Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps the Government is taking to support the steel industry.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
The Government is actively engaging with the steel industry for a sustainable future. The industry has been able to bid into competitive funds worth more than £1billion to support energy efficiency and decarbonisation. The British Industry Supercharger will bring energy costs for energy intensive industries, including steel, in line with the world’s major economies.
We have updated the Steel Procurement Policy Note to create a level playing field for UK steel producers, implemented a robust trade remedies framework to protect domestic industry, including steel, and acted to resolve market access constraints on steel trade with the US and the EU.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he plans to introduce national minimum standards for taxi and private hire vehicles.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Government remains committed to bring forward legislation to create national licensing standards for taxis and private hire vehicles, enhanced enforcement powers and a national licensing database, when parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential cost of bringing TransPennine Express into public ownership.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The decision was made balancing a number of factors, with outcomes for passengers the priority. An indicative assessment suggests that although some areas may see increased costs, there are expected to be offsetting savings elsewhere. The 2023/24 budget for the operator is unchanged.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact on tax receipts if the rate of capital gains tax rate was equal to the rate of income tax.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
As set out in the Government’s response to the Office of Tax Simplification's report on Capital Gains Tax (CGT) on 30 November 2021, substantial reforms to CGT rates and allowances would involve a number of wider policy trade-offs and so careful thought must be given to the impact that they would have on taxpayers, as well as any additional administrative burden on HMRC.
The Government will continue to keep the tax system under review to ensure it is simple and efficient.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate he has made of the average time it takes his Department to respond to enquiries about Personal Independence Payments.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
Personal Independence Payment (PIP) has experienced unprecedented levels of new claims from customers in recent months and, as a result, we have seen increased call traffic.
We are currently in the process of recruiting additional resource into telephony, so that we can increase the number of calls answered and reduce current wait times.
The average speed of answer (ASA) for May was 40 minutes and 43 seconds - however, this may vary at different times of the day.
The average speed of answer (ASA) figures relate to the enquiries line only and does not impact customers being able to make new claims or raise a dispute.
Additional information:
ASA from January 2023 – May 2023 is as follows:
Jan | Feb | March | April | May | |
Average Speed of Answer (ASA) | 00:25:14 | 00:34:50 | 00:40:22 | 00:43:59 | 00:40:43 |
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many stalking protection orders were issued in each of the last five years; and what proportion of stalking cases reported to the police resulted in a stalking protection order in each of those years.
Answered by Sarah Dines
Stalking Protection Orders (SPOs) were introduced on 20 January 2020 to protect victims of stalking at the earliest possible opportunity and address the perpetrator’s behaviours before they become entrenched or escalate in severity, by placing restrictions and requirements on those perpetrating stalking behaviours.
From February 2020 to December 2020, 413 Stalking Protection Orders (245 interim and 168 full orders) were issued in England and Wales. From January 2021 to December 2021, 583 (330 interim and 253 full orders) were issued in England and Wales. These statistics can be found here: Management information: Stalking Protection Orders - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk), alongside a review which the Home Office conducted of how SPOs operated during their first 12 months. We aim to publish data on Stalking Protection Orders for 2022 and 2023 in due course.
Data is not available on the proportion of stalking cases reported to the police which resulted in a Stalking Protection Order.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the average time was for new businesses to have their VAT registration processed in each of the last five years.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
HMRC publishes monthly and quarterly performance data on GOV.UK
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-monthly-performance-reports
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-quarterly-performance-updates
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has had discussions with NHS data staff on potential concerns on contracting Palantir to build the health service operating system.
Answered by Will Quince
My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, has not discussed with National Health Service staff any concerns they may have in relation to any potential contracting by NHS England with any potential supplier.
Any NHS data services that require a supplier contract will be procured via a compliant contracting mechanism and this will follow the standard processes for assurance and approval. The Department will perform the appropriate role as part of these standard approval processes. NHS England has not made any request to Palantir for them to build the health service operating system. NHS England is currently out to ITCD for a Federated Data Platform for the NHS, however, we would not define this as an operating system.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what data her Department holds on the amount of time taken to inform candidates applying for jobs at the Environment Agency of the outcome of their application and whether they have been called for interview in each of the last five years.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The average time taken to inform candidates of the outcome of their application to a job advertised at the Environment Agency for each of the past full five calendar years is shown in the table below.
The data is for the period between the advert close date and the date the applicant was notified of the outcome of their application. The outcome of the application is either for the applicant to be invited to interview or for them to be informed that they have not been invited to interview
Year | Average time taken in working days for applicant to be notified of the outcome of an EA job application |
2018 | 14.6 |
2019 | 12.7 |
2020 | 16.0 |
2021 | 12.7 |
2022 | 12.7 for posts advertised using the established EA recruitment system 13.7 for selected posts that have used a different recruitment system for part of 2022 |
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what was the average time taken for an environmental permit application to be processed in each year from 2015 to 2023 inclusive.
Answered by Rebecca Pow - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The average time taken to process applications in each year between 2015 and 2023 is shown below. This covers applications across Water Abstraction, Discharge to Water, Waste and Industrial Processes. There is a widely varying level of complexity in the applications determined which means drawing statistical comparisons across such a wide range doesn’t accurately account for the different requirements.
It is important to note that many application types have seen legislative change and increases in complexity during this time period, making year on year comparison difficult. The Environment Agency have seen a reduction in application quality during this time, requiring additional processing by their permitting department. Backlogs were built up during 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic which the Environment Agency have now largely recovered and they expect 2023/24 to see a reduction in average times.
Year Average of KPI3 (Days):
2015 - 41
2016 - 53
2017 - 64
2018 - 60
2019 - 72
2020 - 89
2021 - 85
2022 - 106
2023 - 107