Tag: Tulip Siddiq

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-03-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 3 March 2016 to Question 28912, on developing countries: female genital mutilation, what funding was provided to each such country in each year since 2009-10.

Mr Nick Hurd

We do not hold information prior to 2013, because we did not have significant programmes focussed on FGM until our ground-breaking regional programme, which started then. Since 2013, this programme has been working in a flexible manner across borders. We account for spending across the programme by component [as a whole] rather than breaking it down by country. We spent a total of £2.3m in 2013/14 and £4.2m in 2014/15.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-03-21.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 18 March 2016 to Question 30738 on employment: telephone services, what the equivalent data is for each of the last five years.

Nick Boles

The attached table shows the total number of enquiries made to the Pay and Work Rights Helpline (PWRH) by trade sector and whether the call relates to Employment Agency Standards, the Agricultural National Minimum Wage (NMW), Gangmasters Licensing Authority, Health and Safety Executive or NMW issues, where call topic information is collected, between 2009/10 and 2014/15.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-04-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent discussions he has had with the Sentencing Council on the offence of refusing carriage to an assistance dog.

Dominic Raab

It is an offence under section 168 of the Equalities Act 2010 to refuse to take an assistance dog in a taxi or private hire vehicle. The maximum penalty is up to £1,000. Sentencing is a matter for the independent courts. There is no evidence that courts are finding their sentencing powers insufficient. The Sentencing Council considers the case for guidelines on the basis of a number of factors, including where data suggests there may be inconsistency in sentencing.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-05-04.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 18 April 2016 to Question 33610, how much funding the Government has allocated to (a) the Global Forum, (b) the World Bank, (c) the OECD and (d) each developing country to (i) improve the exchange of information to help tackle tax avoidance and (ii) improve tax capacity-building in each year since 2009-10.

Mr David Gauke

The UK government is committed to tackling tax avoidance at the global level and is supportive of using tax policy to help fund sustainable development. We support much of the work international organisations, such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Bank, undertake in the area of international tax.

The OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project reviewed the international tax rules to ensure profits are taxed where economic activities are performed. The UK government is committed to consistent and effective implementation of the OECD BEPS outputs. Since 2009-10, the UK government has contributed £339,580 in 2012-13 and £394,789 in 2015-16. In addition, the UK government supports and contributes to the work of the OECD’s Global Forum on addressing the risks to tax compliance posed by non-cooperative tax jurisdictions.

The UK government does not hold specific figures for the amount of official development assistance (ODA) spent on tax and development for the years since 2009-10.Until recently, it was not possible to disaggregate funding for tax reform and capacity building from wider public financial management programmes.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-05-03.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 18 June 2016 to Question 2381, how much funding has been allocated to HM Revenue and Customs’ dedicated team of experts to tackle tax avoidance and evasion in developing countries in each year since the establishment of that team; how many full-time equivalent staff have been employed in that team in each of those years; and what estimate he has made of the amount of taxation which that team has recovered.

Mr David Gauke

Following on from the Chancellor’s announcement in the 2014 Autumn Statement that £1.8m spread over three years was to be made available, HMRC established a new tax experts capacity building unit in April 2015 to provide dedicated technical support to developing countries on G20/OECD international tax priority areas, including Transfer Pricing, Exchange of Information and Base Erosion and Profit Sharing.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-05-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) professionals, (b) nominated officers and (c) other nominated officers were prosecuted for failure to disclose under sections 330 to 332 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 in each year since 2009-10.

Mr John Hayes

The Government is committed to ensuring that the UK has a robust anti-money laundering regime. The National Risk Assessment of money laundering and terrorist financing was published on 15 October 2015. This identified the threats and vulnerabilities we face in these areas, and the Action Plan for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist finance was published on 21 April 2016, setting out the steps that the Government will take to address them.

The number of defendants proceeded against at magistrates’ courts and found guilty at all courts of offences under Sections 330 to 332, listed individually, from 2009/10 to the period between April and December 2014 (latest period available), can be viewed in the table below. It is not possible to determine the occupation of those convicted of these offences.

Section of Act	Outcome	2009/10	2010/11	2011/12	2012/13	2013/14	April to December 2014
330	Proceeded against	–	5	2	2	4	1
Found guilty	–	4	1	1	8	1
331	Proceeded against	–	–	–	–	2	–
	Found guilty	–	–	1	–	1	–
332	Proceeded against	–	–	–	–	–	–
	Found guilty	–	–	–	1	–	–

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-05-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, (a) how much funding was allocated to and (b) how many full-time equivalent staff were employed by (i) the National Crime Agency’s Criminal Finances Threat Group and (ii) each of the cash-based money laundering, non cash-based money laundering and professional enablers divisions and the other sub-groups in each year since 2009-10.

