Tag: Richard Arkless

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans his Department has to encourage an increase in the number of HGV drivers in the UK to meet demand for such drivers.

Andrew Jones

The Department’s agencies are taking action on HGV driver testing and licensing. This includes recruiting 78 new driving examiners, as well as 65 in training and 41 offered posts. Licence renewal times where there are not medical issues have reduced and changes are being made to the operation of parts of the medical renewals process. The Department is working with other parts of Government to encourage and enable more people to become lorry drivers, including via apprenticeships and action related to Jobcentre Plus.

I note that over 55,000 tests were conducted in 2014-15, the highest total since 2008-09. Further, the number of Large Goods Vehicle practical and theory tests of all types conducted during July to September 2015 was 34 per cent higher than in the same quarter of 2014.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Arkless on 2016-03-01.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, who will be eligible to vote in the forthcoming EU referendum; and for what reason he plans to exclude European citizens resident in the UK from voting in that referendum.

Mr David Lidington

The franchise for the EU referendum was debated and agreed by both Houses during the passing of the EU Referendum Act 2015. This has now received Royal Assent and is set in law.

The franchise for the EU referendum includes those enfranchised for UK parliamentary elections, with the addition of Members of the House of Lords and Commonwealth and Irish citizens in Gibraltar.

Amendments during the passage of the EU Referendum Bill, seeking to include EU citizens in the franchise for the EU referendum, were considered and overwhelmingly rejected by both Houses.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Arkless on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what the Government’s policy is on maintaining the provisions of European Commission Directive 2008/94/EC on the protection of employees in the event of the insolvency of their employer; and what assessment the Government has made of the effect the UK leaving the EU will have on the operation of the Pension Protection Fund.

Mr Robin Walker

The Government has clearly stated that the UK does not need to be part of the EU to have strong protections for workers’ rights. At every step of these negotiations we will work to ensure the best possible outcome for the British people, seizing opportunities to make Britain a country that truly works not just for a privileged few, but for everybody.

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.