Tag: Rebecca Long-Bailey

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2016-07-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what training taxi and private hire drivers are required to complete to support blind and partially sighted passengers.

Andrew Jones

Whilst no national mandatory requirements exist to provide training, we strongly encourage licensing authorities to consider requiring their taxi and private hire drivers to undergo training, ensuring that every passenger can be provided with a first class service.

Well-designed disability awareness training, provided by the local authority, can help drivers to understand their legal duties and to equip them with the knowledge and skills to assist a range of passengers, including those who are visually impaired.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2015-11-19.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the provisions of the Finance Act 2015 relating to penalties for late registration for the Alcohol Wholesaler Registration scheme will apply now implementation of that scheme has been delayed.

Damian Hinds

The new penalties for late application for registration for the Alcohol Wholesaler Registration scheme will still apply. However, HMRC will only issue penalties in circumstances where the revised deadlines for application for registration have been breached.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2015-12-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to paragraph 1.123 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, what estimate he has made of the effect of uprating the individual threshold in the minimum income floor for self-employed people on the household income of a tax credit claimant family with two children and one self-employed earner under the age of 25 earning the national minimum wage.

Priti Patel

The government is committed to moving the UK from a high tax, high welfare, low wage society to a lower tax, lower welfare, higher wage society. This remains the case, and Universal Credit (UC) is delivering this.

UC is fundamentally different from the current legacy benefit system and supports people into work and encourages them to earn more.

Therefore there is no meaningful way of comparing an unreformed Tax Credit system with UC. The Government has committed to transitional arrangements as we reform the benefits and Tax Credit system. Those transferred by DWP from tax credits to UC will receive Transitional Protection. In addition, estimates of entitlements under UC of the sort requested will vary depending on assumptions on the level of earnings.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2015-12-15.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to Answer of 9 December 2015 to Question 18558, how many families in receipt of tax credits in 2013-14 who benefited from the income rise disregard saw their income rise by over £2,500 but no more than £5,000 during the course of the year.

Damian Hinds

As announced in the combined Autumn Statement and Spending Review, the amount by which a tax credit claimant’s income can increase within the year before their tax credit award is adjusted (the income rise disregard), will be reduced from £5,000 to £2,500. This makes the tax credit system fairer so claimants on similar incomes will receive similar awards. Currently two families on precisely the same earnings at the end of the year can receive significantly different awards.

The change returns the disregard back to the level it was between 2003 and 2006 – something the tax credit system is now operationally better able to cope with now that it has more up to date information on people’s earnings through Real Time Information. HMRC are also making it easier to report changes quickly online, so that people will less often receive overpayments. Claimants can contact HMRC if they are suffering financial hardship and are having difficulty paying back an overpayment.

The change will bring forward some of the benefits of Universal Credit so that the tax credit award reflects a claimant’s recent earnings and the system responds more quickly to changes in earnings.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2016-01-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether it is his policy that vulnerable adult transport can be funded through the two per cent Social Care Precept.

Alistair Burt

When it is determined by a local authority that an adult has eligible care and support needs, and the provision of transport is required to meet the outcomes in the adults care plan, this may be funded as part of a formal social care package.

As such, the Social Care Precept would be a possible funding stream for the local authority in these instances.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2016-02-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the number of pupils taking creative subjects does not fall as a result of the introduction of the English Baccalaureate.

Nick Gibb

This Government’s aim is that at least 90% of pupils will enter GCSEs in the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) subjects of English, maths, science, humanities and languages.

The EBacc has been designed to be limited in its size in order to provide a rigorous academic core whilst leaving space in the curriculum for pupils to study other subjects of their choice, including creative subjects, alongside the EBacc subjects. Since the EBacc was announced in 2010, the proportion of pupils in state-funded schools entered for at least one arts GCSE has increased from 45.8% in 2011 to 49.6% in 2015.[1]

On 3 November 2015, the Secretary of State for Education launched a public consultation seeking views on the government’s proposals for the implementation of the English Baccalaureate.[2] The consultation closed on 29 January 2016 and the Government response will be published in due course.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ebacc-and-non-ebacc-subject-entries-and-achievement

[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/implementing-the-english-baccalaureate

“

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2016-03-03.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress his Department has made on its communications programme for the Alcohol Wholesaler Registration Scheme.

