Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Paul Blomfield – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Paul Blomfield – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 10 September 2015 to Question 8779, whether the range of information sources HM Revenue and Customs uses to monitor the reported self-correction by employers participating in the new national minimum wage campaign includes speaking independently to the workforce and other relevant groups such as local trade unions.

    Nick Boles

    HMRC operate a risk based approach using a range of sources to monitor self-corrections in the national minimum wage campaign, this ‎includes contacting workers to ensure they have received the reported arrears.

  • Paul Monaghan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Paul Monaghan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Monaghan on 2015-09-16.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 8 July 2015 to Question 5430, on ownership of companies, what his definition is of a similarly effective system.

    Mr David Gauke

    The international standards on anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing, including transparency of legal persons, are set by the Financial Action Task Force. The British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands are members of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force and are subject to mutual evaluations of their AML/CTF regime through this body.

    At the December 2014 Joint Ministerial Council, the UK and the Overseas Territories committed to continue to work together in raising international standards to tackle money laundering, tax evasion, illicit finance and corruption, leading by example given the importance of our financial centres to the international financial system. In March, the Minister for the Overseas Territories and I wrote to the Premiers of the BVI and Cayman Islands asking them to set out plans and a timetable for the implementation of central registers of company beneficial ownership, or similarly effective systems, by the November Joint Ministerial Council.

    Any system should meet the following three criteria: UK and domestic law enforcement and tax authorities must be able to access company beneficial ownership information without restriction, subject to relevant safeguards; these competent authorities should be able to quickly identify all companies that a particular beneficial owner has a stake in, without needing to submit multiple and repeated requests; and companies or their beneficial owners must not be alerted to the fact that an investigation is under way.

    The UK Government continues to engage actively with the BVI and Cayman Islands to emphasize the importance of this agenda and to offer any technical support that might be required.

  • Chi Onwurah – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Chi Onwurah – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 15 September 2015 to Question 9926, what steps he is taking specifically to support fibre to the premises.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    We are proposing action in a number of areas to encourage the market to invest in better fixed communications infrastructure.

    We intend to reform the Electronic Communications Code – the statutory framework governing rights of access to private premises. We will be implementing the Broadband Cost Reduction Directive to help reduce the cost of rolling out high speed broadband. We will review the effectiveness of the fixed planning changes introduced in England in 2013 to determine whether they should be made permanent. We will also encourage and support innovative approaches in street works which can lower the cost and speed up deployment of faster broadband.

    We will continue to look for new ways to support fixed infrastructure deployment in consultation with industry.

  • Sue Hayman – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Sue Hayman – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sue Hayman on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what the Sellafield site security costs were in each of the last five years; and what those costs are projected to be in each of the next five years.

    Andrea Leadsom

    Security at Sellafield is a high priority for the Government. However, the Government does not comment on security at nuclear sites. Expenditure on security is subject to the same processes and rules as other public expenditure.

  • Philip Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Philip Davies – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Davies on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what contact his Department had with Action on Smoking and Health on the Tobacco Control Strategy 2011 before publication of that strategy.

    Jane Ellison

    Health Lives, Healthy People: A Tobacco Control Plan for England, states that the plan was developed in collaboration with local government representatives, public health advocacy groups, academics, clinicians, professional bodies and retailers.This included Action on Smoking and Health.

  • Greg Mulholland – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Greg Mulholland – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will estimate the number of asylum seeker applicants in the UK who were living in poverty in each of the last five years.

    James Brokenshire

    If asylum seekers are destitute they are provided with support by the UK taxpayer. The support usually consists of accommodation and a cash allowance to cover essential living needs.

    The cash allowance is also provided if the asylum seeker is living with friends or relatives but needs assistance to meet their essential living needs.

  • Jeremy Lefroy – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Jeremy Lefroy – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeremy Lefroy on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many entry visas for business purposes were granted to nationals of (a) China, (b) India, (c) Brazil, (d) Indonesia, (e) Malaysia, (f) Nigeria, (g) Tanzania and (h) Kenya in (i) 2010-11 and (ii) 2014-15.

    James Brokenshire

    The requested information is given in the table below, for skilled workers sponsored by business (Tier 2 of the Points Based System):

    [Insert table]

    The Home Office publishes statistics on entry clearance visa grants by work category in table vi_06_q_w (Entry clearance visas tables volume 2) within the ‘Immigration Statistics’ release.

    A copy of the latest release, “Immigration Statistics April to June 2015”, is available from the Library of the House and the Home Office website: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/home-office/series/immigration-statistics-quarterly-release

  • Caroline Lucas – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Prime Minister

    Caroline Lucas – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Prime Minister

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2015-09-16.

    To ask the Prime Minister, with reference to the letter of 7 September 2015 from the UK Permanent Representative to the UN to the President of the UN Security Council, on the military action against Reyaad Khan in Syria, for what reasons he did not cite the collective self-defence of Iraq from ISIL in his oral statement of 7 September 2015, Official Report, column 30.

