Asked by: Lord Harrison (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to improve the productivity of small businesses.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Government policy focuses on delivering growth which in turn depends on productivity in the longer term.
We have already set out our four key growth ambitions: creating the most competitive tax system in the G20, making the UK the best place in Europe to start, finance and grow a business, encouraging investment and exports, and creating a more educated workforce. And through our industrial strategy, the whole of government is taking a long-term strategic approach to working in partnership with businesses to increase global competitiveness, support innovation and maximise export potential.
The right tax environment is vital to help businesses flourish so we have cut the main rate of Corporation Tax from 28% to 21% and announced further cuts to 20% by 2015 – the joint lowest rate in the G20 major economies. We have helped businesses with the cost of hiring staff by introducing a new Employer Allowance which cuts £2,000 from the National Insurance bills of small firms. To support small businesses in local communities, the ‘high street discount’ for around 300,000 shops, pubs, cafes and restaurants will go up from £1,000 to £1,500, from April 2015 to March 2016. This is in addition to doubling Small Business Rate Relief for a further year which means 380,000 of the smallest businesses will pay no rates at all.
R&D Tax Credits are the single largest Government support for business investment in R&D. They are designed to encourage greater R&D spend by business leading, in turn, to greater investment in innovation and improved products and processes. The rate of relief under the SME scheme is one of the most competitive rates in the world and, at Autumn Statement 2014, was increased from 225% to 230% of qualifying R&D expenditure from April 2015. Innovate UK is the Government’s prime channel for supporting business-led technology innovation. It delivers a range of programmes in support of businesses undertaking R&D including Collaborative R&D, Smart and Knowledge Transfer Partnerships. Innovate UK also provides opportunities for innovative businesses through the growing network of Catapult centres. Under the Coalition Government, Innovate UK, with partner and business contributions, has invested around £3.5 billion in innovation projects across the UK.
More businesses are getting access to the finance they need to start up and grow with Start-Up Loans offered to over 25,000 businesses; so far lending over £129 million. The British Business Bank has facilitated £890m of new lending and investment to over 21,000 small businesses in the year to the end of September 2014. And we have facilitated over £1.67 billion of lending to over 16,000 small businesses since May 2010, through our Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme. We have brought together all Government advice and support in one place at GREATbusiness.gov.uk, where the ‘My Business Support Tool’ helps businesses find the support they need quickly, and businesses can speak to or webchat with a helpline adviser direct using the Business Support helpline. Businesses can also access our new Business Growth Service on the website, which brings together expert advice to improve and grow in one place, including Growth Accelerator, the Manufacturing Advisory Service, and export advice and finance.
Small businesses have less regulation to follow with a £10 billion cumulative net saving to businesses as a result of our deregulation work. Through the Red Tape Challenge, we have reviewed over 5,600 regulations and identified 3,000 to scrap or improve. We are on track to surpass our target of saving business £850 million per year.
And around 48,000 businesses have been helped by our UKTI support – of which 90% were small businesses. This support helped generate additional sales of over £49 billion and created or safeguarded over 220,000 jobs over the last year.
Asked by: Lord Harrison (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress has been made in reducing the national diabetes-related amputation rate since their commitment to halve the rate two years ago.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
NHS England and clinical commissioning groups have responsibility for determining the overall approach to improving clinical outcomes from healthcare services for people with diabetes. Nevertheless, there are various actions at a national level which will help to ensure that all patients with diabetes receive good quality care, including foot care, to help improve outcomes and minimise amputation rates.
The new National Diabetes Foot Care Audit, a module of the National Diabetes Audit, aims to establish the extent to which national guidelines on the management of diabetic foot disease are being met. The audit will provide local teams with the evidence needed to tackle any identified differences in practice which will lead to an overall improvement in management and outcomes for patients. Local and national level results will be available in March 2016. However, we do know that there has been an increase in the proportion of trusts with multidisciplinary diabetic footcare teams, from around 60% in 2011 to over 70% in 2013.
As part of its focus on the Cardiovascular Disease Outcomes Strategy, NHS Improving Quality is working with the National Clinical Director for Diabetes to identify potential areas of service improvement such as diabetic foot disease. A number of Cardiovascular Strategic Clinical Networks are focussing on this to ensure that appropriate clinical pathways are in place which will deliver improved clinical outcomes for people with diabetes, including minimising amputation rates.
Within NHS England, the National Clinical Director for Rehabilitation and Recovering in the Community and the Chief Allied Health Professions Officer are leading work to improve rehabilitation services, including collection and dissemination of good practice. This will help to improve outcomes, such as improving/maintaining foot health, by putting the patient at the centre of their care, and a focus on their goals.
Asked by: Lord Harrison (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many people with movement disorders have applied for Personal Independence Payment.
Answered by Lord Freud
The information requested regarding interventions is not currently available.
Information on claims made to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) broken down by condition is not available. By 21 October 2014, 1,535 people classified as having a movement disorder as their primary condition were in receipt of PIP.
The Department has robust processes in place to assure the quality of Personal Independence Payment assessments and decisions about benefit entitlement, through regular audit and quality checks by specialist teams. We continue to review processes to ensure they remain appropriate and effective.
Asked by: Lord Harrison (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have (1) to pilot the Personal Independence Payment quality assurance process, (2) to publish an evaluation of the Personal Independence Payment quality assurance process, and (3) to consult on the Personal Independence Payment quality assurance process.
Answered by Lord Freud
The information requested regarding interventions is not currently available.
Information on claims made to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) broken down by condition is not available. By 21 October 2014, 1,535 people classified as having a movement disorder as their primary condition were in receipt of PIP.
