Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many individual capital projects were awarded to (a) Northern Ireland, (b) Wales and (c) Scotland in (i) 2017, (ii) 2018 and (iii) 2019 to date by the Government; and what was the value of those projects.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
HM Treasury does not centrally hold information on all individual capital projects approved in (a) Northern Ireland, (b) Wales and (c) Scotland.
Capital projects in the Devolved Administrations are not funded through a single mechanism, nor is there a single decision-making body. In devolved policy areas funding comes from either i) central government, as in the case of the Belfast City Regional Deal at Autumn Budget 2018; or ii) from Devolved Administrations’ own capital budgets, which are set per the Barnett formula. Projects in reserved policy areas, such as Defence, are funded through central government. Because there is no central funding source or decision-making body, we do not hold a complete record of individual capital projects approved in (a) Northern Ireland, (b) Wales and (c) Scotland in (i) 2017, (ii) 2018 and (iii) 2019.
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will list the Government's Growth Deal announcements in (a) 2017, (b) 2018 and (c) 2019 that included allocated funding for (i) Northern Ireland, (ii) Wales and (iii) Scotland.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
The government has agreed six City and Growth Deals in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland since 2017.
In 2017 the government announced the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Deal and Swansea City Deal. In 2018 the government announced the Stirling and Clackmannanshire City Deal, Tay Cities Deal, North Wales Growth Deal and Belfast City Region Deal.
The government has committed to agree Growth Deals for the Borderlands, Ayrshire, Moray, Mid Wales and Derry/Londonderry City Region.
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, for what reason the Press Recognition Panel was added to his Ministerial responsibilities; and what assessment he has made of the effect of that decision on the work of the Panel.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Royal Charter establishing the Press Recognition Panel sets out the responsibilities of the Lord Chancellor. Other than in his role as Lord Chancellor, the Secretary of State for Justice does not have any ministerial responsibilities in respect of the Panel.
HM Treasury determined that the Press Recognition Panel should fall under the Ministry of Justice Departmental Boundary for Estimates and Accounts purposes, this is purely an administrative action. There is no charge in terms of the Lord Chancellor's responsibilities as set out in the Royal Charter, and the Panel remains outside the Secretary of State's responsibilities.
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many disabled people aged 16 to 64 by category of disability there are in the Wrexham constituency.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Table 1 below shows the estimated number of people aged 16 to 64 who have a disability in Wrexham. It also shows the disability prevalence, as well as the equivalent figures for the UK.
Estimates for constituencies are based on small sample sizes and are therefore subject to a margin of uncertainty. Therefore, these estimates should be treated with caution. The “confidence interval” of 4 percentage points means that we can be 95% confident that the true value lies between 13% and 20% (calculated using unrounded figures).
Sample sizes are too small to provide reliable estimates of categories of disability by constituency.
Table 1: the number and percentage of disabled people, aged 16 to 64, in Wrexham, and the UK, July 2016 to June 2017
| Number of disabled people | Total population | Disability Prevalence (%) | Confidence Interval (percentage points) |
Wrexham | 7,000 | 44,000 | 17 | 4 |
United Kingdom | 7,386,000 | 41,081,000 | 18 |
|
Source: Annual Population Survey, available at: https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/
Notes:
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment his Department has made of the export potential of the E-7 Wedgetail radar aircraft.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Final assembly of the E-7 aircraft and radar combination would be undertaken in the UK and Boeing have confirmed that it intends to use the same facility to meet any future E-7 sales opportunities for other customers. Through-life, we anticipate that support and training would be undertaken within the UK, directly leading to UK jobs.
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department (a) received and (b) issued any (i) expressions of interest, (ii) preliminary market engagement questionnaires and (iii) pre-qualification questionnaires on the replacement for the E-3D Sentry.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government's default position on defence procurement remains competition wherever appropriate. However, in this case the threat has advanced, and is forecast to advance to such a degree, that decisive action is required now to protect national security interests. Whilst a final investment decision has not yet been made, our market analysis has led us to conclude that this pressing need can best be met by the operationally-proven E-7 Wedgetail. Testing the market further through any requests for information would be highly unlikely to identify any other mature system that could meet our pressing need whilst creating nugatory effort, cost and delay, during which the gap between UK capability and the evolving threat is expected to widen.
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what factors his Department considered when assessing the value for money of the replacement for the E-3D Sentry.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Any options presented to the Ministry of Defence Investment Approvals Committee balance schedule, capabilities, risk and cost to determine the best value for money proposition to meet the given need.
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households occupied by at least one person over 75 were in receipt of a free television licence by constituency in the most recent period for which figures are available.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Work and Pensions does not hold data on the number of households in receipt of a free television license broken down by Parliamentary constituency.
The number of households in receipt of winter fuel payment (aged 75 and over) by Parliamentary constituency can be used as a proxy for television license (assuming those in receipt of winter fuel payment have a television) and can be found in the dataset ‘Households by Parliamentary constituency and age, Winter Fuel Payment, 2017 to 2018 via the following link:
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households occupied by at least one person over 75 were in receipt of a free television licence by constituency in the most recent period for which figures are available.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Work and Pensions does not hold data on the number of households in receipt of a free television license broken down by Parliamentary constituency.
The number of households in receipt of winter fuel payment (aged 75 and over) by Parliamentary constituency can be used as a proxy for television license (assuming those in receipt of winter fuel payment have a television) and can be found in the dataset ‘Households by Parliamentary constituency and age, Winter Fuel Payment, 2017 to 2018 via the following link:
Asked by: Ian C. Lucas (Labour - Wrexham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Prime Minister, when she plans to respond to the letter sent by the Hon. Member for Wrexham on 21 February 2018 reference ZA21109 on modern slavery.
Answered by Theresa May
A reply has been sent by my Hon. Friend, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Crime, Safeguarding and Vulnerability and Minister for Women.