Tag: Parliamentary Question

Michael Dugher – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Michael Dugher on 2015-11-10.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what Support for Mortgage Relief provisions are available to customers of Northern Rock Asset Management.

Harriett Baldwin

No specific provision has been made for customers of Northern Rock Asset Management or any other bank or building society following the restriction to finance cost relief for individual residential landlords.

Restricting finance cost relief to the basic rate of income tax means all individual landlords will be treated the same by the tax system, regardless of their overall income.

01/01/2023
Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-12-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the cost of disallowance penalties relating to the Common Agricultural Policy as a result of the return to paper-assisted digital applications in 2015.

George Eustice

The new Common Agricultural Policy has been widely recognised as being more complex for farmers to understand and harder for Member States to administer. The new schemes have not yet been audited by the European Commission so it is too early to say what the level of any disallowance will be, but complexity tends to increase disallowance risk.

For the Basic Payment Scheme 2015 the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) sent pre-populated claim forms to farmers and land owners to allow them to submit their applications before the deadline. The RPA provided an unprecedented level of support to farmers and land owners through the Rural Payments Helpline and 50 Drop In Centres that allowed some 88,000 applications to be received within the deadline. ‘Paper-assisted’ means that forms were completed on paper but then entered on to a digital system by RPA staff.

01/01/2023
Steve Rotheram – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve Rotheram on 2016-01-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment his Department has made of the amount of new entrant workers that will be needed in the construction industry to meet demand in each of the next five years.

Nick Boles

The Construction Industry Training Board’s (CITB) Construction Skills Network estimates224,000 new construction jobs are set to be created throughout the UK in the next five years. This means that more than 44,000 jobs could be created every year for the next five years.

According to CITB estimates, 19% of UK construction workers are aged 55+, and are set to retire in the next 10 years (406,000 people), creating equivalent replace demand.

The Government has no estimate of the number of construction workers expected to leave the industry due to ill-health.

The Government is committed to significantly increasing the quantity and quality of all apprenticeships in England to 3 million starts by 2020; the construction industry will have an important part to play in achieving this target. Development of skilled labour can only be achieved with engagement of the industry. Construction employers in England are engaged in the Trailblazer process to develop apprenticeship standards that are fit for business, and we have announced a new apprenticeships levy which will put investment in training, and apprenticeships specifically, on a long-term, sustainable footing. CITB returned over £42m last year, supporting 18,500 first, second and third year construction apprentices.

Initiatives, by the Construction Leadership Council, or through the CITB are seeking to encourage more young people into construction careers. This work includes the launch of the GO-Construct website and work with the National Careers Service and Construction Ambassadors for schools. The CITB has also developed a range of initiatives, working closely with the Department for Work and Pensions, the Armed Forces resettlement service and Local Enterprise Partnerships, to encourage experienced individuals into the sector.

01/01/2023
Gavin Robinson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Robinson on 2016-02-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his Department’s policies on shop workers’ rights to opt out of Sunday working of the findings of a recent USDAW survey on the number of shop workers who (a) feel under pressure to work longer hours on a Sunday and (b) want to work fewer hours on a Sunday.

Anna Soubry

In formulating its final proposals, the Government has carefully considered all the evidence submitted during the consultation process.

A number of respondents expressed concern that extended opening hours could increase pressure on shop workers to work longer hours on Sundays. We therefore propose to enable shop workers to opt out of working additional hours on Sundays, to shorten the notice period for shop workers at large shops who wish to opt out of Sunday working altogether, and to strengthen and clarify the duty on employers to notify shop workers of their opt-out rights.

01/01/2023
Tom Watson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2016-03-04.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much his Department spent on advertisements using Facebook in each of the last three years.

Matthew Hancock

Cabinet Office did not spend anything in 2013/14 on Facebook advertising. In 2014/15 there was a total of £17,511.16 spent by Cabinet Office on Facebook advertising. Fully auditable figures are not available for the 2015/16. All figures include VAT.

01/01/2023
Crispin Blunt – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Crispin Blunt on 2016-04-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what forecast he has made of the number of households within the 55 day-evening-night equivalent level noise contour of aircraft arriving and taking off at Gatwick Airport in the event that a second runway at that airport was to become operational.

