Tag: Parliamentary Question

Paul Flynn – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Flynn on 2015-12-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for the Government’s nuclear non-proliferation strategy of the emergence of 3D printing technologies capable of constructing components for possible use in nuclear weapons.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The Government keeps appraised of new technologies and their possible non-proliferation implications, both now and in the future. Although this technique could have some nuclear applications, currently there remain fundamental barriers to proliferation, such as the availability of fissile material.

01/01/2023
Sue Hayman – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sue Hayman on 2016-01-12.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress his Department has made on reducing levels of tax avoidance by large corporations; and if he will make a statement.

Mr David Gauke

The UK initiated the G20/OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting project and has already taken action to implement two of the internationally agreed outputs with domestic legislation to introduce country-by-reporting and rules to address hybrid mismatches.

In addition, the UK played a key role in securing the successful EU agreement on automatically exchanging information on tax rulings, reached at the ECOFIN Council in October 2015.

Complementary to international efforts to tackle this issue, we introduced the Diverted Profits Tax from April 2015 to counteract the diversion of profits from the UK by large multinational enterprises.

In the summer Budget 2015 we legislated to improve the effectiveness of our Controlled Foreign Company (CFC) regime by removing the ability for companies to use UK losses and reliefs against their CFC charge.

01/01/2023
Gavin Newlands – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gavin Newlands on 2016-02-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what his Department’s policy is on the use of debt collection agencies to collect outstanding payments.

Joseph Johnson

The core Department’s policy is governed by HM Treasury’s ‘Managing Public Money’ guidance. This sets out that public sector organisations should always pursue recovery of debts. In practice there will be both practical and legal limits to how cases should be handled. So each case should be dealt with on its merits. Within BIS, the use of a debt collection agency would only be considered after all other methods of recovery had failed.

01/01/2023
Dan Jarvis – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Dan Jarvis on 2016-03-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the Civil Aviation Authority’s proposal to increase the fee for holding aerial displays on the viability of the aerial display industry.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Civil Aviation Authority has consulted publicly on proposed air display and low flying permission charges. After this consultation, the Civil Aviation Authority would need to consult the Secretary of State, before making the scheme. When the Civil Aviation Authority consults the Secretary of State on any scheme, he will consider that scheme, including considering possible impacts on the viability of the aerial display industry.

01/01/2023
Tim Loughton – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Loughton on 2016-03-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what information his Department holds on the powers of appointment of university vice-chancellors for staff working in Confucius Institutes on their university campus.

Joseph Johnson

Universities are autonomous from Government and responsible, by law, for all decisions about who they appoint as staff.

01/01/2023
Lord Alton of Liverpool – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Alton of Liverpool on 2016-05-04.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the legal advice given by the Attorney General in Northern Ireland that genocide is being committed against Christian and other minorities in Iraq and Syria.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

This Government condemns Daesh atrocities against Christians, other minorities, and the majority Muslim populations of Iraq and Syria. As the Prime Minister, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron), has said, the Government’s position remains that although there is a very strong case to answer, ultimately it should be a matter for judicial authorities.

We are supporting the gathering and preservation of evidence that could in future be used in a court to hold Daesh to account. And we continue to deliver our comprehensive strategy to defeat Daesh, and thereby stop them from preventing more atrocities.

01/01/2023
Lilian Greenwood – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lilian Greenwood on 2016-06-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, in which reporting periods the performance of the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern franchise has (a) met and (b) exceeded its breach performance level for the (i) train operating company minute delay, (ii) cancellation and (iii) short-formation benchmark.

Claire Perry

Since Rail Industry period 7 in financial year 2015/16 (ending mid October 2015), GTR have exceeded the breach level for the Cancellations benchmark. The Secretary of State issued GTR with a Remedial Plan Notice last year requiring them to set out in a Remedial Plan the measures they will take in order to improve their performance and included benchmarks against which GTR are measured for the duration of the Remedial Plan. GTR has not breached the remedial plan cancellations benchmark and are under the breach benchmark for train operating company minute delays and peak short formations.

01/01/2023

Gareth Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gareth Johnson on 2016-09-05.

To ask the Attorney General, what plans he has to extend the unduly lenient sentence scheme.

Jeremy Wright

The Government has committed to extending the scope of the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme and is carefully considering its approach.

The number of offenders who have had their sentence increased under the unduly lenient sentence scheme in each of the last five years is set out below.

Year	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Offenders who have had their sentence increased by the Court of Appeal	95	62	61	106	102

Some cases attract multiple referrals from various sources and we do not record how many referrals each case has received. The total number of cases where requests were received by the Attorney General’s Office for sentences to be reviewed in each of the last five years is set out below.

Year	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Total number of referrals received by the Attorney General’s Office for sentences to be reviewed under the scheme	377	435	498	674	713

The number of sentences referred to the Court of Appeal under the unduly lenient sentence scheme that were (a) increased and (b) kept the same in each of the last five years is set out below.

Year	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Total number of sentences referred to the Court of Appeal	117	82	70	122	136
Total number of sentences that were increased	95	62	61	106	102
Total number of sentences that remained unchanged	22	20	9	16	34

The number of referrals under the unduly lenient sentence scheme that have been rejected due to falling outside the remit of the scheme in each of the last five years is set out below.

Year	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Number of referrals that have been rejected due to the offence falling outside the remit of the scheme	62	75	131	194	228
Number of referrals received out of time	3	12	9	10	16

01/01/2023

Tom Brake – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Brake on 2016-10-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what consultation took place between the Government and hon. Members prior to the UK disarmament ambassador to the UN speaking against the UN resolution to start negotiations in 2017 on a treaty banning nuclear weapons.

Sir Alan Duncan

There have been no consultations between the Government and Parliament specifically on the UN General Assembly resolution on the nuclear weapons ban treaty. However on 18 July 2016, Parliament debated the successor submarine programme to maintain the UK’s independent, minimum, credible nuclear deterrent, during which the issue of the ban treaty was raised.

01/01/2023
Richard Fuller – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Fuller on 2015-11-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will assess the potential merits of providing legal protection to the professional title of veterinary nurse.

George Eustice

Only those individuals who are properly trained, qualified and registered with the regulator, the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS), may legally undertake veterinary nursing. The Government is aware that concerns have been raised about the legal protection of the use of the term “Veterinary Nurse” and we are in dialogue with the RCVS and others to see how these concerns might be addressed.

01/01/2023