UKPOL.CO.UK

Tag: Philip Hollobone

  • Philip Hollobone – 2023 Parliamentary Question on Pensioner Cost of Living Payment

    Philip Hollobone – 2023 Parliamentary Question on Pensioner Cost of Living Payment

    The parliamentary question asked by Philip Hollobone, the Conservative MP for Kettering, in the House of Commons on 6 March 2023.

    Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)

    13. How many people have received the pensioner cost of living payment in (a) Kettering constituency, (b) north Northamptonshire and (c) England. (903880)

    The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Laura Trott)

    In 2021-22, almost 18,000 pensioners in Kettering, over 60,000 pensioners in north Northamptonshire and more than 9 million pensioners in England received a winter fuel payment. We estimate that similar numbers will have received the £300 pensioner cost of living payment in 2022-23.

    Mr Hollobone

    Will those 18,000 pensioners in receipt of the pensioner cost of living payment also receive additional support, such as the £400 energy bill discount, the £150 council tax rebate, the £150 disability cost of living payment and the £150 warm home discount? Will they also benefit from the energy price guarantee, saving a typical household £900 a year?

    Laura Trott

    My hon. Friend is right in this, as in so many things.

  • Philip Hollobone – 2023 Parliamentary Question on Foreign Direct Investment since 2016

    Philip Hollobone – 2023 Parliamentary Question on Foreign Direct Investment since 2016

    The parliamentary question asked by Philip Hollobone, the Conservative MP for Kettering, in the House of Commons on 9 February 2023.

    Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con)

    If she will make an estimate of the level of foreign direct investment into the UK since 23 June 2016.

    The Minister of State, Department for Business and Trade (Ms Nusrat Ghani)

    More global multinationals have set up subsidiaries in the UK than in any country other than the United States. This is the best place in Europe in which to raise capital. Between April 2016 and the end of March 2022, the Department assisted more than 8,700 foreign direct investment projects in the UK, which have created about 348,000 new jobs across the United Kingdom.

    Mr Hollobone

    The UK has had a great track record of attracting foreign direct investment since we voted to leave the European Union. The figures given by the Minister will include the £200 million investment by Ball Corporation in the United States in the UK’s largest and Europe’s most advanced can manufacturing plant, in Burton Latimer. How does the UK’s record of attracting foreign direct investment compare with those of our major EU competitors?

    Ms Ghani

    My hon. Friend has given a fantastic example of the opportunities that have been created. The UK is a highly attractive destination for FDI, and has been among the top recipients in Europe over the last decade. According to the Financial Times and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the UK has the highest market share of greenfield FDI capital expenditure in Europe, at 20%—almost double that of Spain, which is in second place with 12%. It also has the highest levels of Food and Drug Administration stock in Europe, second only to the United States globally. It is remarkable how far we have progressed in such a short time.

    Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab)

    The Biden Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act 2022 makes investing in the US very attractive, particularly for innovative green technology. How are we going to compete?

    Ms Ghani

    In my previous role I was dealing with the impacts of the Inflation Reduction Act, and I hope I will continue to do so, because so many business representatives whom I have met have raised it as a concern. The hon. Lady has referred to green technology. A great deal of work has already been done to promote all our expertise, especially in relation to hydrogen, but there is a huge amount of investment in the UK’s green technology sector and technology in general, and we are also a leading light when it comes to lithium. I was recently in Cape Town with our Green Lithium firm, which wanted to negotiate on how it could do more work in the United States. That is exactly what we are here to do—to facilitate collaboration of that kind.

  • Philip Hollobone – 2023 Speech on Energy Support Package for Businesses

    Philip Hollobone – 2023 Speech on Energy Support Package for Businesses

    The speech made by Philip Hollobone, the Conservative MP for Kettering, in the House of Commons on 9 January 2023.

    I welcome the extension of energy price support for non-domestic users. However, may I give my hon. Friend a real-world example of what is happening in the non-domestic sector? A popular local pub in the Kettering constituency emailed me this week. Up to 2 January, it was paying £2,000 a month for electricity. At the end of the contract, its supplier switched it to an out-of-contract tariff of £9,700 a month. The pub went out to the market and, reluctantly, had to agree to a cost of £5,700 a month with another supplier. Surely that is blatant profiteering when one company can offer a price £4,000 a month less than a competitor’s quote. I therefore welcome what he said about getting Ofgem involved as quickly as possible to sort out these rogue suppliers.

    James Cartlidge

    I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for being an absolute champion for his constituency. I know that he had a question on hospitals earlier and now he is championing his pubs. We all know how important pubs are to all of our constituencies. I will make two points.

    First, in response to my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for South Swindon (Sir Robert Buckland) I referred to the letter that the Chancellor is sending today to Ofgem, urging it to update him as a matter of urgency on its review of the non-commercial market. Hopefully, that will look at some of the factors around how contracts operate and, indeed, at whether there are abuses and what can be done about it.