Damian Hinds

The application window for the Alcohol Wholesaler Registration Scheme (AWRS) closes on 31 March. HMRC is using appropriate channels to ensure customers who need to apply are aware of their obligations in good time to enable them to meet that deadline.

Once the application window has closed, HMRC will assess the applications it has received. Appropriate action will then be taken to enforce the requirements of the new scheme.

HMRC has been ramping up communications for AWRS over the last 12 months. It has issued several press notices and articles including regional and national media as well as specialist press and social media. HMRC is also working through key stakeholders and representative bodies associated with the alcohol business sectors to issue partnership marketing, giving a reach of 55,000 businesses. In February I wrote to individual businesses that may need to apply for AWRS to remind them of the deadline.

The HMRC communications approach to this scheme is designed to ensure messages reach everyone who needs to receive them. If, however, analysis of applications after the deadline reveals a particular category of customers ‘missing’ to a significant degree from the applications received, and there is evidence that the programme of extensive communications failed to reach them, HMRC will explore whether there are any implications for the way in which follow up action is taken for that particular group.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2016-04-19.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many wholesalers have been found as a result of their failure to sign up to the Alcohol Wholesaler Registration Scheme to have been trading in alcohol fraudulently since the introduction of that scheme

Damian Hinds

From April 2017, HMRC will be making publicly available details of alcohol wholesalers who are approved. From then, retailers who buy from unapproved wholesalers will be liable to a fine.

HMRC is now assessing the applications it has received against the scheme’s approval criteria. The number of applications received are lower than HMRCs initial estimate of 21,000 businesses that could be wholesaling alcohol. There could be a number of reasons for this, and HMRC is currently comparing the applications received with original expectations and encouraging businesses that have not applied to do so, to mitigate penalties and the likelihood of enforcement action.

Where businesses have been purposefully fraudulently trading, HMRC will take action. It is too early to report outcomes of any investigations into illicit trading that HMRC are undertaking since the introduction of the scheme.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2016-05-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what reports he has received on progress in the Eastern African mediation process in relation to the crisis in Burundi; and if he will make a statement.

James Duddridge

As I stated in the adjournment debate on Human Rights in Burundi on 5 May 2016, I spoke to former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa on 4 May. We agreed that the only route to a lasting solution lies in an inclusive political process. I gave him the UK’s full support in his role as the facilitator of the dialogue established by the East African Community. I am encouraged by indications that talks will begin on 21 May. President Mkapa is using the intervening period to bring more people to the table and to have more bilateral discussions before the talks themselves happen. I will keep the house updated.

It is essential that all parties, including those who have now left Burundi, are part of the engagement and peace process. I intend to phone and write to the Burundian Foreign Minister before 21 May to call on the Government of Burundi to come together with all participants and to allow them to come to Arusha so that the talks can commence.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Rebecca Long Bailey on 2016-05-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what guarantees she has received that UK development aid for Ethiopia is not used for military or security purposes or the so-called villagisation dispersal programme; and what safeguards are in place to ensure that UK aid to Ethiopia is used only for agreed development purposes.

Mr Nick Hurd

All DFID aid in Ethiopia is administered through specific programmes, each with a strong set of controls, high standard monitoring and strong DFID oversight. Aid in Ethiopia is distributed through a number of channels. Where a programme is administered using government systems a standard fiduciary risk assessment evaluating the national public financial management system is mandatory. As with all aid spending, strong checks and balances and regular monitoring ensure that aid is used for the purposes intended.

UK aid in Ethiopia has contributed to the remarkable developmental gains the country has made over the past decade. The UK has helped reduce poverty and child mortality in Ethiopia by a quarter and put four more million children in primary school.