Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Caroline Lucas – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    Caroline Lucas – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Energy and Climate Change

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Caroline Lucas on 2015-11-09.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, whether the amount of £4 to £19 billion referred to in her Departmental Minute of 21 October 2015 as the total support to HPC is (a) the actual total cash amount or (b) the present value of the total cash amount of the support to be paid to EDF.

    Andrea Leadsom

    Total support to HPC through the Contracts for Difference (CfD) is expected to be in the range of £4bn to £19bn (real 2012 prices, discounted to 2012) depending on the level of future wholesale prices. The Department has presented discounted figures for these costs to consumers relating to support payments for Hinkley Point C based on guidance set out in The Green Book published by HM Treasury.

  • Henry Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Henry Smith – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Henry Smith on 2015-12-08.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether he plan to respond to the Accelerated Access Review: Interim Report, published in October 2015; and if he will make a statement.

    George Freeman

    The Interim Report of Sir Hugh Taylor’s Accelerated Access Review (AAR) is a deliberately high level document that indicates direction of travel; as such, government will be responding to the AAR’s conclusions when its final recommendations are published early in the spring of 2016.

  • Jake Berry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Jake Berry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jake Berry on 2016-01-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many family-friendly tenancies have been taken up in (a) 2013, (b) 2014 and (c) 2015.

    Brandon Lewis

    The Government does not hold this data.

    We are progressing longer tenancies by promoting a model tenancy with bodies representing landlords, tenants, letting agents, mortgage lenders, and local authorities. Recent figures in the English Housing Survey, Households 2013-14 show that tenancy lengths in the private rented sector have increased to an average of 3.5 years.

  • Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Louise Haigh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-02-04.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent estimate he has made of the amount spent on consultancy support for Independent Shared Services Centres; and for what reasons the consultants were so engaged.

    Matthew Hancock

    No external consultancy support is funded by the Cabinet Office to the Independent Shared Services Centres directly to support operations.

  • Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-03-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 2 March 2016 to Question 28720, whether the number of special advisers employed in his Department has changed since the list referred to in that Answer was published.

    Mr Robert Goodwill

    An update will be issued in the usual way in due course by the Cabinet Office.

  • Charles Walker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Charles Walker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Charles Walker on 2016-03-23.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of implementation of the Fourth EU Money Laundering Directive, 2015/849 on trade between US and European banks and financial service companies and their UK equivalents which include on their Board a Member of the House of Lords.

    Harriett Baldwin

    Under the Fourth Anti-Money Laundering Directive, which will be transposed into national law by June 2017, a politically exposed person is one who has been entrusted with a prominent public function domestically or by a foreign country. The Government will publish an Impact Assessment in due course. This will set out the benefits and costs for businesses in a wide range of sectors, including banking and financial services.

    The changes proposed under the Directive should not prevent any individual in this category from gaining or maintaining access to financial services. Board appointments will remain a matter for individual banks and financial services companies in line with relevant codes and regulations. The Treasury regularly raises the Directive with financial institutions and the regulator, and we encourage financial institutions to take a proportionate, risk-based approach when applying these measures.

  • Lord Laird – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    Lord Laird – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Northern Ireland Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Laird on 2016-05-04.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether parity of esteem as established in the Belfast Agreement 1998 applies to (1) people temporarily residing in Northern Ireland, and if so for how long such people have to live there for parity of esteem to apply; and (2) people who live outside Northern Ireland but work in the province.

    Lord Dunlop

    As I have explained in my previous replies to the noble Lord, the concept of ‘parity of esteem’ is expressed and defined in the 1998 Belfast Agreement in relation to people living in Northern Ireland. This Government sees parity of esteem as treating everybody in Northern Ireland fairly and with equal respect, just as it is committed to treating people fairly and with equal respect wherever they live in the United Kingdom.

  • Rushanara Ali – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    Rushanara Ali – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rushanara Ali on 2016-06-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies on benefits eligibility of the conclusion in the University of Hull report, entitled Mapping hunger, published in April 2016, that food bank use is highest in areas with people in skilled manual work or where more people are unable to work due to long-term sickness or disability.

    Justin Tomlinson

    This government is determined to move to a higher wage society, introducing the new National Living Wage that will benefit over 1 million workers directly this year, and spending £80 billion on working age benefits to ensure a strong safety net for those who need it most. We are also committed to supporting people with disabilities and currently spend a record £50 billion a year doing so.

    There are no plans to amend our reforms that are ensuring that work always pays and are restoring fairness for hardworking taxpayers. As the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Hunger noted, the reasons why people use food banks can be complex and are frequently overlapping. Their use cannot be attributed to a single cause.

    Our welfare system provides a strong safety net to those who need extra support.

  • Chi Onwurah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Chi Onwurah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-09-05.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 4.3.2 of the Open Banking Standard report published in February 2016, what assessment the Government has made of the (a) cyber security, (b) data protection and (c) fraud risks an open banking environment introduces.

    Simon Kirby

    The Open Banking Working Group was created at the request of the government to explore options for allowing customers to use their bank data in a safe, secure and efficient manner. The Group published its report in February 2016. The conclusions reached represent the views of the Working Group and are not government policy.

    Subsequently, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) issued the final report of its investigation into retail banking on 9 August 2016. As part of this, the CMA requires nine leading UK banks to create an open API (Application Programming Interface) to allow access to customer account information as set out in the revised Payment Services Directive (PSDII), which will come into force in January 2018. Informed consent, data protection and cyber security are key considerations in the PSDII, and the government will be consulting on the transposition of this directive shortly.

  • Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Steve McCabe – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-10-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 11 October 2016 to Question 46555, if he will provide local authorities with an increased level of ring-fenced funding for social care in excess of that provided by the Better Care Fund.

    David Mowat

    Social care continues to be a key priority for the Government. This is why against the context of tough public sector finances the Government has taken steps to protect social care services. However, it is for local authorities to decide how to prioritise their spending based on local priorities and need.

    The Autumn 2015 Spending Review settlement announced that local authorities who are responsible for social care would have the ability to raise additional funding to spend exclusively on adult social care through an annual council tax raise of up to 2% above the existing threshold. This new funding for adult social care will be pooled with additional funding from the Better Care Fund. The Government will be making further funding available to councils for adult social care through an improved Better Care Fund, rising to £1.5 billion by 2019-20.