The Department has robust processes in place to assure the quality of Personal Independence Payment assessments and decisions about benefit entitlement, through regular audit and quality checks by specialist teams. We continue to review processes to ensure they remain appropriate and effective.
Asked by: Lord Harrison (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many people with Parkinson's receiving Personal Independence Payment have undergone an intervention to review their entitlement.
Answered by Lord Freud
The information requested regarding interventions is not currently available.
Information on claims made to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) broken down by condition is not available. By 21 October 2014, 1,535 people classified as having a movement disorder as their primary condition were in receipt of PIP.
The Department has robust processes in place to assure the quality of Personal Independence Payment assessments and decisions about benefit entitlement, through regular audit and quality checks by specialist teams. We continue to review processes to ensure they remain appropriate and effective.
Asked by: Lord Harrison (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many people receiving Personal Independence Payment have undergone an intervention to review their entitlement.
Answered by Lord Freud
The information requested regarding interventions is not currently available.
Information on claims made to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) broken down by condition is not available. By 21 October 2014, 1,535 people classified as having a movement disorder as their primary condition were in receipt of PIP.
The Department has robust processes in place to assure the quality of Personal Independence Payment assessments and decisions about benefit entitlement, through regular audit and quality checks by specialist teams. We continue to review processes to ensure they remain appropriate and effective.
Asked by: Lord Harrison (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress has been made on the Package Travel Directive and what is their definition of Assisted Travel Arrangements.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Negotiations in the European Council are nearing completion. The proposal was discussed at the Competitiveness Council of Ministers on 4 December and a General Approach was agreed by Member States’ Ministers. We expect final agreement to be achieved in the New Year following the completion of the next stage in the negotiation; discussions between the Presidency of the Council, the European Parliament and the European Commission.
The definition of Assisted Travel Arrangements in the text agreed at Council is:
'assisted travel arrangement' means at least two different types of travel services purchased for the purpose of the same trip or holiday, not constituting a package within the meaning of paragraph 2(b), resulting in the conclusion of separate contracts with the individual travel service providers, if a trader facilitates:
(a) on the occasion of a single visit or contact with its point of sale, the separate selection and separate payment of each travel service by travellers, or
(b) in a targeted manner, the procurement of additional travel services from other traders where contracts with such other traders are concluded not more than 48 hours after the confirmation of the first travel service.
Asked by: Lord Harrison (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are considering phasing Flight-Plus out of the ATOL scheme in the context of ATOL reform and the new European Union Package Travel Directive.
Answered by Baroness Kramer - Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson (Treasury and Economy)
The European Commission’s proposal for a new Package Travel Directive expands the scope of the definitions to potentially include a range of holidays currently covered as flight-plus arrangements under the Air Travel Organisers’ Licensing (ATOL) scheme, and some holidays sold by airlines.
On 18 March 2013, the European Commission published a Communication on Passenger Protection in the Event of Airline Insolvency. The Commission committed to closely monitor the application of a range of measures, and after two years, review their performance and effectiveness and assess whether a legislative initiative is needed to guarantee the protection of passengers in the case of airline insolvency. We anticipate that the Commission’s review will commence next year.
We will carefully consider the outcome of these matters as part of our review of ATOL reform.
Asked by: Lord Harrison (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they will take a decision on including airlines within the ATOL scheme for Flight-Plus transactions in line with powers contained in the Civil Aviation Act 2012.
Answered by Baroness Kramer - Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson (Treasury and Economy)
The European Commission’s proposal for a new Package Travel Directive expands the scope of the definitions to potentially include a range of holidays currently covered as flight-plus arrangements under the Air Travel Organisers’ Licensing (ATOL) scheme, and some holidays sold by airlines.
On 18 March 2013, the European Commission published a Communication on Passenger Protection in the Event of Airline Insolvency. The Commission committed to closely monitor the application of a range of measures, and after two years, review their performance and effectiveness and assess whether a legislative initiative is needed to guarantee the protection of passengers in the case of airline insolvency. We anticipate that the Commission’s review will commence next year.
We will carefully consider the outcome of these matters as part of our review of ATOL reform.
Asked by: Lord Harrison (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 31 October (HL2419), why they do not centrally record the number or location of refuges in England; and what consideration they have given to collecting such records as a means to developing nationwide policy.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
My Department funds UKRefugesOnline a UK-wide database of domestic violence services which supports the national 24 hour free phone domestic violence helpline. This service enables those working with victims of domestic violence to identify appropriate services and potential refuge vacancies around the country so that victims can get the help they need as quickly as possible.
In terms of government records, such information has never been centrally held. Refuges are not commissioned at a national level, and are generally either provided by local authorities or by independent voluntary sector organisations. To start recording the number and location would involve creating a new monitoring and data reporting regime on local government. It is the broader policy of the Coalition Government to try to reduce the burden of data reporting on local government, as it costs taxpayers’ money and diverts resources away from frontline services.
More broadly, this Government has secured £6.5 billion investment to help vulnerable people through housing related support. This forms a key element of refuge funding through local authority commissioned services.
We have also allocated £40 million of funding for specialist local domestic and sexual violence support services until 2015. This funding is used to part-fund 54 multi-agency risk assessment conference co-ordinators and 144 independent domestic violence advisers. We have piloted and rolled out Clare’s Law and domestic violence protection orders; extended the definition of domestic abuse to cover controlling behaviour and teenage relationships; run two successful campaigns to challenge perceptions of abuse; and placed Domestic Homicide Reviews on a statutory footing to make sure lessons are learned from individual tragedies.
We are keeping this matter under review, and are keen to support best practice and greater joint working.