Asked by: Lord Davies of Gower (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 17 June 2015 to Question 2354, when the review of the enforcement response to bribery and corruption will be published.
Answered by Oliver Letwin
The UK Anti-Corruption Plan, published in December, announced that Cabinet Office would take forward a review of the enforcement response to bribery and corruption. The review has now concluded and its findings are being considered by Ministers.
Asked by: Lord Davies of Gower (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent representations he has made to the Palestinian Authority in response to reports of incitement to violence against Israel.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
We deplore all incitement to violence and have urged the leadership of both the Palestinian and Israeli authorities to avoid engaging in or encouraging the type of action and language which will make it more difficult to achieve a peaceful negotiated solution to the conflict. We continue to support the reinstatement of the Tripartite Committee as the appropriate channel to deal with allegations of incitement from either side. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) also raised the importance of calming tensions when he spoke to President Abbas on 9 October.
Asked by: Lord Davies of Gower (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Palestinian Authority on the recent violence in Israel and the West Bank.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
Since the start of the current violence we have spoken regularly to both the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli government, urging them to use their influence to de-escalate the tensions. The most recent discussion with the Palestinian Authority was on 9 October when the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) spoke to President Abbas about the violence. On 8 October, our Consul General in Jerusalem raised our concerns in his meetings with President Abbas’ political adviser, Majdi Khaldi; Palestinian chief negotiator and Secretary-General of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, Sa’eb Erekat; and the Palestinian Chief of Police, Hazem Attallah.
Asked by: Lord Davies of Gower (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress he has made on Action 36 of the UK Anti-Corruption Plan; and when he expects corporate criminal liability to be introduced.
Answered by Andrew Selous - Second Church Estates Commissioner
The UK has corporate criminal liability and commercial organisations can be, and are, prosecuted for wrongdoing. The UK Anti-Corruption Plan tasked the Ministry of Justice to examine the case for a new offence of a corporate failure to prevent economic crime and the rules on establishing corporate criminal liability more widely. Ministers have decided not to carry out further work at this stage as there have been no prosecutions under the model Bribery Act offence and there is little evidence of corporate economic wrongdoing going unpunished.
Asked by: Lord Davies of Gower (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether it is his policy that the science ring-fence will remain in place.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I have given today to the hon. Member for Coventry South (Jim Cunningham) to PQ UIN 8264.
Asked by: Lord Davies of Gower (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what progress her Department has made on introducing enhanced data sharing to allow energy suppliers to deliver more targeted support to customers in the Broader Group.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Warm Home Discount scheme is established in regulations until March 2016. Recent changes to the regulations included the introduction of standard eligibility criteria to make it simpler for customers under the Broader Group to access the scheme.
Asked by: Lord Davies of Gower (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the budget for the International Corruption Unit at the National Crime Agency was in each year of that Unit's operation to date; and what that budget will be in each of the next three years.
Answered by Mike Penning
The International Corruption Unit became operational on 29 June 2015. It is part of the Economic Crime Command and draws on the full range of capabilities within the National Crime Agency (NCA). Therefore it is not possible to provide a specific figure for the budget of the International Corruption Unit.
The NCA’s annual budget for 2015/16, as published in the NCA’s Annual Plan, is a resource Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) of £408 million and a capital DEL of £40 million.