    Secondly, one of the reasons we are maintaining universal support is precisely because there will be examples, such as the one my hon. Friend raised, of those who came to the end of a deal and fixed when prices were high, and so will not have benefited, even though prices are falling. This support is there to prevent that sharp cliff edge. It is about getting the balance right.

  • Philip Hollobone – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Philip Hollobone – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Hollobone on 2016-01-18.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, by what date 100 per cent of residents of (a) Kettering constituency and (b) England will have access to superfast broadband.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    Based on current delivery plans, it is estimated that 97% of premises in Kettering will have access to superfast broadband by the end of 2017. Additional funding sources, including the gainshare funding that BT have offered in response to the high levels of take-up being achieved, will allow coverage to be extended further in Kettering and the rest of the area covered by the Northamptonshire broadband project.

    The government currently aims to achieve superfast broadband coverage for 95% of UK premises by December 2017, and to extend coverage beyond that as far as possible. As the Prime Minister announced last autumn, the government proposes that by the end of this parliament people should have a legal right to request access to a good level of broadband speed, no matter where they live.

  • Philip Hollobone – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Philip Hollobone – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Hollobone on 2016-04-13.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Education on raising awareness of the tax-free Childcare scheme.

    Damian Hinds

    HM Revenue and Customs, HM Treasury and the Department for Education, and their Ministers, are collaborating closely on the implementation of Tax-Free Childcare and the Extended Entitlement to free childcare for 3 and 4 year olds.

  • Philip Hollobone – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Philip Hollobone – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Hollobone on 2016-01-20.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many foreign national offenders are in prison in England and Wales.

    Andrew Selous

    This information is published and the latest figures, from April to June 2015, can be be found using the link below.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/offender-management-statistics-quarterly-april-to-june-2015

    “

  • Philip Hollobone – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Philip Hollobone – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Hollobone on 2016-04-12.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what information he holds on when Greece will have taken steps to ensure that its asylum system is compliant with Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights on 21 January 2011 in the case of MSS vs Belgium and Greece.

    Mr David Lidington

    The Asylum Agency in Greece was founded in 2011 in response to criticism of the previous system and the case of MSS v. Belgium and Greece. The same law adapted Greek legislation to Directive 2008/115/EC on returning illegally residing third country nationals and related issues.

    The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe monitors the case of MSS v. Belgium and Greece under the “enhanced supervision” procedure. They last considered it in December 2015 and will do so again in December 2016. There was no debate in 2015, which means the Secretariat were satisfied with the information Greece had provided.

    The UN’s Universal Periodic Review of Greece will take place in early May. The review will cover the full range of human rights in Greece, including the asylum system. Greece’s self-assessment will be available on the website of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

  • Philip Hollobone – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Philip Hollobone – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Hollobone on 2016-01-19.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will discuss with the Secretary of State for Defence how the best examples of literacy and numeracy education carried out in initial basic training in HM Armed Forces can be introduced to assist underachieving pupils in attaining GCSE grade C in English and mathematics.

    Nick Gibb

    The Government is committed to raising standards of literacy and numeracy for all pupils. We have strengthened the teaching of reading through rigorous phonics methods and placed greater emphasis within the primary curriculum and assessment on secure grasp of the essentials such as grammar, punctuation and spelling and fluency in mental and written calculation. We provide funding to secondary schools to help pupils catch up quickly and have announced resits for year 7 pupils in reading and mathematics.

    Our reforms to mathematics and English at GCSE offer greater assurance that pupils with these qualifications will have the literacy and numeracy skills they need in employment, and we now require every 16-19 year old without a good pass in GCSE English and maths to study these subjects as part of their 16-19 programme.

    In every aspect of this work the Department for Education is active in looking for ways to improve literacy and numeracy. We will look with interest at the work of the Armed Forces in this area.

  • Philip Hollobone – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Philip Hollobone – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Hollobone on 2016-04-14.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Answer of 16 December 2013, column 507W, what the updated figures are for the latest period available.

    Mr Shailesh Vara

    The average waiting time from receipt to disposal for all Social Security and Child Support appeals between October and December 2015 (the latest period for which figures are available) was 19 weeks nationally and 15.9 weeks in the Kettering venue.

  • Philip Hollobone – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Philip Hollobone – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Philip Hollobone on 2015-11-02.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to tackle illegal fly grazing in (a) Northamptonshire and (b) England.

    George Eustice

    The Control of Horses Act 2015 (the 2015 Act) came into force on 26 May and specifically applies to horses that are fly-grazing or abandoned on another person’s land. Under the 2015 Act, local authorities and private owners and occupiers of land are able to deal with fly-grazing or abandoned horses more quickly and effectively. Specifically, it permits the disposal of such horses after 4 working days from detention, rather than the 14 days currently prescribed by the previous law. The 2015 Act applies to the whole of England.