Asked by: Simon Baynes (Conservative - Clwyd South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what plans the Government has to award honours to individuals and organisations that have helped to tackle the covid-19 outbreak in Wales.
Answered by Chloe Smith
I refer the Honourable member to the answer given to PQ 68430 on 7 July 2020.
Asked by: Simon Baynes (Conservative - Clwyd South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what fiscal steps he is taking to support the charity sector in response to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by John Whittingdale
DCMS is continuing to work closely with the civil society sector to assess the needs of the sector and how the government can best support it to continue its vital work. The Government has committed a £750m targeted funding package to support the Voluntary and Community Sector, which builds on the significant package of support available across sectors, including the Job Retention Scheme. A further £150 million from dormant bank and building society accounts has been unlocked to support urgent work tackling youth unemployment, providing emergency loans for civil society organisations and improving the availability of fair, affordable credit to people in vulnerable circumstances.
Ensuring charities can begin fundraising activities will be a crucial part of the sector’s recovery. DCMS has published a collection of guidance for DCMS sectors relating to COVID-19. This includes practical guidance and resources from the Fundraising Regulator and Chartered Institute of Fundraising supporting charities to safeguard the public, staff and volunteers as they plan to return to fundraising activities in a safe and responsible way. This can be viewed at;
Asked by: Simon Baynes (Conservative - Clwyd South)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many sentences have been extended under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme in each of the last six months.
Answered by Michael Ellis
A total of 27 individual sentences have been increased by the Court of Appeal under the Unduly Lenient Scheme in the last six months: four sentences in January, eight in February, five in March, one in April, three in May and six in June.
Asked by: Simon Baynes (Conservative - Clwyd South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what support his Department is providing to local authorities to increase the amount of road space provided for cycling.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
On 9 May, the Secretary of State launched the new Emergency Active Travel Fund making £225 million available to local authorities in England this year. Any funding on top of the Department for Transport’s current budgets will have Barnett Consequentials applied in the usual way for Wales. This funding is designed to help authorities increase provision for walking and cycling during the period of social distancing restrictions. This fund represents the first stage of a £2 billion investment in walking and cycling. This is the largest ever boost for active travel, and will deliver transformational change.
Asked by: Simon Baynes (Conservative - Clwyd South)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on co-ordinating a UK wide response to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Alister Jack - Secretary of State for Scotland
I have regular discussions with all my Cabinet colleagues on the Covid-19 outbreak, including the co-ordination of a UK-wide response.
This Government continues to be absolutely committed to a UK-wide approach. We will continue to work together with the Scottish Government and other Devolved Administrations to ensure a coordinated approach across the UK, while respecting the devolution settlements.
Asked by: Simon Baynes (Conservative - Clwyd South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure schools provide casual directly employed workers with the same level of financial support as casual agency workers during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Supply staff who are directly employed by schools, including supply staff employed on a casual basis, are able to receive financial support during the COVID-19 outbreak at the same level as casually employed agency staff.
We expect schools to ensure any employees funded by public money continue to be paid from their existing staff budgets, and not to furlough staff, in line with the HMRC guidance to public sector organisations: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wage-costs-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme.
The support available for casual directly employed staff is outlined in the ‘actions for schools during the coronavirus outbreak’ guidance: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-school-closures/guidance-for-schools-about-temporarily-closing#should-schools-continue-to-pay-contingent-workers-that-they-directly-employ-on-a-zero-hours-or-casual-basis.
Asked by: Simon Baynes (Conservative - Clwyd South)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what steps she is taking to promote UK agriculture exports.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Our food and drink sector is vital to our economy. In 2019, exports increased by nearly 5% to £23.7bn.
We want to see this success continue and on 22 June we launched, with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, a ‘Bounce Back’ package which includes facilitated UKEF access for SMEs and export masterclasses and webinars. This package of focused activity will further boost our trade efforts for the agricultural sector and prepare for the new opportunities presented by our future Free Trade Agreements.
Asked by: Simon Baynes (Conservative - Clwyd South)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what steps his Department is taking to support the hospitality and tourism industries in Northern Ireland to prepare for the lifting of covid-19 lockdown restrictions.
Answered by Robin Walker
The Secretary of State and I are working closely with Cabinet colleagues and the NI Executive to support businesses, including those in the tourism and hospitality sectors during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Recognising the exceptional circumstances faced by businesses across the country, the Chancellor announced an unprecedented package of measures to support businesses, employees and the self-employed. This includes government backed loans and direct support for wages, which are available to the hospitality and tourism sectors.
In Northern Ireland, this is supplemented by additional support for businesses from the NI Executive following significant increases of approximately £1.3bn in the spending power of the Executive to enable it to respond to Covid-19. The Executive has used this additional spending power to deliver the £25,000 Business Support Grant to help protect jobs, prevent business closures and promote economic recovery across some of the most significantly affected industries, including hospitality and tourism. This is in line with the £25,000 Business Support Grants being delivered in England, Scotland and Wales where the Business Support Grants are available for eligible businesses within the hospitality and tourism sectors.
The Government has been developing guidance to help tourism and hospitality businesses plan for social distancing and hygiene measures and the NI Executive is considering how this can be tailored to Northern Ireland. I am pleased that the NI Executive has published dates for the re-opening of the tourism and hospitality sectors in NI beginning with camping and caravan sites as well as self-catering accommodation on 26 June.
Asked by: Simon Baynes (Conservative - Clwyd South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions officials in his Department have had with (a) businesses, (b) trade unions and (c) workers on developing guidance on workplace safety during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Paul Scully
There was an extensive series of engagements to support the drafting process for guidance on safe return to work, with several roundtables chaired by my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State, meetings with businesses, unions and other representative organisations and written consultations.
Asked by: Simon Baynes (Conservative - Clwyd South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of supporting people who have been self-employed for less than a year, and are therefore ineligible for Self-Employment Income Support Scheme, by reducing the level of income tax due on their earnings during that first year.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) continues to be one of the most generous self-employed COVID-19 support schemes in the world as the economy reopens.
It has not been possible to include those who began trading after the 2018-19 tax year in the scheme. This was a very difficult decision and it was taken for practical reasons.
However, the newly self-employed may still be eligible for the other elements of the Government’s unprecedented package of financial support for individuals and businesses. This package includes Bounce Back loans, tax deferrals, rental support,?increased levels of Universal Credit, mortgage holidays, and other business support grants.