The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-01-29.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether hon. Members can raise issues relating to Concentrix when using the hotline to HM Revenue and Customs for hon. Members.
Mr David Gauke
I refer the honorable lady to the answer I provided on 23 November to question 17151. http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2015-11-23/17151/
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Andrew Percy on 2016-02-24.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he has taken to support the British Heart Foundations’ Wear It Beat It campaign.
Jane Ellison
We congratulate the British Heart Foundation (BHF) on its Wear It Beat It campaign, which aims to raise funds for research into heart disease.
Heart disease is a vital area of research. The Department’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funds a wide range of research relating to these conditions, spending £49 million on cardiovascular disease research in 2014/15. The NIHR works in partnership with the BHF and other medical research charities.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Carol Monaghan on 2016-03-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions she has had with her French counterpart on that country’s current policy of dismantling the refugee camp in Calais.
James Brokenshire
The UK Government is in regular contact with French counterparts on the migrant situation in Calais.
Steps taken by French authorities to clear sections of the migrant camp in Calais are consistent with the shared strategy to encourage those in need of protection to claim asylum in France and to return those not in need to their home country. The French Government, with support from the UK, has made huge efforts to provide decent accommodation in France for all those that need it, including for women and children.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2016-04-13.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to ensure car manufacturers incorporate waste bins in the design of their cars.
Andrew Jones
There are no plans to legislate for car manufacturers to incorporate waste bins in the design of their cars. Most cars already have a variety of suitable storage facilities for drivers and passengers to store waste items.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Karin Smyth on 2016-05-18.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to increase employment opportunities for people (a) on community sentences and (b) released from prison.
Andrew Selous
Prisons should be places of hard work, rigorous education and high ambition, with incentives for prisoners to learn and for prison staff to prioritise education and work. Dame Sally Coates’ review of education in prisons published on 18 May sets out a clear blueprint for reform of education, with Governors given the tools to ensure education provision meets the needs of their prisoners
Supporting offenders into meaningful employment is a vital aspect of the Government’s approach to rehabilitation. We already work with a wide range of employers in prison through One3One Solutions and engagement by prison Governors. We want Governors to do more and so we are putting the tools to drive this change in the hands of those at the frontline who best know what works. We are keen to increase the number of employers who can provide valuable vocational work for offenders while in prison and who are able to offer them support in preparation for release and employment opportunities following their release. I regularly meet businesses across the country including at a number of successful roadshows across the estate. New businesses are now coming on board as a consequence. The Employers Forum for Reducing Reoffending brings together employers willing to employ offenders and we are working with the Department for Work and Pensions to increase the involvement of more businesses. The Prime Minister has announced changes to recruitment practises across the civil service to ensure that people are considered on their merits and not on their criminal conviction and we want to encourage more employers to do the same.
Our reforms to probation services mean that virtually all those sentenced to less than 12 months now receive support both in custody and on release. Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) were created as part of these reforms and manage low to medium risk offenders, including those serving community sentences. CRCs have been given the flexibility to do what they think works to reduce reoffending, which should increase opportunities for offenders to turn their lives around.
Offenders serving community sentences can access services available in the community such as education and training courses; mental health provision and support to obtain employment and accommodation. Where an offender is subject to an unpaid work requirement, they have the opportunity to give back to their local community.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Hendrick on 2016-07-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what facilities are available for (a) lactating mothers and (b) the changing of babies in her Department.
Andrea Leadsom
The Department’s main office at 3 Whitehall Place, London has a private room available for nursing mothers. It has a baby changing table, a specified refrigerator for storing expressed milk, a chair which has been specially designed to provide support when breastfeeding or expressing milk, as well as first aid couches for resting and privacy screens. Our office in Aberdeen also has a private room available for nursing mothers which has a chair and a specified refrigerator for storing expressed milk.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Bradshaw on 2016-10-03.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the capacity of the bus industry to meet the challenges arising from the need to deal with levels of air pollution in cities.
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The Government has introduced several measures to encourage the uptake of environmentally friendly buses.
The Low Emission Bus Scheme (LEBS), announced last year, will provide over £30m to help buy several hundred low emission buses. The winners of LEBS was announced on 25 July, building on the success of the Green Bus Fund, which ran to 2014. Under the Green Bus Fund, £89million of Government funding helped to purchase over 1,200 green buses.
The Government is also encouraging the uptake of greener vehicles through the Bus Service Operators Grant low carbon emission bus incentive.
The Bus Services Bill, which was introduced into the House of Lords on 19th May, will provide local transport authorities with new powers to specify the emission standards to be met by local bus services – including through franchising and, with sufficient support from bus operators, under enhanced partnership arrangements.
The Government has also invested over £26million since 2011 under the Clean Bus and Clean Vehicle Technology Funds for local authorities in pollution hotspots across England to retrofit 1000’s of buses, and other vehicles, with pollution reducing technology. This includes converting some buses to either natural gas or to electric propulsion.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Brown on 2015-11-02.
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans his Department has to ensure (a) British Overseas Territories and (b) the City of London comply with international standards for transparency in tax matters.
Mr David Gauke
In 2013, a major focus of the UK’s G8 Presidency was tax transparency and combatting offshore tax evasion. As part of this the UK promoted the development of a new global standard for reciprocal automatic exchange of financial account information in order to effectively tackle the global problem of tax evasion. Due in large part to the UK’s leadership, over 90 countries and jurisdictions have now committed to the new global standard – known as the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) – and will begin automatically exchanging information under the standard by 2017 or 2018.
Together with the UK itself, all of the UK’s Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories with a recognised financial centre have committed to the 2017 timetable as early adopters. They will also be automatically exchanging 2014 and 2015 financial account information bilaterally with the UK in 2016. The City of London is covered by the CRS which has been implemented in UK law.
In addition to their commitments to early adoption of the CRS, all of the Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies have engaged fully in the Global Forum Peer Review Process on exchange of information on request, have publicly committed to improvements in the transparency of company ownership and meet Financial Action Task Force requirements.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jess Phillips on 2015-11-23.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 17 November 2015 to Question 15557, on what date her Department plans to publish updated information on free school projects that opened or were withdrawn or cancelled.
Edward Timpson
We intend to publish updated expenditure for free school projects in early 2016.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-01-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his Department has made of the economic effect on (a) London and (b) the UK economy of international services stopping at Stratford International station.
Claire Perry
The Department for Transport has made no specific assessment of the economic effects of international services stopping at Stratford International station. The Department for Transport has no powers to specify that an international operator – whether current or future – must stop at Stratford International station. The Department for Transport has recently published an interim evaluation of the impact of the HS1 network setting out the current and anticipated benefits of the HS1 link[1].
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hs1-first-interim-evaluation
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