Tag: Paul Blomfield

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2015-10-28.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 19 October 2015 to Question 10809, how many enforcement actions involving victims of modern slavery have been undertaken since February 2015.

Mr David Gauke

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) participates in multi-agency investigations into cases of Modern Slavery where there are potential tax or National Minimum Wage offences. Since February this year, HMRC has opened 60 tax investigations in cases where Modern Slavery is suspected.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2015-12-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether the Government sought assurances from Royal Mail that local collection offices would not be closed after the sale of that company.

Anna Soubry

Decisions on whether to close and re-locate local collection offices have always been operational matters for Royal Mail. The Government played no role in such decisions prior to the sale of Royal Mail.

Regardless of ownership, Royal Mail, as the United Kingdom’s designated universal service provider, is required to provide a universal postal service that meets the minimum requirements as set out under the Postal Services Act 2011.

It is the responsibility of the postal regulator, Ofcom, to ensure that Royal Mail provides sufficient access points to meet its universal postal service obligations.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-01-18.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 11 January 2016 to Question 20785, what proportion of tax credit recipients had their credits erroneously withdrawn when their children progressed into post-16 education in each of the last five financial years.

Mr David Gauke

HM Revenue and Customs do not hold the requested data.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-02-01.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 26 January 2016 to Question 22971, if he will require HM Revenue and Customs to collect data on the (a) the number of tax recipients who have their credits erroneously withdrawn and (b) reasons given for those withdrawals.

Mr David Gauke

Data could be obtained at disproportionate cost showing the volume of cases withdrawn.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the (a) number of additional jobs and (b) amount of additional housing resulting from a Meadowhall High Speed 2 station location.

Mr Robert Goodwill

Analysis of the Sheffield City Region station options was published in the ‘Engineering options report; West Midlands to Leeds’ dated March 2012. This included analysis of several station sites around the city centre.

The current estimated difference in cost between locating a High Speed station at Victoria and Meadowhall is £680m. Previous work on the cost of options at Victoria and other city centre sites are not comparable to the current estimate given above. With regards to the Meadowhall station, following the 2013 public consultation, no significant changes have been made to the original station design therefore there have not been any changes in cost.

When recommending a station location HS2 Ltd. uses a number of criteria, including;

1. engineering and construction feasibility;
2. sustainability;
3. demand considerations, including journey times;
4. cost; and
5. wider impacts

Potential options were sifted by HS2 Ltd. according to these criteria. To support and challenge this approach, external stakeholders and advisors from the Department’s Project Representative Team were involved in reviewing the process and outcomes where appropriate. Further information about the appraisal process can be found in the 2012 ‘Options for phase two of the high speed rail network’ report and 2013 ‘Appraisal of Sustainability’ report. Both of these documents are available on the government website.

Analysis undertaken by HS2 shows that the introduction of the Sheffield Meadowhall HS2 station could support up to 5,400 jobs and up to 300 residential units, while a HS2 station at Victoria could support an estimated 9,000 jobs and 900 housing units.

Finally, I can confirm that Department for Transport officials have received a copy of Sheffield City Region’s study into connectivity for a city centre High Speed 2 station at Victoria which Network Rail was involved in.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, which offices outside London he does not plan to close under the BIS 2020 strategy.

Joseph Johnson

The intention to close the BIS Sheffield office at St Paul’s Place is based on our strategy to simplify our delivery and focus expertise in specific areas over five years to 2020. Therefore, our policy function needs to be in one place, close to Ministers, and the Department made a decision to locate all our policy functions in the HQ in London. Other decisions around our estates will be taken in due course and will, of course, be subject to consultation. We therefore cannot give an estimate of when all decisions on the Department’s estate will be concluded.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-03-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many claims for underpayment of the national minimum wage have been brought before employment tribunals since 1 July 2015; and how many such claims referred to underpayment of the national minimum wage for a period of more than (a) two and (b) six years.

Andrew Selous

The number of National Minimum Wage claims accepted by the Employment Tribunal in each of the last five years, including those accepted by the Tribunal since 1 July 2015, are published in the Tribunal and Gender Recognition Certificate Statistics Quarterly. The number of successful National Minimum Wage claims are also published in the quarterly statistics. The most recent report, for the period October to December 2015, published on 10 March 2016, can be viewed at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunal-and-gender-recognition-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2015

The Tribunal only records and publishes awards made to claimants in discrimination cases. The amount awarded in National Minimum Wage claims in each of the last five years can only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.

Information relating to the period of time an Employment Tribunal claim refers to underpayment of the National Minimum Wage for a period of more than (a) two and (b) six years is not recorded by the Tribunal and can only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-03-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, to which location he plans to relocate his Department’s functions out of London.

Joseph Johnson

The Department has not yet made final decisions on its future estate. As my right hon. Friend the Minister of State for Small Business, Industry and Enterprise has already informed the House, the current plans for the Department’s future estate are for:

• A combined HQ and policy centre in London
• Business-facing centre, likely to be in South Wales
• Institutional and Research funding centre, likely to be in Swindon, but may initially also include Bristol
• Further education funding centre – location yet to be decided but may initially be in Coventry
• Higher education student finance centre, initially in Glasgow and Darlington
• A regulation centre likely to be in Birmingham
• A combined regional footprint for where service delivery to local users need to happen on a local basis, comprising the BIS Local offices and local service delivery

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-04-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what process his Department will adopt for evaluating responses received to the consultation on proposals to move all policy roles to the 1 Victoria Street office in London and close the St Paul’s Place office in Sheffield.

Joseph Johnson

The BIS Executive Board will take account of all consultation responses from the Departmental Trades Unions and staff when they decide whether to proceed with proposals to move policy roles to London and to close the Sheffield office.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Blomfield on 2016-05-10.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he plans to take to ensure that private sector companies are responsible for their off-payroll workers who use personal service companies paying the correct amount of tax.

Greg Hands

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is continuing to tighten rules on personal service companies and off-payroll workers. For example, it has successfully used Managed Service Company legislation to tackle tax avoidance involving personal service companies and intends to pursue people behind the schemes for tax debts.

The 2016 Budget announced changes to improve the effectiveness of the intermediaries rules in the public sector. HMRC is also developing, with stakeholders, a new online tool for the public and private sectors to provide greater certainty about the tax rules.