Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to improve the adequacy of witness testimony.
Answered by Wendy Morton
We are committed to helping all witnesses give their best possible evidence so that offenders are brought to justice. As part of the cross-government Victim’s Strategy (published in September 2018), the Government committed to the wider provision of special measures for vulnerable and intimated witnesses, both when giving evidence and during cross-examination.
These measures include:
instead of written statements;
that they are shielded from sight of the defendant
The Victim’s Strategy also reaffirmed our commitment to rolling out pre-recorded cross examination, as provided for in section 28 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999, for vulnerable witnesses such as child witnesses under 16 or witnesses vulnerable due to physical or mental disability. By June 2019 this has commenced at nine Crown Court centres in England and Wales. In June 2019 we also extended section 28 to intimidated witnesses who are a victim of crime in sexual and modern slavery offences by testing the provision in the Crown Court centres at Leeds, Liverpool, and Kingston upon Thames.
Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment she has made of the potential effect of Ofgem's Targeted Charging Review proposals on (a) costs to the UK steel sector, (b) steel making capability, (c) the manufacturing sector and (c) the local economy of steel producing areas.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
Ofgem’s Targeted Charging Review is seeking to ensure all parties connected to the electricity network make a fair contribution to its fixed costs. This is consistent with Government’s views on the importance of an energy system that discourages free riding and ensures a fair distribution of costs, with solutions rewarded where they contribute to reduced system costs.
Network charging is a matter for Ofgem as the independent regulator, and decisions on its review are for it to make. The analysis published by Ofgem is available at https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/electricity/transmission-networks/charging/targeted-charging-review-significant-code-review, Ofgem expects total consumer costs to reduce as a result of its proposals. Ofgem has yet to take its final decisions on the review - it is currently considering the views and evidence provided in response to its most recent consultation.
Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology Note No. 599 on Early interventions to reduce violent crime, what assessment she has made of the reasons for the 46 per cent increase in homicides between 2014 and 2018.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Serious Violence Strategy published in April last year sets out an analysis of the trends and drivers of rises in serious violence including homicide. The analysis shows that there are a range of factors that have driven these increases and changes in the drugs market are a major factor.
The Government is determined to tackle all form of serious violence. This includes supporting the police by recruiting 20,000 new police officers over the next three years and making it easier for them to use stop and search powers and announcing an additional £20 million to tackle county lines, including expanding the National County Lines Co-ordination Centre. We are also investing over £220 million into early intervention projects to steer young people away from crime.
Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with reference to the Answer of 7 October 2019 to Question 290330 and to the Answer of 1 October 2019 to Question 290324, if she will introduce the same policy as the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and switch to an electricity provider that supplies electricity solely from renewable resources within 12 months; and for what reason her Department has not already ensured its electricity is supplied solely from renewable resources.
Answered by Conor Burns
All government departments are mandated to use the Crown Commercial Services (CCS) Energy frameworks for the supply of gas, electricity and liquid fuels.
The CCS competes the frameworks on the open market and selects the energy providers according to a set of award criteria, normally based on price and quality. The current suppliers of each of these services are:
The department transferred the facilities management of its main buildings at 3 Whitehall Place and 55 Whitehall Place, London to the Government Property Agency (GPA) in September 2019. The GPA is responsible for the supply of electricity to these sites. Prior to this the Ministry of Justice was responsible for providing facilities management services, including the supply of electricity.
The department occupies other properties both in the UK and internationally. The supply of electricity at these sites including the choice of supplier is either the landlord’s or main occupier’s responsibility.
Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if she will write to her Cabinet colleagues to (a) inform them that her Department is adopting energy suppliers that solely use renewable energy under the Crown Commercial Service energy frameworks for the supply of gas, electricity and liquid fuels and (b) encourage them to adopt similar policies for their Departments.
Answered by Kwasi Kwarteng
The Department is currently working with the Government Property Agency and Office of Government Property to contribute to a sustainable estates strategy for all Government Departments. The Office of Government Property has oversight of the government estates strategy, and BEIS colleagues will be contributing to the development of their proposals for Spending Review 2020.
Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the objectives of the Entrepreneur Relief scheme are; and what assessment his Department has made as to whether those objectives are being met.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The objective of Entrepreneurs’ Relief (ER) is to promote enterprise by offering a reduced rate of tax to individuals who have contributed to the creation and growth of a business.
The Government continues to monitor the effectiveness of ER. HMRC’s most recent evaluation was published in December 2017, and is available here. The Government has no current plans to abolish ER, but keeps all taxes and reliefs under review.
Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of the Association of Accounting Technicians' proposal for the Government to abolish Entrepreneurs Relief and invest the £3 billion saving in initiatives or reliefs that encourage business start-ups or scale-up activity.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The objective of Entrepreneurs’ Relief (ER) is to promote enterprise by offering a reduced rate of tax to individuals who have contributed to the creation and growth of a business.
The Government continues to monitor the effectiveness of ER. HMRC’s most recent evaluation was published in December 2017, and is available here. The Government has no current plans to abolish ER, but keeps all taxes and reliefs under review.
Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the (a) effect and (b) cost effectiveness of the Entrepreneur Relief scheme on incentivising investment in business.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The objective of Entrepreneurs’ Relief (ER) is to promote enterprise by offering a reduced rate of tax to individuals who have contributed to the creation and growth of a business.
The Government continues to monitor the effectiveness of ER. HMRC’s most recent evaluation was published in December 2017, and is available here. The Government has no current plans to abolish ER, but keeps all taxes and reliefs under review.
Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to require that specific packaging items must be compostable; and whether she has any plans to do so.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Resources and Waste Strategy analysed the challenges currently facing the recycling industry in this country, setting out how we would tackle these challenges. Building on commitments in the Strategy we launched a consultation earlier this year on reforming the packaging producer responsibility system, as part of that consultation the Government proposed a mandatory UK-wide labelling system that provides clear information to help people to recycle. Following strong support for the proposal from consultation respondents, the Government is minded to take forward a mandatory labelling scheme subject to further analysis and legal considerations. Defra officials are exploring how a mandatory labelling scheme can address consumer confusion about what to do with compostable packaging. The consultation closed on 13 May and the summary of responses and next steps can be found via the below link: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/packaging-waste-changing-the-uk-producer-responsibility-system-for-packaging-waste
The Government recognises that innovation into compostable and biodegradable plastics could help reduce the environmental impacts of plastics if they are disposed of in the right way. However, this is often not the case. If these plastics are put in the domestic waste bin, for example, they are likely to end up in landfill and can break down to release powerful greenhouse gases, such as methane. If mistakenly recycled with other plastics, they have the potential to damage the quality of the new products made from the recycled plastic. Furthermore, concerns persist that plastics which are claimed to be biodegradable, if littered or otherwise released into the environment in an uncontrolled way, may not degrade quickly or at all, and they can only be composted if they meet relevant standards.
As a consequence of these concerns, the Government published a call for evidence in July 2019 to help consider the development of standards or certification criteria for bio-based, biodegradable, and compostable plastics as well as to better understand their effects on the environment and our current waste system. The call for evidence closed on the 14 October 2019 and we are currently analysing the responses received to inform future policy. We currently do not have plans to bring forward legislative proposals on the matter of requiring any form of plastic packaging to be compostable.
Asked by: Nic Dakin (Labour - Scunthorpe)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) US citizens have been extradited to the UK for crimes committed in the US and (b) UK citizens have been extradited to the US for crimes committed in the UK since the implementation of the Extradition Act 2003.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Data relating to the location of alleged criminality in extradition requests is not recorded centrally and as such this information cannot be provided.