Tag: Steve McCabe

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-09-08.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the reasons for the large increase in public sector contracts going out to tender since the EU referendum.

Ben Gummer

The overarching principle behind all public procurement policy is to award contracts on the basis of achieving the best value for money for the taxpayer.

It is the responsibility of the individual contracting authorities to decide whether, how and when to go to market for the procurement of goods and services.

Analysis by the Crown Commercial Service shows no significant variation in the number of above threshold opportunities advertised in the Official Journal of the EU. Analysis of opportunities over £10k advertised on Contracts Finder show a drop in the levels of procurement activity prior to the referendum, consistent with deferring advertisements during the Civil Service’s period of “purdah”, rather than a sudden increase in new activity since the referendum.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-09-13.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the outcome has been of his Department’s efforts to secure a lawyer for Andargachew Tsege; and what other steps his Department plans to take to ensure the release of Mr Tsege.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

​On 1 June 2016, Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam assured the then Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), that Mr Tsege would be allowed access to independent legal advice to allow him to discuss options under the Ethiopian legal system. Since then, the Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Mr Johnson) has raised Mr Tsege’s case with his Ethiopian counterpart, Foreign Minister Tedros, on 3 occasions, most recently during the UN General Assembly in New York. Each time he has insisted that the Ethiopians follow through with their commitment to allow legal access. The British Government will continue to raise this issue until Mr Tsege is given access to independent legal advice. We do not interfere in the legal systems of other countries by challenging convictions, any more than we would accept interference in our judicial system. We will continue to keep our approach to this case under review.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-09-15.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress his Department is making on the implementation of the proposed secondary market for annuities.

Simon Kirby

To date, the Government has published the following consultation documents in relation to the secondary market in annuities policy:

Creating a secondary annuity market – March 2015

Creating a secondary annuity market: response to the call for evidence – December 2015

Creating a secondary annuity market: tax framework – April 2016

Creating a secondary market for annuities – secondary legislation – April 2016

These consultations have now closed. The Government will respond shortly.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 13 September 2016 to Question 45678, on Ethiopia: security, what non-overseas development assistance elements were included in the executive masters programme in security sector management, which closed in June 2015.

James Wharton

UK non-Overseas Development Assistance support for the Executive Masters Programme in Security Sector Management – totalling £140,000 – covered the costs of the non-civilian students that attended the course.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, which governmental departments make voluntary contributions to UN special political missions; and how much each such Department contributed in each of the last five years.

Alok Sharma

​Government Departments, notably the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Ministry of Defence and Department for International Development have all made occasional targeted voluntary contributions to UN Special Political Missions (SPMs) over the last five years. Information about these discretionary payments is not held in a single consolidated form, and could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost. The Government identifies and monitors the value and impact of providing the voluntary funding on a case by case basis.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-10-07.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of staff employed by his Department are non-UK nationals.

Mark Lancaster

All Government Departments are bound by legal requirements concerning the right to work in the UK and, in addition, the Civil Service Nationality Rules.

Evidence of nationality is checked at the point of recruitment into the Civil Service as part of wider pre-employment checks, but there is no requirement on departments to retain this information beyond the point at which it has served its purpose.

More broadly, the Government will be consulting in due course on how we work with business to ensure that workers in this country have the skills that they need to get a job. But there are no proposals to publish lists of the number or proportion of foreign workers.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-10-20.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 11 October 2016 to Question 46555, what estimate he has made of the number of care home closures in each of the last three years; and what assessment he has made of the effect of those closures on hospital services.

David Mowat

The Department continues to monitor the market of care providers.

There has been no significant change in capacity in care homes in the last three years. The total number of beds for older people and those with dementia in England has remained stable at around 410,000.

Figures from Christie & Co show a differential between fee rises for self-funders & those paid by local authorities, but we are not aware of this driving changes in provision.

The Department continues to monitor the whole of the market of care providers and engage with the sector to better understand the challenges they face and support local authorities who purchase services.

The Department recognises that social care has a key role to play in reducing delayed transfers of care from hospital.

The National Health Service takes Delayed Transfer of Care seriously. As well as funding the NHS’ own plan for the future with £10 billion, we are giving local authorities access to up to £3.5 billion extra a year for adult social care.

The Department works closely with the NHS, local government and the independent care sector to help improve transfers out of hospital, share good practice and minimise delays.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2015-10-30.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much UK aid was provided to countries on the EU Commission tax haven blacklist or identified as zero tax jurisdictions in the financial years 2013-14 and 2014-15.

Mr Desmond Swayne

DFID uses a range of criteria to inform how we allocate aid across countries. These criteria include, for example, current and projected poverty levels in the country, the country’s ability to self-finance its development (e.g. through domestic taxation), and the likely effectiveness of UK aid.

A number of EU member states maintain lists of jurisdictions for tax purposes against criteria concerning tax transparency and/or the prevailing tax rate. The EU does not maintain a blacklist; however a list of 30 jurisdictions that featured on 10 or more member state lists was compiled and then superseded by a recent European Commission update.

This update included UK Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories which had the UK’s signature of the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters extended to them in 2014. The updated individual member state lists can be found at: http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/taxation/gen_info/good_governance_matters/lists_of_countries/.

Of the 30 jurisdictions named in the original list, 14 received UK Official Development Assistance (ODA) in 2013 (the most recent year for which consolidated figures are available). Of these 14, only three (Liberia, Montserrat and Vanuatu) received ODA from DFID for development and humanitarian assistance in that year. Details of funding amounts to these 14 jurisdictions can be found at the Statistics on International Development 2014 page of the gov.uk website.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-01-05.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many psychotherapists working in the NHS are legally regulated.

Ben Gummer

Psychotherapists are not subject to statutory regulation in the United Kingdom.

However, psychotherapists can register as a member of an organisation holding a voluntary register that is subject to independent accreditation by the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (PSA).

The PSA accredits, and annually re-accredits, against standards, that provide assurance to the public, commissioners and employers on the level of education of the healthcare professionals and their adherence to relevant standards and guidance.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Steve McCabe on 2016-02-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information his Department holds on the correlation between the reduction in the rate of unemployment in the West Midlands between 2010 and 2016 and any trend in the number of people employed on zero-hour contracts in that region.

Priti Patel

Figures published by ONS show that rising employment in the West Midlands since 2010 – reflected in falling unemployment – has been dominated by more people in full-time and permanent jobs.

Information on trends in zero-hours contracts over this period is not available on a consistent basis. This reflects the view of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) that responses to questions about zero-hours contracts in the Labour Force Survey are likely to have been affected by greater awareness of the term itself.