Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Holly Lynch – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Holly Lynch – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Holly Lynch on 2016-01-07.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what support the Financial Conduct Authority has offered to people affected by the recent administration of Brightsource Debt Management; and what steps his Department is taking to ensure that debt consolidation companies make timely payments to creditors so that their customers’ loans are paid down as quickly as possible.

    Harriett Baldwin

    The Government has fundamentally reformed the regulation of the debt management market, transferring regulatory responsibility from the Office of Fair Trading to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) a more robust and better resourced regulator.

    The FCA is directing the clients of Brightsource Debt Management towards free debt advice and is engaging with the administrator to ensure the interests of clients are protected.

    The FCA require debt management firms which receive client money for the purposes of paying off client debts to pay that money to creditors as soon as is reasonably practical, normally within 5 business days, unless the firm has disclosed to the client that it will hold the money for a longer period in its terms and conditions.

    The FCA supervises the market; it has a broad enforcement toolkit to punish breaches of its rules and there is no limit on the fines it can levy.

  • Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Jim Shannon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-02-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department is taking steps to encourage people to become pilots.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    The Secretary of State for Transport appointed Terry Morgan CBE to develop a transport infrastructure skills strategy, which was published on the 28 January. The strategy, which covers aviation and specifically pilot training, contains recommendations for both government and industry to act on.

  • Shabana Mahmood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Shabana Mahmood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Shabana Mahmood on 2016-02-23.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many pathologists qualified to conduct post-mortems there were in (a) 2010 and (b) 2015.

    Caroline Dinenage

    The Department does not hold this information.

  • Lord Kilclooney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Lord Kilclooney – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kilclooney on 2016-03-22.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how the proposed £1,500 business rates discount for office space occupied by local newspapers in England outlined in the Budget will affect Northern Ireland and Scotland.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    The £1,500 discount for office space occupied by local newspapers will be introduced in England for 2 years from April 2017. This measure will help to support local newspapers in England, alongside the other changes to Small Business Rate Relief. Business rates are devolved to Scotland and Northern Ireland and so this is a matter for the devolved administrations. Barnett consequentials apply to this measure in the normal way.

  • Andrew Bridgen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Andrew Bridgen – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Bridgen on 2016-04-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the total cost was of maintaining the UK Permanent Representation to the EU in each of the last five years.

    Mr David Lidington

    We cannot provide a figure for the total cost of maintaining the UK Permanent Representation to the EU (UKRep) in each of the last five years, except at disproportionate cost.

    The budgets involved are aggregated in different ways, normally across HMG’s Brussels platform as a whole, which consists of UKRep, the British Embassy in Belgium, including UKTI and Consular operations, the UK Joint Delegation to NATO and Corporate Services Benelux.

    Administrative resource spend, which includes, but is not limited to, Locally Engaged staff salaries, travel costs, telecoms, catering and entertainment and IT, is shared across the Brussels platform and difficult to disaggregate. Facilities management costs (eg security, reception, cleaning) are also shared across the Brussels platform and difficult to disaggregate. The rent spent on the offices which house UKRep and the British Embassy is aggregated. Salaries and allowances paid to UK-based staff working at UKRep are captured in further separate budgets, and would involve significant resource to disaggregate.

  • Baroness Hodgson of Abinger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Baroness Hodgson of Abinger – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Hodgson of Abinger on 2016-05-23.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are providing support to the central bank of Yemen to avert financial collapse.

    Baroness Anelay of St Johns

    The Central Bank of Yemen (CBY) is a key Yemeni institution. We have made sure that the economy and the state of the CBY are not ignored during the peace talks in Kuwait. We continue to lobby the Government of Yemen and the Houthis and Pro-Saleh General People’s Congress at the highest levels to emphasise the seriousness of the economic situation, including pressing for all Yemeni parties to cooperate, take ownership of the issues, and ensure key institutions such as the CBY are protected.

  • Danny Kinahan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Danny Kinahan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Danny Kinahan on 2016-07-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the results of the post-occupancy data on schools built under wave 1 of the Priority Schools Building Programme will be published before wave 2 begins.

    Edward Timpson

    The Priority School Building Programme (PSBP) is rebuilding and/or refurbishing those school buildings in the worst condition across the country. We expect to deliver the vast majority of the new school buildings in Phase 1 by the end of 2017, two years earlier than originally planned. Work on schools in Phase 2 of the programme has recently begun and good progress is being made.

    The Department is collecting a range of post-occupancy data on schools under Phase 1. For post-occupancy evaluation to be truly representative, schools need to be operational for a full year to experience all the seasons. The results of the post-occupancy exercise will be published once it is complete. Lessons learnt on Phase 1 are being transferred to Phase 2 of the PSBP.

  • John Pugh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    John Pugh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by John Pugh on 2016-10-07.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what proportion of staff on the payroll of his Department who work in Westminster are (a) British nationals and (b) nationals of another country.

    Kris Hopkins

    All Government Departments are bound by legal requirements concerning the right to work in the UK and, in addition, the Civil Service Nationality Rules.

    Evidence of nationality is checked at the point of recruitment into the Civil Service as part of wider pre-employment checks, but there is no requirement on departments to retain this information beyond the point at which it has served its purpose.

    More broadly, the Government will be consulting in due course on how we work with business to ensure that workers in this country have the skills that they need to get a job. But there are no proposals to publish lists of the number or proportion of foreign workers.

  • Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Louise Haigh – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-10-29.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of senior civil servants in her Department attended (a) non-selective state schools, (b) state selective schools, (c) independent schools, fee assisted and (d) independent schools, not fee assisted.

    Nick Gibb

    The Department for Education does not collect or hold this information.

  • Susan Elan Jones – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Wales Office

    Susan Elan Jones – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Wales Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Susan Elan Jones on 2015-11-26.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, if he will meet the Chancellor of the Exchequer to discuss the effect of the reductions in funding to S4C proposed in the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015.

    Stephen Crabb

    I have regular meetings with the Chancellor of the Exchequer, which provide opportunities to discuss a range of issues, including matters related to funding of services across Wales.

    The Government is committed to Welsh language programming and to the future of S4C. The majority of S4C’s funding comes via the BBC and last week’s spending review settlement on the Government element of S4C’s funding therefore represents a modest reduction in its overall funding.