Mr John Hayes

The National Crime Agency’s Annual Report and Accounts 2014-15 sets out the Agency’s staffing numbers and funding allocations including gross expenditure for the Economic Crime Command for 2013-14, and 2014-15.

The gross expenditure of the Economic Crime Command in 2013/14, the first year of the NCA’s operation, was £10,571,000. In 2014-15 gross expenditure was £21,718,000. In June 2015, the International Corruption Unit was established in the Economic Crime Command. It brought together resources from the Metropolitan Police Service, City of London Police and the NCA into a single unit and is responsible for investigating the bribery of foreign public officials by individuals or companies from the UK, and money laundering by corrupt foreign officials and their associates.

The Economic Crime Command also leads the Joint Money Laundering Intelligence Taskforce (JMLIT) through which the financial sector, law enforcement agencies and the Financial Conduct Authority share information to prevent, detect and disrupt money laundering and terrorist financing. The NCA as a whole has around 4,000 staff. The majority of the NCA’s staff work as a flexible investigative resource, not in a particular Command, but assigned to particular operations across all areas of the NCA as needed. The agency also houses a number of deployable specialist capabilities.

The number of staff working in a particular Command is not a reliable indicator of the overall NCA resource linked to a particular type of crime. The Criminal Finances Threat Group is a multi-agency group chaired by the NCA which includes representatives from across law enforcement, meeting quarterly. As the Group is not a unit within the NCA, the information sought is not available. HMRC leads on tax evasion.

The NCA works closely with HMRC in relation to tax evasion that relates to serious and organised crime. Through the NCA’s national tasking and coordination mechanisms the Agency is able act on these cases by utilising its specialist capabilities, for example undertaking tax investigations to recover assets from serious and organised criminals under part 6 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-06-24.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of hospital-initiated postponement or cancellation of ophthalmology follow-up appointments on patients’ sight.

Alistair Burt

All follow-up appointments should take place when clinically appropriate. It is for clinicians to make decisions on when they see patients, in line with their clinical priority, and patients should not experience undue delay at any stage of their referral, diagnosis or treatment. The appropriate interval for follow up appointments will vary between different services or specialties, and between individual patients, depending on the severity of their condition.

To ensure that patients are seen at the appropriate time, NHS England’s guidance, “Recording and reporting referral to treatment waiting times for consultant-led elective care” is clear that when patients on planned lists are clinically ready for their care to commence and reach the date for their planned appointment, they should either receive that appointment or be transferred to an active waiting list. At that point, a waiting time clock will be started and their wait reported in the relevant statistical return.

Hospital episode statistics contain details of all outpatient appointments at National Health Service hospitals in England and commissioned by the NHS from independent sector organisations in England. The recording of a primary diagnosis and postponed or cancelled appointments is not mandatory within the outpatient commissioning data set and there are no plans to make it so.

Data is not, therefore, available on the number of cancelled or postponed follow up appointments for patients with age-related macular degeneration, central retinal vein occlusion and diabetic macular oedema.

No assessment has been made of the effect of hospital-initiated postponement or cancellation of ophthalmology follow-up appointments on patients’ sight. However, officials have met with the Clinical Council for Eye Health Commissioning and are considering their concerns.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2016-10-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department has taken to tackle online abuse and harassment targeted at women on (a) social media networks, (b) Facebook and (c) Twitter.

Sarah Newton

We expect social media companies, and internet platforms, to have robust processes in place and to act promptly when abuse is reported, this includes acting quickly to remove inappropriate content, and where appropriate, suspending or terminating the accounts of those breaching the rules in place. The Government continues to work closely with social media companies and other relevant actors and experts to make sure they are committed to protecting those who use their platforms.

The Criminal Justice Act 2015 strengthened two existing communications offences: section 1 of the Malicious Communications Act 1988, and section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 which can now be used to prosecute misuse of social media. The police now have longer to investigate either offence, and the maximum penalty for the former has been increased to two years imprisonment.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tulip Siddiq on 2015-11-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 5 November 2015 to Question 13713, for what reasons all of Lord Green of Hustierpoint’s updates on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership dated before 6 August 2015 cannot be deposited in the Library.

Anna Soubry

Previous updates to the European Scrutiny Committees of both Houses and the APPG for EU-US Trade and Investment are being deposited in the Libraries of both Houses.