Tag: Paul Monaghan

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Monaghan on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of the UK’s decision to leave the EU on the rural economy.

Dr Thérèse Coffey

The UK is still a member of the EU and we will continue to engage with EU business as normal and be engaged in EU decision-making in the usual way.

Once Article 50 is invoked, we will remain bound by EU law until the withdrawal agreement comes into force.

We now have a historic opportunity to deliver an environment for future generations to be proud of, grow our world-leading food and farming industry that continues to attract significant global investment and harness the enormous economic potential of our rural communities.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Monaghan on 2015-11-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many refugee families she expects to be relocated to Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross constituency; where such families will be housed; and what steps the Government is taking to ensure that such families have access to education for their children.

James Brokenshire

With regard to the resettlement of 20,000 Syrians that the Prime Minister announced on 7 September, this is a voluntary scheme whereby local authorities sign up to accept refugees on a voluntary basis and there is no expectation on any particular local authority.

We are working closely with those local authorities that have indicated they wish to be involved as well as with the Local Government Association and with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities. We do not disclose the details of where refugees are resettled upon their arrival in the UK under the Government resettlement schemes as this may undermine the privacy and recovery of this vulnerable group of people.

The Home Office alongside other departments and the Local Government Association and the Convention of Scottish Authorities will work with individual local authorities who are volunteering to take Syrian refugees to secure appropriate accommodation.

The Government has committed to investing £7 billion on new school places over the next six years, and in the last Parliament funding for school places doubled to £5 billion to create 445,000 additional places. Local Authorities are allocated funding for school places based on their own local data on school capacity and pupil forecasts, in which they take account of factors including rising birth rates, housing development, trends in internal migration and migration to England from elsewhere in the United Kingdom and from overseas. We continue to work with Local Authorities to make sure that every child has a school place.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Monaghan on 2015-11-27.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what correspondence the Government has had with the Clydesdale Bank on implementation of the Access to Banking Protocol and the (a) closure of branches and (b) reduction of banking services in the Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross constituency.

Harriett Baldwin

The Government welcomed the industry-wide Access to Banking protocol announced in March 2015. From the first of May this year, each participating bank has committed to carry out a number of steps if it is closing a branch. This includes establishing the impact of a branch closure before it takes place; finding suitable alternative provision; and putting in place suitable alternative measures before a branch is closed.

There is a commitment to review the operation of the protocol after one year. In August, the Minister for Small Business, Industry and Enterprise and I wrote to the Chief Executive of the British Bankers’ Association and requested an update on progress towards the appointment of an independent reviewer. A copy of the letter was also sent to the Chief Executives of the banks that are signatories to the Access to Banking protocol.

Banks and building societies need to balance customer interests, market competition, and other commercial factors when considering their strategy.

Decisions on the opening and closing of individual bank branches are taken by the management of each bank on a commercial basis without intervention from Government.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what diplomatic steps he is taking to tackle the refugee crisis on the Turkish-Syrian border.

Mr David Lidington

The UK continues to work closely with the Turkish government, including through implementation of the EU-Turkey Action Plan, to ensure that refugees continue to receive support and protection. We welcome Turkey’s generosity in hosting more than 2.5 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, and the ongoing support it is providing bilaterally to refugees amassing at its border with Syria. On 4 February 2016, the Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron) announced that the UK will more than double our total pledge to the Syria crisis from £1.12 billion to over £2.3 billion. This is the UK’s largest ever response to a single humanitarian crisis.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Monaghan on 2016-02-29.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, for which activities consent is determined by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The activities for which the Maritime and Coastguard Agency has the delegated authority to consent/refuse are for Oil Transfer Licences within UK ports and harbours and for Ship-to-Ship Transfers within the designated Southwold area off the Suffolk coast.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Monaghan on 2016-05-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what duties officers of the Civil Nuclear Constabulary who reach 50 years of age in service are expected to perform under their contracts.

Andrea Leadsom

All Civil Nuclear Constabulary police officers are required to be Authorised Firearms Officers. As such, officers undertake a number of tasks and must meet fitness and capability standards which have been set by the College of Policing regardless of age or gender.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Monaghan on 2016-05-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, whether the London Power Tunnels Project is (a) on schedule for completion in 2018 and (b) within budget.

Andrea Leadsom

National Grid has said that:

1. The London Power Tunnels Project is on schedule for completion in 2018 with all significant work completed in 2017 a year ahead of the original programme.

2. The London Power Tunnels Project is currently within budget.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Monaghan on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ban third party sales of dogs and puppies while allowing an exemption for registered and approved rehoming charities.

George Eustice

We are currently reviewing the regulations that control the breeding and sale of dogs following a recent Defra public consultation on the licensing by local authorities of animal establishments. Whilst there are no proposals to ban the sales of dogs by third parties, there are proposals to tighten up the standards of welfare that apply to such activities. We published the summary of responses to the consultation on 15 September and shall announce the outcome in due course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Monaghan on 2015-10-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, when he expects the Coastal Communities Fund to reopen for a further round of funding.

Mr Marcus Jones

Details of future funding arrangements for the Coastal Communities Fund are currently being considered as part of the 2015 Spending Review. An announcement about the timing of future funding rounds is expected after the Autumn Statement.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Paul Monaghan on 2015-09-16.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the British Virgin Islands government’s progress towards implementing a central register of beneficial ownership; and what steps he is taking to ensure that that government publishes a timetable for that implementation by November 2015.

Mr David Gauke

The international standards on anti-money laundering and counter terrorist financing, including transparency of legal persons, are set by the Financial Action Task Force. The British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands are members of the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force and are subject to mutual evaluations of their AML/CTF regime through this body.

At the December 2014 Joint Ministerial Council, the UK and the Overseas Territories committed to continue to work together in raising international standards to tackle money laundering, tax evasion, illicit finance and corruption, leading by example given the importance of our financial centres to the international financial system. In March, the Minister for the Overseas Territories and I wrote to the Premiers of the BVI and Cayman Islands asking them to set out plans and a timetable for the implementation of central registers of company beneficial ownership, or similarly effective systems, by the November Joint Ministerial Council.

Any system should meet the following three criteria: UK and domestic law enforcement and tax authorities must be able to access company beneficial ownership information without restriction, subject to relevant safeguards; these competent authorities should be able to quickly identify all companies that a particular beneficial owner has a stake in, without needing to submit multiple and repeated requests; and companies or their beneficial owners must not be alerted to the fact that an investigation is under way.

The UK Government continues to engage actively with the BVI and Cayman Islands to emphasize the importance of this agenda and to offer any technical support that might be required.