and Bulgaria.

01/01/2023
Lord Roberts of Llandudno – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno on 2016-07-13.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to establish a working group of voluntary organisations and officials to help the 20,000 Syrian refugees to settle successfully in the UK.

Baroness Williams of Trafford

The Refugee Resettlement Programme has established a strategic engagement group consisting of representatives from the programme, NGOs, the Syrian diaspora and service providers for resettled refugees. The group meets quarterly and has a number of objectives including providing targeted expertise that will help inform policy and operational delivery of the UK’s resettlement routes and promoting a better understanding of the factors that contribute to successful resettlement. The group is chaired jointly by the Resettlement Programme and the Refugee Council.

01/01/2023

Jo Churchill – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jo Churchill on 2016-09-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what change there has been in passenger numbers on trains in Suffolk since 2010.

Paul Maynard

The number of journeys made by rail in Suffolk during 2014-15 has increased by 23% since 2009-10, in line with the strong growth nationally in rail journeys. The number of journeys since 2009-10 is shown below.

Year	Number of journeys in Suffolk	Percentage change from the previous year
2014-15	6,121,321	-0.1%
2013-14	6,129,781	1.0%
2012-13	6,068,473	6.7%
2011-12	5,688,434	4.9%
2010-11	5,423,631	9.1%
2009-10	4,971,597	–

Source: The Office of Rail and Road

01/01/2023

Paul Flynn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether General Sir Nicholas Houghton sought permission under departmental directive 2014DIN03-024 on Contact with the media and communicating in public to discuss the Trident nuclear weapons system in advance of the recent television interview on the Andrew Marr on Sunday programme.

Michael Fallon

General Sir Nicholas Houghton sought prior clearance to be interviewed on the Andrew Marr Show on Remembrance Sunday, 8 November 2015: as with previous Remembrance Sunday appearances a number of military issues were covered.

01/01/2023
Sarah Wollaston – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sarah Wollaston on 2015-12-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to ensure that funding is sufficient to meet patient demand in (a) community mental healthcare and (b) inpatient mental healthcare; and if he will make a statement.

Alistair Burt

NHS England’s Planning Guidance for 2015/16, Forward View into action: planning for 2015-16, sets out the expectation that clinical commissioning groups’ (CCGs) spending on mental health services in 2015/16 should increase in real terms, and grow by at least as much as each CCG’s allocation increase to support the ambition of parity between mental and physical health. Compliance with the Planning Guidance is being assured at national and Area Team level.

01/01/2023
Simon Danczuk – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Simon Danczuk on 2016-01-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the press release of 10 January 2016 entitled, Prime Minister pledges to transform sink estates, if he will make an assessment of the value of house prices on those estates planned for removal or regeneration.

Brandon Lewis

The new Estate Regeneration Advisory Panel will be starting its work shortly, and will be seeking representations from as many estates as possible. The Panel will evaluate the potential for the regeneration of particular estates over the coming months, and will report by this year’s Autumn Statement. Any estates proposed for regeneration will need to take into account the value of properties and development viability considerations.

01/01/2023
Lord Black of Brentwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Black of Brentwood on 2016-02-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government when a vaccine will be procured for the human papilloma virus vaccination programme for men who have sex with men.

Lord Prior of Brampton

The Department and Public Health England are currently undertaking a procurement exercise to secure vaccine to support the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programme for girls. The procurement will take account of the costs and benefits of all vaccines offered to establish which provides best value for money for the National Health Service.

In November 2015, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), the expert body that advises the Government on all immunisation matters, advised that a targeted HPV vaccination programme should be undertaken for men who have sex with men up to 45 years of age who attend genitourinary medicine and HIV clinics. They noted that this should be subject to procurement of the vaccine and delivery of the programme at a cost-effective price. The JCVI acknowledged that finding a way to implement its advice would be challenging and made clear that work was needed by the Department and others to consider commissioning and delivery routes for this programme. This work is already underway and we will announce our plans as soon as we can.

01/01/2023
Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-03-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 24 February 2016 to Question 27312, what steps she has taken to reduce the proportion of children and young people entering the care system who have not had their Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire score submitted.

Edward Timpson

The Department for Education and Department of Health strengthened the statutory guidance Promoting the health and wellbeing of looked after children[1] in March 2015 to include information on how Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires (SDQs) should be used. The Department wrote to local authorities in 2014 and 2015 to remind them about the purpose and importance of SDQs. Ahead of this year’s data collection (published in September 2016), the Department will also write to Virtual School Heads and Independent Reviewing Officers about the use of SDQs for looked-after children. In addition we are considering how to utilise best practice from local authorities that have had consistently good return rates for SDQ scores in their annual children looked after data returns to the Department.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/promoting-the-health-and-wellbeing-of-looked-after-children–2

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01/01/2023
Roberta Blackman-Woods – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roberta Blackman-Woods on 2016-04-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to paragraph 1.121 of Budget 2016, HC 901, when his Department will commence working with local authorities to release land capacity for at least 160,000 homes; and when such houses will be built.

Brandon Lewis

A guidance document for local authorities was published shortly after Budget. It set out how the Government will support and empower local authorities to dispose of assets that could be made surplus. This includes a broad range of policy measures, including: the expansion of the One Public Estate programme, funding for Starter Homes, flexibility in the spending of capital receipts, support for new Garden Villages, Towns and Cities, and support from the Homes and Communities Agency. The document can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-authority-assets-disposal-guidance.

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01/01/2023