The below Parliamentary question was asked by Pete Wishart on 2014-06-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate she has made of the number of people who cancelled holidays in 2014 due to delays in passport applications.
James Brokenshire
Her Majesty’s Passport Office do not collect this data.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nia Griffith on 2014-04-10.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of fiscal policy on the number of young people claiming jobseeker’s allowance for over 12 months since May 2010.
Nicky Morgan
Long-term youth unemployment is falling, the number of young people who have been claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance for over a year has fallen for 17 consecutive months.
But no young person should be left behind in the recovery. We have delivered 1.7 million apprenticeships starts so far this Parliament. We will abolish employer National Insurance contributions for under 21s which will help to support jobs for almost 1.5 million young people in employment. And we are supporting up to 500,000 young people into education and employment through the Youth Contract.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michael Fabricant on 2014-06-18.
To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross representing the House of Commons Commission, whether the Commission plans to modify the Parliamentary wifi system to enable automatic log-in by BlackBerry and other devices without the need to enter a username and password manually each time.
John Thurso
There are no immediate plans to change the current method of connection. PICT is aware of the restriction that the current arrangement places on users, and will look afresh at the authentication needed for known users of the guest Wi-Fi service, “Internet Direct”.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Berkeley on 2014-04-09.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Earl Attlee on 30 April 2012 (WA 420), what is their policy on grants and state aids for harbour dredging; under which United Kingdom Government and European Union funding programmes grants are permitted; what account they take of the effect of any grant on competition with other ports in the area or region; under what circumstances grants for dredging are available for a single beneficiary which will be the main commercial beneficiary; and whether, in any application for a grant for port development, any dredging element must be identified and justified separately.
Lord Bates
The Government’s policy, as confirmed in the National Policy Statement for Ports, is that the ports industry in England and Wales is generally successful in funding investment, including in capital dredging, on a commercial basis without need for support from public funds. Consequently there is a general presumption against such grants, which can displace and deter private sector investment and distort competition, whether for single or multiple beneficiaries. There may, however, be occasional exceptions, as in the case of the Regional Growth Fund grant awarded for dredging in Liverpool Bay and the Mersey Estuary. This was based on an exceptional regional economic regeneration justification. In any such case, the prospective impact on competition with other ports would be taken into account during consideration of the application.
Dredging costs, along with other port costs, could potentially be eligible for grants from European funding schemes such as the Connecting Europe Facility and Trans-European Networks – Transport (CEF/TEN-T). The Government would normally expect any grant application for UK or EU funds to show disaggregated costings, including clear identification of any dredging element that may be present.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Valerie Vaz on 2014-06-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many telephone lines with the prefix (a) 0845, (b) 0844 and (c) 0843 his Department (i) operates and (ii) sponsors; how many calls each such number has received in the last 12 months; and whether alternative numbers charged at BT local rates are available in each such case.
Mr Shailesh Vara
There has been a 79% fall in the Department’s use of higher-rate numbers since 2009.
The Department has received no revenue from higher rate telephone numbers for the period under review.
The information held centrally for the public use of (a) 0845, (b) 0844 and (c) 0843 telephone numbers operated (i) and (ii) sponsored by the Ministry of Justice are as follows:
(a) 0845 numbers – 32
(b) 0844 numbers – 2
(c) 0843 numbers – 0
The majority of these numbers are operated by the County Court Business Centre (CCBC).
Information on volumes for calls to higher-rate telephone numbers for the last twelve months is not systematically collected by the service providers, and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.
Nineteen higher rate numbers in the CCBC are in the process of being replaced by 0300 numbers. The four 0845 numbers receiving the highest volumes of calls in the CCBC are being discontinued on 1 August 2014, and when enquirers call these numbers they are being advised to contact an alternative 0300 number.
As stated in previous answers to parliamentary questions, the Department’s approach is not to use higher rate numbers and instead, wherever possible, to assign 0300 numbers, for which the tariff is similar to calling an 01 or 02 (geographic) number, whether the caller is using a fixed line or a mobile phone.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Chidgey on 2014-04-09.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what measures they take in concert with the United Nations and the European Union to ensure that international aid is fairly and efficiently distributed and that waste and corrupt practices are avoided.
Lord Bates
There is no single international system designed to coordinate the level and distribution of international aid. However, the key determinant of where donor funds are distributed is the dialogue and coordination within each recipient country which is, where possible, led by the recipient country’s government.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chris Ruane on 2014-06-18.
To ask the hon. Member for South West Devon, representing the Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission, which 100 wards in which town, county and constituency had the lowest turnout for voting in person at the last General Election.
Mr Gary Streeter
The Electoral Commission informs me that it does not hold the data requested at ward level.
The Commission collects electoral data at each set of polls. In nearly all cases this is collected down to the level of individual contests, which means that it only holds ward level data for local elections.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno on 2014-04-09.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the recent medical evaluation by Dr Emily Keram of the British Guantánamo Bay detainee, Shaker Aamer, whether they will make further representations to the government of the United States concerning Mr Aamer’s release; and whether they intend to provide an amicus curiae brief in support of Mr Aamer’s motion for release, as requested by his lawyers.
Lord Wallace of Saltaire
Mr Aamer’s case remains a high priority for the Government. We take Mr Aamer’s welfare very seriously and continue to make clear to the US at the highest levels that we wish to secure his release, and return to the UK, as a matter of urgency. Most recently, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague), raised Mr Aamer’s case in a meeting with the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, in February this year. We are currently considering Reprieve’s request for the Government to provide an amicus curiae brief and will respond in due course.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2014-06-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people started to receive universal credit in March 2014.
Esther McVey
Statistics on how many people started Universal Credit in March 2014 can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/universal-credit-statistics
“
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Simon Kirby on 2014-04-09.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he has taken to reduce the regulatory burden on small businesses; and if he will make a statement.
Michael Fallon
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has put in place a robust framework to reduce the burden of regulation on all businesses, particularly small business.
In January 2011, we brought in the One-in, One-out rule. This required departments wanting to introduce new regulation which generated costs for business to first identify a corresponding cut in regulation elsewhere with the same value. In January 2013 this was increased to a more demanding One-In, Two-Out rule so that departments now need to find £2 of savings for every £1 cost they introduce. To date, as set out in the 7th Statement of New Regulation published on 17 December 2013, we have cut the annual cost of domestic regulation by £1.19 billion.
We are also reducing the stock of regulation through the Red Tape Challenge, with over 3,000 regulations now having been identified to be scrapped or improved. When fully implemented, we expect that these changes will bring estimated annual savings to business of over £850 million.
Specifically to help small business, in April 2011 we introduced a moratorium exempting micro and start-up businesses from new domestic regulation for three years. From 1 April 2014 this was extended to include small businesses (with up to 50 employees) through the introduction of the Small and Micro Business Assessment (SaMBA).
Measures that this Department has introduced specifically to reduce the burden of regulation on small businesses include giving small and medium-sized enterprises the flexibility to determine the most appropriate set of accounting rules for them, along with flexibility in how they submit their company reports through regulatory changes to audit rules. We have also extended the qualifying period of unfair dismissal to two years and introduced a new employment status of employee shareholder.