Asked by: Stuart Blair Donaldson (Scottish National Party - West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect on the level of exports from Scottish businesses of the UK leaving the EU.
Answered by Liam Fox
My department and other departments across Whitehall continue to undertake a wide range of analysis covering the whole UK economy and our relations with the EU.
DIT is a UK-wide department whose role is to promote exports and investment for the whole UK.
Asked by: Stuart Blair Donaldson (Scottish National Party - West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what advice services there are for people with a child maintenance arrangement who (a) are moving away from Child Support Agency (CSA) arrangements and (b) have a child maintenance arrangement with the CSA.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Child Maintenance Options provides free and impartial information and support to help separated parents make decisions about their child maintenance arrangements. Parents, or anyone else with an interest in child maintenance can contact Child Maintenance Options at any time for information and support. If a parent is notified that their Child Support Agency case is due to close they can contact Child Maintenance Options to help make an informed decision before opening a case with Child Maintenance Service. Child Maintenance Options also signpost parents to support organisations to offer further advice.
Clients can contact Options at any stage during their case for advice or guidance. Child Support Agency caseworkers are also trained to offer advice to parents and signpost to relevant organisations where necessary.
Asked by: Stuart Blair Donaldson (Scottish National Party - West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people who have child maintenance arrangements with the Child Support Agency have received letters on the termination of those arrangements with the Child Support Agency.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
Letters are issued when the liability on a case has ended. We have interpreted this question as the number of people who have been sent letters after they have had their liability ended.
The total number of cases where liability has ended stood at 509,200 as of the end of September 2016.
This can be found in Table 4.1 and 4.2 of the Case Closure Experimental Statistical publication which can be found here https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/child-support-agency-case-closures-june-2014-to-september-2016.
Asked by: Stuart Blair Donaldson (Scottish National Party - West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the transition of child maintenance arrangements from 2017 on children and their parents.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
My Department considered the effect of case closure on children and their parents through a public consultation: “Supporting separated families; securing children’s futures” in July 2012. Our response to the consultation was published in November 2013.
We have monitored the effects of case closure and the new statutory child maintenance scheme and published a research report on case closure in December 2016. We will continue to monitor the effects as the remaining cases are closed.
Asked by: Stuart Blair Donaldson (Scottish National Party - West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many complaints his Department has received from people on the termination of their arrangements with the Child Support Agency.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
We do not routinely record information on the number of complaints received from people on the termination of their arrangements with the Child Support Agency.
Asked by: Stuart Blair Donaldson (Scottish National Party - West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how many civil servants in her Department have work responsibilities relating to HIV and AIDS; and in which offices, teams or directorates those civil servants are located.
Answered by Lord Wharton of Yarm
15 people in Policy Division currently work on sexual reproductive health and rights, to which HIV is central. 9 staff work in Global Funds Department, with institutions that are critical for our multilateral engagement on this issue. We have a cadre of 76 health advisers and 87 social development advisers, whose work regularly requires engagement with HIV issues, as will that of numerous other staff around the Department.
Asked by: Stuart Blair Donaldson (Scottish National Party - West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to implement his Department's childhood obesity strategy.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The Department is working closely with Public Health England, the National Health Service, local authorities, schools and other partners as we implement the Childhood Obesity Plan.
The Department is already taking firm action, including consulting on the soft drinks industry levy and launching a broad sugar reduction programme. This is already showing results, as has been seen in the recent announcements by Tesco and Lucozade about cutting sugar in their drinks.
Asked by: Stuart Blair Donaldson (Scottish National Party - West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many colleges and universities have had (a) sponsorship licences revoked and (b) faced other restrictions related to allegations of English Language Test fraud; and what steps she plans to take to reconsider those revocations and restrictions.
Answered by Mike Penning
This data is published on the following website:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/temporary-and-permanent-migration-data-february-2016
As this is linked to ongoing litigation, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.
Asked by: Stuart Blair Donaldson (Scottish National Party - West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, when he expects the Land Registry to publish data on which foreign companies own which land property titles in England and Wales.
Answered by Anna Soubry
My Rt hon Friend the Prime Minister stated during a speech made in Singapore on 28 July that he has asked Land Registry from this autumn to publish data on which foreign companies own which land and property titles in England and Wales.
Asked by: Stuart Blair Donaldson (Scottish National Party - West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the number of shell companies being used to invest corrupt money in the UK in each of the last 10 years; and what steps he plans to take to tighten related money laundering regulations.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
The opaque nature of such structures means that we are unable to produce an accurate estimate of how many are used to invest corrupt money in the UK. That is one reason why the Prime Minister put beneficial ownership transparency at the heart of the UK’s G8 Presidency in 2013. The Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act received Royal Assent earlier this year and established a public register of company beneficial ownership information. This register will be operational from June 2016. The Act also abolished bearer shares and introduced a requirement for all company directors to be natural persons.
In Europe, we worked hard during the negotiation of the 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive to encourage European partners to match our level of ambition to ensure that criminal activity would not simply be displaced. The Directive was formally adopted in June 2015 and requires all Member States to implement central registers of company beneficial ownership will access for competent authorities, obliged entities and those with a legitimate interest. Member states have until June 2017 to transpose these requirements.
The Government is continuing to take strong action to make the UK a hostile environment for corrupt money and to make it increasingly difficult for criminals to abuse corporate structures. We will shortly publish the UK’s first National Risk Assessment of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing and have committed to publishing an Anti-Money Laundering Action Plan to address those issues which are highlighted by the National Risk Assessment.