Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Mark Hendrick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Mark Hendrick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Hendrick on 2016-01-12.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what timescales the Tax Credit Office in Preston has in place to respond to representations made by hon. Members by (a) telephone, (b) email and (c) letter; and how this Office performed against these timescales in the last reporting year.

    Mr David Gauke

    HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC) Tax Credit Office aim to prioritise and respond to representations from hon. Members as soon as possible, irrespective of the route by which they are received. HMRC do not, however, routinely record and collate performance against specific timescales for such representations.

  • Geoffrey Clifton-Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Geoffrey Clifton-Brown – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Geoffrey Clifton-Brown on 2016-02-04.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of benchmarking UKTI’s performance against that of other countries’ export agencies.

    Anna Soubry

    There is considerable merit in understanding how our competitors’ export agencies are structured and the services they offer. This is something the Exports Implementation Taskforce, which the Secretary of State chairs, looked at in some depth in developing a whole-of-Government approach to exports. This included, UK Trade & Investment participating in a formal benchmarking exercise by the International Trade Centre.

    Among the key things found from these comparative reviews is that UKTI employs more people than other countries’ export promotion agencies, but deploys less resource on practical support for exporters (such as interim export managers). Learning from this, UKTI is currently developing some small-scale direct practical support services and products to see what might work in the UK.

  • Gareth Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Gareth Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-03-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many road accidents have taken place between Junction 2 and Junction 30 of the M25 in each of the last four years.

    Andrew Jones

    The part of the M25 between Junction 2 and Junction 30 is classed as the A282.

    The number of reported personal injury road accidents occurring on the A282 between Junction 2 and 30 for the years 2011 to 2014 are as follows:

    Fatal

    Serious

    Slight

    Total

    2011

    0

    5

    39

    44

    2012

    1

    3

    35

    39

    2013

    0

    5

    44

    49

    2014

    0

    3

    41

    44

    Data for 2015 will be available in June 2016 when it is first published. Damage only accidents are not collected by the Department.

  • Alex Chalk – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Alex Chalk – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Alex Chalk on 2016-04-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what further steps she plans to take under the National Litter Strategy to reduce the number of bottles on beaches.

    Rory Stewart

    The National Litter Strategy will promote concerted, coordinated and effective actions to reduce litter and littering on land, which in turn should lead to a reduction in the amount of litter reaching local areas, including our beaches. To develop the National Litter Strategy we are working with a range of interested stakeholders, including representatives of the packaging industry.

    The Scottish Government is taking forward further work on the specific issue of a deposit return system for single-use drinks containers such as plastic bottles, and we will review any new evidence arising from this in the course of developing our own National Litter Strategy for England. However, in the meantime, we will continue to focus on improving existing waste collection and recycling systems for these items.

    In the UK, packaging producers who put more than 50 tonnes of packaging materials on the market a year, and have an annual turnover of more than £2 million, are required to recover and recycle a proportion of their packaging waste. As a result, most major bottle manufacturers and retailers who sell bottles pick up a financial obligation to recycle their packaging waste. More stringent recycling and recovery targets across the years led to a decrease in the proportion of bottles ending up in landfill and in litter. We will continue to focus on improving this system in future years.

    The UK Marine Strategy Part Three, published in December last year, sets out the actions we are taking to improve the marine environment. It covers measures that contribute to reducing sources of litter, including sources of beach litter, and to remove what has already reached our beaches. Actions related specifically to UK beaches include Defra-funded beach cleaning schemes on priority beaches.

  • Lord Mendelsohn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    Lord Mendelsohn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for International Development

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Mendelsohn on 2016-05-23.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills has been asked by the Department for International Development to analyse why Africa’s share of global manufacturing has fallen from three percent in 1970 to less than two percent in 2014.

    Baroness Verma

    DFID, BIS and the FCO form a joint Trade Policy Unit which collectively works on issues of trade policy and trade facilitation and regularly scrutinises sectoral trade and growth trends across Africa.

    While Africa’s share of global manufacturing has fallen since 1970, this is mostly driven by the rise in manufacturing production in China and India. Manufacturing production is increasing across Africa, but with varying experiences across countries. African manufacturing grew at 3.5% annually in real terms over the last decade. However, manufacturing still represents on a small fraction of economic activity and it is our assessment that manufacturing in Africa is lagging.

    The World Bank calculates that 18 million jobs need to be created in Africa every year until 2035 to keep up with this growth. The Department for International Development is currently scaling up our efforts to boost manufacturing in Africa to help create jobs and economic opportunities. This adds to DFID’s strong portfolio on unlocking industrialisation and trade in Africa.

  • Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Catherine West – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine West on 2016-07-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how she plans to ensure that the early years workforce strategy encourages the recruitment and retention of early years teachers.

    Nick Gibb

    We recognise the importance of the Early Years workforce in improving quality and delivering better outcomes for children. That is why we are committed to publishing an Early Years workforce strategy. The strategy will set out how we will help to remove barriers to attracting, retaining and developing staff. As part of the strategy, we will look at the barriers to increasing the number of graduates in the workforce.

    The Government currently delivers Early Years initial teacher training places, funds eligible graduates to undertake training and also provides student bursaries. Information about training routes is available from the Get into Teaching site: https://getintoteaching.education.gov.uk/

    “

  • Mark Menzies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Mark Menzies – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Menzies on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to paragraph 3.103 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, when her Department plans to launch the consultation on increasing the small claims limit from £1,000 to £5,000.

    Sir Oliver Heald

    Ministers are considering this issue and the Government will bring forward proposals in the coming months.

  • Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an estimate of the effect on the rural economy of the reduction in grouse shooting caused by poor weather in 2015.

    Rory Stewart

    The Government has no plans to make an estimate of the effect the weather in 2015 has had on the grouse shooting industry and the rural economy.

  • Daniel Zeichner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Daniel Zeichner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2015-12-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of councils have had at least one residential, domiciliary or specialist care provider fail in the last 12 months.

    Alistair Burt

    The Government does not collect this information.

    Under the Care Act 2014, local authorities have statutory responsibilities to temporarily meet the needs of individuals and their carers should their provider fail.

    The Act also gave the Care Quality Commission (CQC) a new function to oversee the finances of care providers which are either large or whose provision is geographically concentrated as their financial failure would make it difficult for local authorities to discharge their statutory responsibilities.

    The oversight function will provide early warning to relevant local authorities in the event that one of these providers is likely to fail and their services cease. This will allow local authorities time to implement contingency plans.

    The CQC have not made any such notifications to local authorities.

  • Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Gregory Campbell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gregory Campbell on 2016-01-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the accessibility of mobile broadband services and wifi on public transport was (a) on the last date for which figures are available and (b) in 2010.

    Claire Perry

    Modes of public transport vary significantly with different factors influencing the availability of mobile broadband services which is generally outwith the control of the transport operator. It is not monitored and no data are available.

    Wi-Fi equipment has and continues to be installed by public transport operators to improve internet connectivity for passengers. Generally, the decision to install Wi-Fi is a commercial decision for the relevant operator and, where relevant, subsidising authority. With the exception of the Department for Transport-controlled rail franchised services, it has not been monitored and no data are available.

    On all Department for Transport-controlled rail franchises, in England and Wales, free Wi-Fi is being introduced. Currently around 30% of train carriages operating within the DfT controlled franchises and serving around 50% of rail passenger journeys have Wi-Fi available. Our intention is for 90% of passenger journeys to benefit from free Wi-Fi by the end of 2018. No figures are available for 2010.