Asked by: Stephen Phillips (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans he has to dual the A17 between Newark and Sleaford.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The A17 forms part of the local road network and is the responsibility of Lincolnshire County Council and Nottinghamshire County Council. Responsibility for maintenance of the road rests with the relevant Local Highway Authority. Plans for future improvement and requests for funding are matters for the relevant Local Highway Authorities to put forward to their relevant Local Enterprise Partnerships.Asked by: Stephen Phillips (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent estimate he has made of the effect of the Government's steps to tackle aggressive tax avoidance on the revenues derived from general taxation.
Answered by David Gauke
During this Parliament, we have already announced that we will legislate for more than 25 measures to tackle avoidance and evasion, which are forecast to raise £16 billion by 2021.
During the last Parliament, we made over 40 changes to tax law, closing down loopholes and introducing major reforms to the UK tax system. These were forecast to have raised £12 billion by 2016.
During the last Parliament, as a result of actions to tackle tax evasion, tax avoidance, aggressive tax planning and non-compliance, HM Revenue and Customs secured around £100 billion in additional compliance revenue. This includes over £38 billion from big businesses and £1.2 billion extra from the UK’s richest people.
Asked by: Stephen Phillips (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of successful prosecutions for tax evasion.
Answered by David Gauke
At Summer Budget 2015, the Government announced an investment of £800 million to tackle non‑compliance and tax evasion.
This investment includes £266 million and 670 new HMRC staff to tackle tax fraud, which will lead to a tripling of the number of criminal investigations into the most serious and complex tax crimes.
The Government is also consulting on new criminal powers to tackle offshore tax evasion and corporate facilitation of tax evasion.
This all builds on the Government’s earlier investment into HMRC, which enabled the Department to achieve a seven-fold increase in the number of prosecutions over the course of the last parliament and contributed to the protection over £2 billion of vital public revenue last year.
Asked by: Stephen Phillips (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 2 February 2016 to Question 24173 between 2015-16 and 2019-20, to which other government departments and cross-government funds her Department plans to transfer, the amounts referred to in table 2.7 on page 85 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
As set out in DFID’s settlement letter from HM Treasury, over the Spending Review period, DFID plans to transfer the amounts referred to in table 2.7 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015 to the following government departments and cross-government funds:
Conflict, Stability & Security Fund
Department for Business, Innovation & Skills
Department for Culture, Media & Sport
Department of Energy & Climate Change
Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
Department of Health
Foreign & Commonwealth Office
Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs
Home Office
Office for National Statistics
Prosperity Fund
Asked by: Stephen Phillips (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 28 January 2016 to Question 23481, which commercial third party suppliers were responsible for the 57 breaches in handling secure materials there identified.
Answered by David Lidington
The third party suppliers responsible were BAE Systems, Daisy, Computacenter, Vodafone and Capgemini.
Asked by: Stephen Phillips (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 28 January 2016 to Question 23481, of the 57 breaches in handling secure materials there identified, how many breaches concerned documents within each of the following categories applicable prior to April 2014, namely (a) top secret, (b) secret, (c) confidential, (d) restricted, (e) protected and (f) unclassified; and how many breaches concerned documents within each of the following categories applicable from April 2014, namely (i) top secret, (ii) secret and (iii) official-sensitive or official.
Answered by David Lidington
The figures quoted in my answer of 28 January to written question 23481 referred only to the period since April 2014. The information on breaches prior to April 2014 are not held centrally and could be collated only at disproportionate cost. The number of breaches from April 2014 onwards are as follows:
Classification:
Top Secret
Number:
1
Comment:
There was no loss of data related to this breach.
Classification:
Secret
Number:
0
Classification:
Confidential
Number:
12
Comment:
The Confidential classification pre-dates the introduction of the Government Security Classifications (GSCs).
Classification:
Official-Sensitive
Number:
43
Comment:
Official - Sensitive is not a classification under GSC and is a caveat. Materials designated Official or Official-Sensitive does have a level of protection; however loss of its control does not warrant a breach as per existing Cabinet Office guidelines.
Classification:
Official
Number:
1
Asked by: Stephen Phillips (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 28 January 2016 to Question 23485, for what reasons the information sought could only be provided at disproportionate cost; and what discussions his Department has had with other Government departments on holding this information in a way which permits its less costly provision.
Answered by Dominic Raab
The Ministry of Justice is one of the largest government departments and has responsibility for a number of different parts of the justice system - the courts, tribunals, prisons, legal services, youth justice, probation services, and attendance centres. The Department includes terms and conditions in its contracts that require third parties such as contracted-out services and suppliers (e.g. courier and postal services) to inform us of any data or security breaches that may have taken place. To identify any breaches involving document retention or security policies relating to confidential or secure materials by external consultants or other third parties that may have taken place would require a search across all the Department’s branches, which would incur a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Stephen Phillips (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 28 January 2016 to Question 23487, which external consultants or other third parties were responsible for the eight breaches there identified.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
2 cases were reported by Shared Services Arvato
2 cases were reported by GBGroup plc
2 cases were reported by Pearson
1 case was reported by Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA)
1 case was reported by Civil Service Resourcing who reported non-receipt of documents from the sender.
Asked by: Stephen Phillips (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 28 January 2016 to Question 23487, of the eight breaches there identified, how many concerned documents within each of the following categories applicable prior to April 2014, namely (a) top secret, (b) secret, (c) confidential, (d) restricted, (e) protected and (f) unclassified; and how many breaches concerned documents within each of the following categories applicable from April 2014, namely (i) top secret, (ii) secret and (iii) official-sensitive or official.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
Of the eight breaches reported pursuant to the answer of 28 January 2016 to Question 23487 none of them concerned documents prior to April 2014
Since April 2014;
Asked by: Stephen Phillips (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to table 2.7 on page 85 of the Spending Review and Autumn Statement 2015, which Departments will fund the cross-government overseas development aid spending set out in that table in each of the five years from 2015-16 to 2019-20.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
As set out in the strategy for official development assistance “UK Aid: tackling global challenges in the national interest”, published on 23 November, meeting our responsibilities to the world’s poorest while also serving and protecting the UK’s interests and security, requires us to harness skills from across government.
The cross government ODA funding in “Table 2.7: Department for International Development (DFID)” is part of DFID’s total DEL settlement. DFID will transfer this to other government departments and cross government funds to spend on activities that can be classified as Official Development Assistance (ODA) according to the OECD definition.