    Mr David Cameron

    I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for West Bromwich East (Mr Watson) on 14 September 2015, UIN 9571, 9653 and 9656.

  • Hilary Benn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Hilary Benn – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2014-06-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what statistics his Department holds on the use of fixed penalty notices in each local authority area.

    Brandon Lewis

    The most recent official statistics (for 2009-10) show that 9 million parking fines were issued a year by local authorities in England. From 1997-98 to 2010-11, local authority total income from sales, fees and charges in England from parking rose from £608 million to £1.25 billion; net profits from parking rose from £223 million to £512 million in the same period. A survey by LV= car insurance last year estimated that councils hand out 10.7 million fines a year across the UK, and British motorists pay out over £30 million each month in parking fines.

    Councils in England were forecast to make £635 million net profit from parking charges fines in 2013-14. Yet legislation passed by Parliament is clear that parking charges and fines should not be used to raise general revenue. However, some councils are raising money illegally from parking.

    Last July, the High Court ruled that one London borough had illegally hiked parking charges to raise general revenue. The BBC television programme, Inside Out, also drew to my attention parking contracts signed by local authorities where outsourced parking wardens are rewarded for issuing more fines – in flagrant breach of the Government’s operational guidance to councils. The Local Government Association’s own participatory budgeting tool has also encouraged councils to raise parking charges and fines as a source of general revenue.

    Such practices are a breach of fundamental constitutional principles from Magna Carta, the Petition of Right and the Bill of Rights: taxes should not be levied without recourse to Parliament, and the justice system should not be corrupted to raise money.

    Higher parking charges and more parking fines were the explicit policy of the Labour Government. Labour DCLG Ministers called for councils to charge for more services, including parking, bemoaned that: ‘Only one in five councils are using charging to the full potential… [such as for] reducing congestion’ (Speech to the Local Government Association, 2 July 2008). Planning guidance issued by the Labour Government in 2001 (so-called PPG13) told councils to hike parking charges and adopt aggressive enforcement to discourage drivers.

    My Department holds information on councils’ income from penalty charge notices. In my answer of 12 March 2014, Official Report, Column 260W, I placed in the Library a table showing the amount of money raised in parking fines in each local authority in England over time, which illustrates the need to reverse Labour’s approach.

    Since 2010, this Government has already:

    · Scrapped Labour’s Whitehall policy that pressured councils to hike car parking charges as a ‘demand management measure’ to discourage car use (PPG13).

    · Removed Whitehall restrictions which restricted the provision of off-street parking spaces;

    · Abolished Labour’s Whitehall policy which inhibited parking charge competition between council areas, and instead introduced a new policy that says parking charges should not undermine the vitality of town centres;

    · Introduced a policy that parking enforcement should be proportionate;

    · Issued new planning practice guidance on removing street clutter and encouraging the provision of shopper-friendly parking space provision; and

    · Introduced the local retention of business rates, which means that councils benefit from business and retail growth in town centres, rather than just hiking parking charges.

    In addition, the Government recently announced a further series of reforms:

    · Stopping the abuse or misuse of on-street parking CCTV on an industrial scale. Parking CCTV spy cars were introduced by the last Labour Government.

    · Reforming operational parking guidance so it is less heavy handed with motorists, prevents over-aggressive action by bailiffs, positively supports local shops and clearly reinforces the prohibition against parking being used to generate profit;

    · Introducing mandatory 10 minute “grace periods” at the end of on-street paid and free parking, and off-street municipal parking;

    · Implementing a new right to allow local residents and local firms to demand a review of parking in their area, including charges and the use of yellow lines;

    · Proposing a widening of the powers of parking adjudicators, and updating guidance so the public know when they can be awarded costs at tribunals;

    · Trialling a 25% discount for drivers at appeal stage, reversing the current disincentive for drivers with a legitimate case to appeal;

    · Changing guidance so drivers parking at an out-of-order meter are not fined if there are no alternative ways to pay;

    · Maintaining a freeze on parking penalty charges for the remainder of this Parliament; and

    · Updating the local government Transparency Code to increase information about local parking charges and the number of parking spaces.

    Unreasonable parking charges and fines push up hard-working people’s cost of living. If parking is too expensive or difficult, shoppers will simply drive to out of town supermarkets or just shop online, undermining the vitality of town centres and leading to ‘ghost town’ high streets. But, by rejecting Labour’s approach, this Government is standing up for hard-working people and local shops.

  • Angus Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    Angus Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angus Robertson on 2014-06-25.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when the Shallow Water Influence Minesweeping System was purchased; on what vessels it operated from; whether it is still operational; and what the total cost of the system has been.

    Mr Philip Dunne

    The Shallow Water Influence Minesweeping System was purchased as an urgent operational requirement in financial year 2002-03 to be operated remotely from Mine Countermeasures Vessels in the Gulf for 12 months, at a cost of approximately £3.5 million. It has been non-operational since 2004.