Tag: Richard Arkless

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how the Government plans to phase increases to funding for NHS England over the next five years; and what the Barnett consequentials of decisions on such phasing will be.

Alistair Burt

The Spending Review announced on 25 November the level of funding that the NHS in England would receive by 2020-21. The NHS will be receiving £10 billion more per year in real terms by 2020-21 than in 2014-15, which fully funds the NHS’ own plan – the ‘Five Year Forward View’. £6 billion of that £10 billion will be delivered by 2016-17. This is set out in the attached table.

The exact budget profile for NHS England will be set out in the Mandate to NHS England, due to be published shortly.

Under the Barnett Formula, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland receive a population-based proportion of changes in planned spending on comparable United Kingdom Government services in England. Changes in each devolved administration’s spending allocation, is determined by:

– the quantity of the change in planned spending in departments of the United Kingdom Government; and

– the extent to which the relevant United Kingdom programme is comparable with the services carried out by each devolved administration and each country’s population proportion.

The allocation of public expenditure between the services, including health, under the control of the devolved administrations is for the devolved administrations to determine.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Arkless on 2015-12-16.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will reduce the rate of VAT on tourism.

Mr David Gauke

The Government currently has no plans to alter the rates of VAT relating to the tourist industry.

I refer the Rt Hon gentleman to my comments during the Westminster Hall debate on 17th March 2015.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Arkless on 2016-06-10.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many national infrastructure projects have been established in Scotland since 1997.

Greg Hands

More than 240 infrastructure schemes have been completed since the beginning of the last Parliament. The National Infrastructure Pipeline (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-infrastructure-pipeline-2016) contains a list of planned private and public infrastructure projects and programmes. Almost all Scottish economic infrastructure, including transport, water, flood defence and waste, is devolved to the Scottish government. However, the UK government has made significant investment in transport infrastructure, including £1.2 billion to replace the electric intercity 225 fleet that currently runs on the London to Edinburgh line, as well as £50 million, matched by the Scottish government, to replace the Cross-border Caledonian sleeper.

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.