Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, If he will make it his policy to provide consular support to British nationals detained in North East Syria.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The FCDO continues to advise against all travel to Syria. The Embassy closed in 2012 and therefore we have no consular presence within Syria.
This makes it extremely challenging to provide direct help to British nationals located there. But we carefully consider every request for consular assistance on a case-by-case basis, taking into account all relevant circumstances.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the potential (a) security and (b) other effects of the merger between Three and Vodafone on (i) his Department's and (ii) his Department's agencies and bodies' contracts with Vodafone.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
As an open economy, this Government welcomes and encourages investment where it supports the Prime Minister’s goal of boosting UK growth and jobs, meets our stringent legal and regulatory requirements, and does not compromise our national security. The Government has robust powers under the National Security & Investment Act, which it introduced, to block or impose remedies on transactions that pose a national security risk.
As you will appreciate, we cannot comment on specific acquisitions nor the applicability of the National Security and Investment regime.
It is the responsibility of Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to assess the impact on consumers and competition in the market, with input from sectoral regulators.
The Investment Security Unit works closely with the Competition and Markets Authority on cases that are being considered for both national security and competition reasons. A memorandum of understanding has been agreed between the Investment Security Unit and the CMA to assist joint working: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/operation-of-the-national-security-and-investment-act-2021-memorandum-of-understanding/mou-between-beis-and-the-cma-on-the-operation-of-the-national-security-and-investment-act-2021.
The Ministry of Justice does not believe that there will be any effects on the current contracts that it has with Vodafone.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether online content flagged for removal by the Counter Disinformation Unit can include lawful expression.
Answered by Paul Scully
Preserving freedom of expression is an extremely important principle underpinning the Counter Disinformation Unit’s (CDU) work. The CDU does not monitor political debate and the CDU does not refer any content from journalists, politicians or political parties to social media platforms.
The CDU works closely with the major social media platforms to understand their terms of service and to encourage them to promote authoritative sources of information.
Where the unit encounters content which poses a demonstrable risk to public health, safety or national security and is assessed to breach the platform’s terms of service, content may be referred to the platform concerned for their consideration.
No action is mandated by the Government and it is up to the platform to independently decide whether or not to take any action in line with their terms of service.
A fact sheet providing further information on the work of the CDU can be found here.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an estimate of the loss of revenue resulting from ceasing to tax business broadband upgrades for homeowners as a benefit in kind.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government’s ambition is to connect at least 85 per cent of UK premises to gigabit-capable broadband by 2025, and for nationwide connectivity (at least 99 per cent) to be realised by 2030. Project Gigabit is the government’s £5 billion programme that will ensure the whole of the UK benefits from gigabit connectivity by providing subsidy to deliver gigabit-capable connectivity to uncommercial premises, which are typically in rural or remote locations. Over 75 per cent of UK premises can now access gigabit-capable broadband, a huge leap forward from July 2019, when coverage was just 8 per cent.
Regarding the tax treatment of home broadband, under long-standing rules, payments from employers reimbursing employees for reasonable additional costs they incur while having to work from home are exempt from taxation. This includes the cost of providing broadband to an employee where a connection was not already available, the employee requires broadband to work from home, and the broadband is used mainly for business purposes.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) does not hold information on the revenue received from taxes on businesses that provide their employees with business broadband for their residential properties.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of taxing upgrades to business broadband for non-business properties.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government’s ambition is to connect at least 85 per cent of UK premises to gigabit-capable broadband by 2025, and for nationwide connectivity (at least 99 per cent) to be realised by 2030. Project Gigabit is the government’s £5 billion programme that will ensure the whole of the UK benefits from gigabit connectivity by providing subsidy to deliver gigabit-capable connectivity to uncommercial premises, which are typically in rural or remote locations. Over 75 per cent of UK premises can now access gigabit-capable broadband, a huge leap forward from July 2019, when coverage was just 8 per cent.
Regarding the tax treatment of home broadband, under long-standing rules, payments from employers reimbursing employees for reasonable additional costs they incur while having to work from home are exempt from taxation. This includes the cost of providing broadband to an employee where a connection was not already available, the employee requires broadband to work from home, and the broadband is used mainly for business purposes.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) does not hold information on the revenue received from taxes on businesses that provide their employees with business broadband for their residential properties.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has conducted a cost-benefit analysis of the impacts of treating business broadband as a benefit in kind.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government’s ambition is to connect at least 85 per cent of UK premises to gigabit-capable broadband by 2025, and for nationwide connectivity (at least 99 per cent) to be realised by 2030. Project Gigabit is the government’s £5 billion programme that will ensure the whole of the UK benefits from gigabit connectivity by providing subsidy to deliver gigabit-capable connectivity to uncommercial premises, which are typically in rural or remote locations. Over 75 per cent of UK premises can now access gigabit-capable broadband, a huge leap forward from July 2019, when coverage was just 8 per cent.
Regarding the tax treatment of home broadband, under long-standing rules, payments from employers reimbursing employees for reasonable additional costs they incur while having to work from home are exempt from taxation. This includes the cost of providing broadband to an employee where a connection was not already available, the employee requires broadband to work from home, and the broadband is used mainly for business purposes.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) does not hold information on the revenue received from taxes on businesses that provide their employees with business broadband for their residential properties.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the annual VAT revenue generated from companies installing business broadband in employee properties.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The information requested is not available. HMRC does not hold information on VAT revenue from specific products or services because businesses are not required to provide figures at a product level on their VAT returns, as this would impose an excessive administrative burden on them.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what revenues his Department received from taxes on businesses that provide their employees with business broadband for their residential properties in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) does not hold information on the revenue received from taxes on businesses that provide their employees with business broadband for their residential properties.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential financial merits of maintaining business broadband as a taxable benefit in kind.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government’s ambition is to connect at least 85 per cent of UK premises to gigabit-capable broadband by 2025, and for nationwide connectivity (at least 99 per cent) to be realised by 2030. Project Gigabit is the government’s £5 billion programme that will ensure the whole of the UK benefits from gigabit connectivity by providing subsidy to deliver gigabit-capable connectivity to uncommercial premises, which are typically in rural or remote locations. Over 75 per cent of UK premises can now access gigabit-capable broadband, a huge leap forward from July 2019, when coverage was just 8 per cent.
Regarding the tax treatment of home broadband, under long-standing rules, payments from employers reimbursing employees for reasonable additional costs they incur while having to work from home are exempt from taxation. This includes the cost of providing broadband to an employee where a connection was not already available, the employee requires broadband to work from home, and the broadband is used mainly for business purposes.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) does not hold information on the revenue received from taxes on businesses that provide their employees with business broadband for their residential properties.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much money from the public purse has been spent on the faster data flows pilots of Palantir Foundry to date; and if he will provide a breakdown of (a) spending on individual trusts’ implementation costs and (b) payments made to (i) Palantir and (ii) consultants.
Answered by Will Quince
The spend-to-date on the Faster Flows programme is £0.51 million. There are no additional costs to implement within trusts as the programme uses their existing resources and digital infrastructures. £0.15 million has been paid to Palantir within the spend-to-date. There have been no payments to external consultants for this pilot as it has been possible to support this development using Commissioning Support Unit (CSU) teams within the National Health Service. The costs of the internal consultants within the CSU are £0.36 million.