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Tag: Parliamentary Question

  • Angela Rayner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    Angela Rayner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Angela Rayner on 2016-03-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking in response to the Oxleas Plus supplement option for pensions offered by Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust.

    Alistair Burt

    National Health Service organisations have the freedom to make changes to the reward offer they make to staff; having regard to the legal framework. The NHS Pension Board has referred Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust to the Pensions Regulator (TPR) even though TPR has already found the option for pensions offered by the Trust was not an inducement and therefore not a breach of law.

    However, the NHS Pension Board concluded that there was additional information, which may not have been considered in relation to the earlier referral, and that given the potential wider implications of this issue, a further in-depth investigation by TPR was merited.

    The NHS Pension Board is awaiting TPR’s decision. The Secretary of State for Health will consider any subsequent advice from the NHS Pension Board.

  • David Mackintosh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    David Mackintosh – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Mackintosh on 2016-04-21.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment his Department has made of the feasibility of introducing a centralised, national electoral register.

    John Penrose

    Electoral registers are compiled and maintained locally by Electoral Registration Officers primarily for the purposes of running Parliamentary and local elections in their area. A centralised, national electoral register would not necessarily help them do this, and would potentially create concerns about how government handles citizens personal data, so we have made no assessment of this kind.

  • Matthew Offord – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Matthew Offord – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Matthew Offord on 2016-06-06.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations his Department has made to the US administration to secure its co-operation in surveillance and enforcement of closed marine areas in (a) British Indian Ocean Territory and (b) Ascension Island.

    James Duddridge

    Officials in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office are in regular communication with their US counterparts to explore the opportunities for cooperation in surveillance and enforcement of Marine Protected Areas, including the British Indian Ocean Territory and Ascension Island.

  • Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    Daniel Zeichner – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Daniel Zeichner on 2016-09-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to reduce congestion in cities.

    Andrew Jones

    The Government has an ambitious strategy for tackling congestion in our cities and towns and improving performance on our roads. This strategy includes providing significant investment in both our strategic and local road networks, as well as encouraging more sustainable transport including buses, light rail and walking and cycling. We are providing £15.2 billion between 2015 and 2021 to invest in our strategic road network. This is the biggest upgrade to our motorways and ‘A’ roads for a generation, and it is adding capacity and tackling congestion.

    On local roads we have the £12 billion Local Growth Fund to 2021 which has enabled local authorities through the Local Enterprise Partnerships to identify and secure funding for projects to enable among other things, local road improvements and sustainable local transport projects. This is on top of over £6 billion through to 2021 to councils in England to help maintain their local roads and repair potholes.

    This investment is set against the backdrop of a regulatory framework that is intended to provide better conditions for all road users through coordination and proactive management of the road network. The Traffic Management Act 2004 specifically places a network management duty on each local traffic authority in England to manage its road network to secure the expeditious movement of traffic on its own network and to facilitate the same on the network of other authorities. This can be achieved through traditional traffic management methods but increasingly also through the deployment of technology. To support this the Department is currently inviting local authorities to bid for a share of £2m to fund demonstrator projects to test these new technologies.

  • Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Stoddart of Swindon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2016-10-10.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the European Arrest Warrant system will cease to have legal force in the UK following Brexit.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    We are leaving the EU but co-operation on security with our European and global allies will be undiminished.

    Officials are exploring options for cooperation arrangements once the UK has left the EU. We will do what is necessary to keep people safe, but it would be wrong to set out our position in advance of negotiations.

  • Tania Mathias – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Tania Mathias – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tania Mathias on 2015-11-17.

    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of a fundraising preference service on the work of the charity sector.

    Mr Rob Wilson

    The Fundraising Preference Service, recommended by the Etherington reviewinto fundraising, will re-balancepower back to individuals and help them to press the ‘reset’ button on their relationship with fundraisers, giving them control over the fundraisingcommunications they receive from charities. It will stop people being inundated withrequests which they do not wish to receive and it will stop charities wasting resources oncommunicating with people that do not wish to hear from them. It also seeks to underwritepublic trust and confidence in charities which is vital to the sector’s work.

    A working group involving charities is being established to develop the detailed plans for theimplementation of the service.

  • Lord Warner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Lord Warner – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Warner on 2015-12-15.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of their commitment to consult on 100 per cent retention of business rates by local authorities by the end of this Parliament, what additional resources would be available to each local authority with adult social care functions if they had been able to keep all the business rates collected in their area in 2014–15, and what proportion of their total expenditure that business rate retention amounted to.

    Baroness Williams of Trafford

    The Government intends to move to 100 percent business rates retention in England by the end of this Parliament. We have confirmed that as part of the new system there will continue to be redistribution of local tax revenue between authorities and protections in place for authorities that see their business rates income fall significantly. Over the coming months we will be working with local government on the details of the scheme. Ahead of final decisions, it is too early to assess what the impact will be on individual areas or authorities.

  • Seema Malhotra – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Seema Malhotra – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Seema Malhotra on 2016-01-26.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what modelling his Department undertakes on the effect on changes to pension contributions of changes to (a) annual allowance and (b) lifetime allowance; and what sources his Department uses for such modelling.

    Harriett Baldwin

    The Government does not hold its own records on total accumulated pension wealth, only on pension contributions. For the purposes of the Lifetime Allowance, officials have used data from the ONS Wealth and Assets Survey, which includes estimates of pension wealth.

    The Government assessed the effects of changes to the Annual Allowance and Lifetime Allowance by considering how many people would have to reduce their saving in response to these reductions. This methodology was agreed with the OBR.

    The reduction in the Lifetime Allowance will affect only 4% of savers currently approaching retirement. The Lifetime Allowance will be reduced to £1 million from April, but the average pension savings of someone approaching retirement is only £85,000.

    Just 1% of savers make contributions of £40,000 per year, the level of the Annual Allowance since April 2014. The average saver contributes £6,000 per year.

    The introduction of the Tapered Annual Allowance for individuals who earn over £150,000 in April 2016 will impact less than 2% of people saving into a pension.

    The Government laid out its modelling on the effect of changes to the Annual and Lifetime Allowances on pension contributions in its policy costings documents at the March and Summer Budgets 2015.

    For changes to the Lifetime Allowance, the Wealth and Assets Survey was used to estimate pension wealth, and this was projected forward using assumed pension contributions and estimates of the real rate of return on pensions savings taken from the OECD and the Government Actuary’s Department.

    For the Tapered Annual Allowance, modelling used estimates from the Survey of Personal Incomes, HMRC operational data on personal pension contributions, the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, and the Occupational Pension Scheme Survey.

  • Derek Thomas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Derek Thomas – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Derek Thomas on 2016-02-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect on the profit of convenience stores of proposals to devolve Sunday trading restrictions; and what the evidential basis for that estimate was.

    Anna Soubry

    My Department has carried out an assessment of the impacts of devolving the power to extend Sunday trading hours and this will be published shortly.

  • David Burrowes – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    David Burrowes – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Burrowes on 2016-03-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will ensure that the Government publishes a family impact test in respect of all future primary and secondary legislation.

    Priti Patel

    While we encourage departments to publish Family Test assessments, there is no requirement to do so, as this may not always be appropriate. Assessments against the Family Test are completed by policy officials in the course of developing advice on new policy; this may include some ideas that do not progress beyond the design stage.