Asked by: Bill Grant (Conservative - Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what support is available for people who sustained losses as a result of misleading selling of Integrity Cash Maximiser products.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The independent financial services regulator - the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) – is responsible for the regulations in place to protect customers in their dealings with financial services firms. It requires firms to treat their customers fairly and has broad and robust powers to enforce breaches of its rules.
If consumers have a complaint about a regulated financial service, they may be able to take their complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). The FOS was established to provide for the proportionate, prompt and informal resolution of cases and is designed to be an alternative to resolution of cases through the courts.
Asked by: Bill Grant (Conservative - Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to compensate people who have sustained losses due to the mis-selling of Integrity Cash Maximiser products.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The independent financial services regulator - the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) – is responsible for the regulations in place to protect customers in their dealings with financial services firms. It requires firms to treat their customers fairly and has broad and robust powers to enforce breaches of its rules.
If consumers have a complaint about a regulated financial service, they may be able to take their complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). The FOS was established to provide for the proportionate, prompt and informal resolution of cases and is designed to be an alternative to resolution of cases through the courts.
Asked by: Bill Grant (Conservative - Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when he next plans to hold meetings with representatives of (a) the Scottish Government, (b) East Ayrshire Council and (c) South Ayrshire Council on promoting tourism in Ayrshire.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The Secretary of State for DCMS met with the Scottish Government’s Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Tourism and External Affairs this August to discuss a range of issues, including Scottish tourism. We currently have no plans to meet East Ayrshire Council or South Ayrshire Council.
Additionally, DCMS officials meet regularly with officials from the Scottish Government to discuss a range of topics relating to tourism. The Scottish Government are also observers on the Tourism Industry Council.
Asked by: Bill Grant (Conservative - Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what timetable he has in place for spending the £190 million allocated to the roll-out of full-fibre broadband.
Answered by Margot James
The £190m Local Full Fibre Networks Programme’s Challenge Fund will be allocated directly to local bodies. As a condition of the grant agreement, all funding allocated to local bodies will need to be spent by the end of March 2021. Each local body will operate as the delivery lead for their project, so the timetable for spending their funding prior to this deadline will vary for each project according to their delivery schedule.
Asked by: Bill Grant (Conservative - Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what progress has been made on the Ayrshire Growth Deal.
Answered by David Mundell
My officials continue to engage with the Ayrshire Partners to refine the Deal proposals and met with the Head of the Ayrshire Growth Deal Team in Kilmarnock on Thursday 6 September where progress with individual projects and the Deal timeline were discussed.
The UK Government began formal negotiations with the three Ayrshire Councils following an announcement by the Prime Minister on 29 March 2018.
Asked by: Bill Grant (Conservative - Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he can take to ensure that community benefits which are the result of an agreement to establish a wind-farm are honoured when that wind-farm changes owner or operator; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Claire Perry
Community benefit funds for onshore wind farms are industry led, voluntary initiatives, which are agreed between developers and local communities in line with protocols that have been established in England and Scotland. Trade associations are responsible for ensuring that the protocols they have created are honoured by their signatories.
We have been clear that we expect developers to provide a fund for local communities in the vicinity of their wind farms. Whilst in Coalition we worked with industry to implement a new community benefit protocol for projects in England, to ensure communities receive a greater level of benefit, and established an online register of English community benefits to aid transparency and accountability. A similar protocol and register has been established for onshore wind projects in Scotland.
Guidance has been produced by the UK Government to aid engagement between developers, communities and local authorities when negotiating community benefit fund arrangements, which is available online at:
This recommends that the agreement to provide a community fund should be documented as a legal contract between the wind farm developer and the Fund Administrator, and that a mechanism for ensuring that the community benefit provisions continue should be included, irrespective of who owns the wind farm.
Asked by: Bill Grant (Conservative - Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made on the potential effect on (a) businesses and (b) levels of employment of increasing the duty paid on the dilution of wine and made-wine.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
At Autumn Budget 2017, the government announced a review of the practice of diluting wine and made-wine after the excise duty has been accounted for. HMRC has invited views from representative bodies and affected businesses. Responses are currently being analysed and assessments of impact will be considered as part of the review process.
Asked by: Bill Grant (Conservative - Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans to issue space port licences for (a) horizontal and (b) vertical take off.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
Royal Assent of the Space Industry Bill on 15 March 2018 was a major milestone in establishing the environment for safe, responsible and commercial spaceflight operations from UK spaceports. We are now working swiftly to put in place the detailed regulations, including licence requirements for spaceports and spaceflight operators. We opened a call for evidence on 27 March that will assist in formulating policy related to liability, insurance and charging; and are continuing to engage with prospective licensees. We are planning to publish and consult on the detailed regulations in 2019. Once the detailed licensing requirements are in place, it will enable companies to apply to become a licenced spaceport or spaceflight operator.
Asked by: Bill Grant (Conservative - Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what discussions he has had with representatives of the devolved governments on maintaining the union after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Damian Green
I meet regularly with the devolved administration Ministers, including the Deputy First Minister of Scotland and the First Minister of Wales on the UK’s exit from the EU. This is through regular bilaterals and through the Joint Ministerial Committee for EU Negotiations, which I will chair again in December.
Asked by: Bill Grant (Conservative - Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what discussions he has had with representatives of the devolved governments on maintaining the union after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Damian Green
I meet regularly with the devolved administration Ministers, including the Deputy First Minister of Scotland and the First Minister of Wales on the UK’s exit from the EU. This is through regular bilaterals and through the Joint Ministerial Committee for EU Negotiations, which I will chair again in December.