Tag: Richard Arkless

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Arkless on 2015-12-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on the effect of the Government’s welfare programme on social and economic inequalities in Scotland.

David Mundell

We have fully assessed the impacts on equality of the measures in the Welfare Reform and Work Bill and the wider budget, meeting our obligations as set out in the Public Sector Equality Duty. The Government set out its assessment of the impacts of the policies in the Bill on 20 July.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Arkless on 2016-02-09.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent representations he has received on the implications for aid of the 1955 tax treaty between the UK and Malawi.

Mr David Gauke

No such representations have been received. Discussions with Malawi over a new tax treaty have already taken place. We are hopeful the new treaty can be concluded shortly.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Arkless on 2016-09-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department takes to ensure prompt payments by companies in receipt of defence contracts.

Harriett Baldwin

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is committed to paying all of its suppliers promptly, and we place a contractual obligation on our prime contractors to pay their subcontractors within a 30 day period.

MOD payment performance is published on gov.uk at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ministry-of-defence-supplier-invoicing-and-payment-information.

This shows that during the first quarter of 2016-17, the MOD paid 96.5% of its invoices within five days and 99.9% within 30 days.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Arkless on 2015-10-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effect of the Government’s proposed changes to tax credits on the number of children able to access free school meals.

Mr Sam Gyimah

The government’s changes to tax credits will have no effect on the number of children accessing free school meals (FSM) in England. All households receiving out-of-work benefits continue to be entitled to FSM, while changes to Child Tax Credit will have no impact. The number of children growing up in workless households has decreased by 480,000 since 2010, a record low. This has led to the number of households claiming FSM decreasing and we expect this to continue as the economy continues to improve.