Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Sheila Gilmore – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Sheila Gilmore – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sheila Gilmore on 2014-02-27.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many pagers have been provided to staff by his Department since May 2010; and what the cost to the Department was of providing those pagers.

    Mr Nick Hurd

    As was the case prior to the last General Election various officials are provided with pagers when there is a business case to do so. We do not hold details centrally of when pagers were purchased but currently spend £360 a month on the services.

  • Helen Goodman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Helen Goodman – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Helen Goodman on 2014-02-24.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will place in the Library all correspondence between his Department and other departments on the matter of union subscription check off.

    Mr Francis Maude

    In line with the practice of successive administrations, details of internal discussions and correspondence are not usually disclosed.

  • Mr Kevan Jones – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Mr Kevan Jones – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mr Kevan Jones on 2014-02-12.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the size, in square metres, of the offices assigned to each of his Department’s Ministers is; and how many officials, at what grade, work in the private offices of each of his Department’s Ministers.

    Andrea Leadsom

    I can confirm that Ministers have a total of 256.08 sq m of office space currently assigned to them.

    In total, there are 35staff working in ministerial offices, compared to 38 members of staff in 2009. This is as follows:

    Range B: 6

    Range C: 8

    Range D: 13

    Range E: 5

    Range E2: 2

    SCS: 1

    These figures are based on the latest data available for staffing numbers for HMT Treasury as of May 2014.

  • Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Sadiq Khan – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2014-01-22.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the average proportion of market rent of all affordable housing is in each London borough.

    Kris Hopkins

    I have placed in the Library of the House, a table showing affordable and social rents as a proportion of market rents, for each London borough.

    The affordable rent model allows for more new affordable housing to be delivered with lower levels of taxpayer capital subsidy and by levering in more private investment. The programme is helping deliver £15 billion of private investment in new affordable housing over the current spending review, alongside £4.5 billion of public investment. Social rent and affordable rent go hand in hand; both help provide accommodation for those on low incomes.

    As the National Audit Office has observed: “the Department selected the best delivery model open to it for the funds it had available” and “the Department has so far achieved its policy objective to maximise the number of homes delivered within the available grant funding” (National Audit Office, “Financial viability of the social housing sector: introducing the Affordable Homes Programme”, 4 July 2012, HC465, pp.6-7).

    I note in his recent Fabian Society pamphlet, the rt. hon. Member has complained that affordable rent would result in rents of 80 per cent of market rents in London. Whilst it varies by borough, as the table shows, for example, affordable rent levels are 38 per cent of average local market rents in Camden, 48 per cent in Islington, 54 per cent in Southwark and 35 per cent in Westminster, reflecting local circumstances.

    I also observe that the housing policy announced at the Labour Party Conference in October 2012 also endorsed the use of affordable rents to build new homes; albeit this point is frequently lost on many Labour hon. Members who proceed to attack the basic principle of affordable rent in allowing more new affordable homes to be built using taxpayer capital subsidy.

  • Gregg McClymont – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Gregg McClymont – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregg McClymont on 2013-05-08.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what discussions he has had with officials in his Department on how the accounting officers’ conventions would apply to investment in Scotland in advance of the referendum on Scottish independence in 2014.

    Danny Alexander

    I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Treasury.

    The UK Government is not planning for independence as it believes that people in Scotland will vote to remain within the UK. As such, the Government has made no assessment of the risk of losses to the public purse, and has no plans to change accounting officers conventions

  • Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Lord Taylor of Warwick – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Taylor of Warwick on 2015-10-19.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to support the steel industry in the light of the director of UK Steel’s statement that the steel industry is in crisis.

    Baroness Neville-Rolfe

    There is no straightforward solution to the complex global challenges facing the steel industry; however, the Government has been extremely active in advocating for, and supporting the sector. On 16th October, we held a Steel Summit, which was an important opportunity to bring the key players together and since then we have been taking urgent action to address the ‘5 Asks’ of the steel industry, operating through three Ministerial led working groups. We are also supporting the metals sector more widely through the industry-led Metals Strategy, which will provide a platform for Government to work with the industry on some of the most pressing issues holding back the future growth of the sector.