Mr Robert Goodwill

On 14 December 2015, the Government formally announced that it accepted the Airports Commission’s case for new runway capacity in the South East, as well as the Commission’s three shortlisted schemes.

The Airports Commission undertook a thorough assessment of the noise impacts of each of the three shortlisted schemes, across a wide range of metrics, including the 55 day-evening-night sound level.

The Government continues to consider the comprehensive evidence published by the Airports Commission, including on the noise impacts of the three schemes.

01/01/2023

Greg Mulholland – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Mulholland on 2016-05-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the average hourly earnings were of her Department’s (a) BME and (b) non-BME employees in (i) 2015 and (ii) 2016.

George Eustice

Defra employees are paid within salary bands according to their grades, they are not paid by the hour. The tables below set out a calculation of average hourly pay for all employees within the central department, by grade, and by BME, Non-BME, and Undeclared ethnic status (employees that have not declared their ethnicity).

2015	BME	Non BME	Undeclared
AA	*	*	£8.96
AO	£12.15	£12.17	£11.43
EO	£14.96	£13.92	£13.80
HEO	£17.29	£16.79	£15.98
SEO	£20.54	£19.96	£20.05
G7	£27.43	£27.33	£26.30
G6	*	£32.62	£33.10
SCS	*	£39.77	£46.42


2016	BME	Non BME	Undeclared
AA	*	*	£9.84
AO	£12.06	£12.17	£12.16
EO	£14.89	£14.41	£13.99
HEO	£17.23	£16.66	£16.05
SEO	£20.47	£20.51	£20.42
G7	£27.40	£27.35	£26.65
G6	*	£33.04	£32.84
SCS	*	£42.62	£48.85

*Number of staff in this group are below publishable level

Good progress is being made on actions in the Government’s Talent Action Plan and Defra’s Diversity Strategy to ensure that Defra is able to recruit and retain employees from a diverse range of backgrounds, and to enable them to develop and progress on merit.

01/01/2023

Greg Knight – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Greg Knight on 2016-07-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, for what reason his Department deploys speed cameras that photograph vehicles from the front in addition to speed cameras that photograph vehicles from the rear; and for what reasons his Department does not have a single policy on the deployment of such cameras.

Andrew Jones

It is for local authorities and police to decide how they wish to operate speed cameras. The Department issued guidance in 2007 entitled “Use of speed and red-light cameras for traffic enforcement: guidance on deployment, visibility and signing”. I wrote to all local authorities in England and Wales on 20 October 2015 to remind them of the guidance which is available on gov.uk.

01/01/2023
Jon Trickett – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jon Trickett on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many trainee GPs have been informed by Capita and Primary Care Support England that they are no longer allowed to practice as they are not currently on the national list for medical performers.

David Mowat

NHS England advises that, currently, there are approximately 720 applications for general practitioner (GP) trainees to be added to the performers list.

The processing of applications to join the National Performers List was taken over by Capita in September 2015, and there have been some delays in Capita’s processing of applications. NHS England is working closely with Capita to identify all cases which may be affected by delays in processing applications, and those identified are being investigated and urgent cases prioritised. NHS England expects all GP trainees to be on the performers list by the end of October when their grace period for inclusion ends.

The decision to admit a GP trainee to the performer list is the sole responsibility of NHS England rather than Capita. There have been some instances where Capita have informed GPs that they cannot practice because their application to the performer list has not been completed. Where we are aware of such instances, those GPs have been contacted by NHS England and provided with the correct advice relating to their individual circumstances. Where necessary, NHS England has taken further action to expedite the performers’ list process.

01/01/2023
Kate Osamor – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Osamor on 2015-11-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to raise awareness of the risks of carbon monoxide poisoning.

James Wharton

Building upon the success of the Fire Kills campaign, the Department for Communities and Local Government is running a campaign to raise awareness of the risks of carbon monoxide poisoning in the home. The Department has developed new Public Safety Radio Broadcasts that give advice on how best to avoid the risks and how to spot the danger signs of carbon monoxide poisoning. These are available for broadcasters to download free of charge.

The Department has also published guidance to be given to tenants at the start of new tenancies which includes references to new requirements on private landlords to install and check carbon monoxide alarms in rooms where there are solid fuel burning appliances.

The guidance is available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-to-rent.

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01/01/2023