Asked by: Lord Vinson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the annual cost of servicing the UK's external debt (1) in total, and (2) expressed as an amount per UK taxpayer.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Asked by: Lord Vinson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the fact that the net long-term international migration figure for the year ending September 2015 was 323,000 rather than their ambition of tens of thousands, what is the high migration assumption in the latest ONS population projections, and what they estimate will be the increase in the UK population over the next five years.
Answered by Lord Bridges of Headley
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Asked by: Lord Vinson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Wallace of Saltaire on 8 July (HL745) and 28 July (HL1102), and in the light of representations made about the names and descriptions of political parties appearing on ballot papers and allegations of electoral malpractice, whether they will review the powers and governance of the Electoral Commission.
Answered by Lord Wallace of Saltaire - Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson (Cabinet Office)
The Electoral Commission has a statutory role in registering party descriptions, and already has the power to not register certain types of descriptions, including those which are either offensive or misleading to the voter. These duties are set out in legislation and it is important that the Electoral Commission fulfils these efficiently and effectively. Following an incident earlier in the year when the Electoral Commission mistakenly registered an extremely offensive party description, an independent review made some recommendations about future practice which the Electoral Commission accepted.
The Government has no plans to review the powers and governance of the Electoral Commission. The 11th report of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, Review of the Electoral Commission, recommended that the role of the Electoral Commission should be streamlined and re-focused into two core roles as a regulator of (a) political party funding and (b) of electoral administration. This recommendation was accepted by Government and the Electoral Commission.
Asked by: Lord Vinson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Wallace of Saltaire on 8 July (WA 37), whether they consider that, at the 2014 European elections, it was clear to voters that the party called "An Independence from Europe", which used the tagline "UK Independence Now" on the ballot paper, was different from the UK Independence Party.
Answered by Lord Wallace of Saltaire - Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson (Cabinet Office)
The Electoral Commission are responsible for registering party names and descriptions. Legislation permits the Electoral Commission to refuse to register a party name or description in certain circumstances, including, where it is the same as, or likely to result in electors confusing a party name or description with one that is already registered.
Asked by: Lord Vinson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will request that the Electoral Commission review the rules governing the names of political parties.
Answered by Lord Wallace of Saltaire - Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson (Cabinet Office)
The Electoral Commission are responsible for registering party names and descriptions and they have stated where a candidate represents a political party, it should be clear to voters which party the candidate represents. The Government supports this principle and will continue to consider how best to ensure that information on ballot papers is clear to voters.