    Firstly, we are tackling unfair trade practices where clear evidence exists. We supported and voted for the renewal of EU anti-dumping measures on wire rod, and lobbied successfully for an investigation into cheap imports of Reinforcing Steel Bar. The Business Secretary had meetings with European Commissioners and spoke with key counterparts in other Member States on 28 October, calling for firmer, faster action against unfair trade practices. As a direct result, an extraordinary meeting to the European Competitiveness Council is taking place on steel.

    In addition, the Prime Minister discussed steel with President Xi during his recent visit. The Chinese President recognised the UK’s concerns and will be taking action to address Chinese overcapacity

    Secondly, the Government has confirmed to the steel industry that it will be able to take advantage of special flexibilities to comply with new EU rules on emissions. These are now awaiting final approval by the Commission.

    Thirdly, the steel industry has been invited to present detailed evidence on issues affecting the business environment at the next meeting of the steel working group on competitiveness and productivity chaired by the Treasury Commercial Secretary.

    Fourthly, with regard to energy costs, following the meeting between the Business Secretary and the Competition Commissioner on 23 October, we are now expecting to have state aid approval to provide relief to our Energy Intensive Industries for the cost of renewables policy by the end of this year. Further to that, the Prime Minister announced on 28th October that we will make an additional £45m available to commence compensation for the costs of the Renewables Obligation from the date of state aid approval, alongside providing relief to these sectors from the costs of the small Feed in Tariffs. An exemption for the costs of the Contracts for Difference will also commence early next year. This is on top of over £50 million of support already given to the steel industry to mitigate increasing electricity costs.

    Finally, we are taking action to drive up the number of public contracts won by UK steel manufacturers and their partners through fair and open competition. The National Infrastructure Plan contains a significant number of projects which will use British steel, e.g. Crossrail – with four UK based companies providing over 50,000 tonnes of steel; and HS2 – where Government has already given notice of the thousands of tonnes of steel that will be needed. Following the first meeting of the steel procurement working group chaired by the Minister for the Cabinet Office, the Government published on 30 October new guidelines for departments to apply on major projects when sourcing and buying steel. The new instructions will help steel suppliers compete on a level playing field with international suppliers for major government projects.

  • Sharon Hodgson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Sharon Hodgson – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sharon Hodgson on 2015-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps the Government is taking to publicise its call for evidence for the Review of the Secondary Ticketing Market.

    Nick Boles

    The “Review of Consumer Protection Measures in the Ticket Resale Market” commenced on 13 October 2015 with a Written Ministerial Statement to Parliament.

    The Call for Evidence was published on Gov.uk on 13 October and my officials have written to the main stakeholders to alert them to this and invite contributions.

  • Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Stephen Timms – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2015-10-19.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of the slowing of the growth of the Chinese economy on growth in the UK.

    Harriett Baldwin

    The Treasury continuously monitors global economic developments, including those in China, and their impact on the UK as part of the normal process of policy development.

  • Melanie Onn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Melanie Onn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Melanie Onn on 2015-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the homelessness prevention grant.

    Mr Marcus Jones

    The Homelessness Prevention Grant is part of our £500 million investment in local authority and voluntary sector homelessness services. It has helped local authorities to prevent 935,800 households from becoming homeless since 2010.

  • Jamie Reed – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Jamie Reed – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jamie Reed on 2015-10-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the current status is of schools placed in special measures in Cumbria.

    Nick Gibb

    As of 30 September there are three schools in Cumbria judged by Ofsted as requiring special measures. Of these:

    Two are local authority maintained; the first, a PRU is judged to be making reasonable progress towards the removal of special measures. The second, a small community

    primary school, is making reasonable progress towards the removal of special measures.The third, a sponsored academy has recently been re-inspected. We are awaiting Ofsted’s report from this inspection.