Asked by: Craig Williams (Conservative - Montgomeryshire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make it his policy to ensure that charities applying to the Recovery Loan Scheme are not required to demonstrate a negative impact arising from the covid-19 outbreak in order to secure finance.
Answered by Dean Russell
Under the first two iterations of the Recovery Loan Scheme, all applicants had to self-certify that they had been impacted by Covid-19 to access finance through the scheme. This requirement no longer applies to most applicants. Charities can continue to access finance through the scheme where they can self-certify they have been impacted by Covid-19. This exempts them from the requirement to derive at least 50 per cent of their income from trading activity that they would otherwise need to meet to access the scheme.
This provision will cease at the end of the year. All aspects of the Recovery Loan Scheme are under constant review to ensure that the scheme meets its policy objectives.
Asked by: Craig Williams (Conservative - Montgomeryshire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he plans to (a) extend the Government's Recovery Loan Scheme beyond December 2022 for charities, (b) keep the charity small trading exemption at 25% and (c) treat stable grant and donation income as trading income.
Answered by Dean Russell
Charities are currently able to access the Recovery Loan Scheme by self-certifying that they have been impacted by Covid-19. Otherwise, they must derive at least 50 per cent of their turnover from trading activity to access the scheme.
All aspects of the Recovery Loan Scheme are under constant review to ensure that the scheme can meet its objectives.
Asked by: Craig Williams (Conservative - Montgomeryshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to support (a) community based businesses, (b) social enterprises and (c) trading charities in contributing to growth in the local economy.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Government strongly supports the social enterprise sector’s contribution to society and the economy.
Social enterprises create jobs for those excluded from the labour market, directly address social challenges and build social capital within communities.
Policy relating to social enterprise is devolved. In England the government will continue to support the sector through access to finance including social investment, growing participation in public services and effective regulation.
Work is also underway to meet the commitments made in the Levelling Up White Paper around:
encouraging social organisations and entrepreneurship to flourish in left-behind places and generating evidence on what works;
building on and augmenting existing support for the sector;
encouraging the next generation of social entrepreneurs.
Asked by: Craig Williams (Conservative - Montgomeryshire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of donating cold chain equipment alongside the donation of 20 million doses of covid-19 vaccines committed bilaterally to countries in need.
Answered by Wendy Morton - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK will donate 100 million vaccine doses over the next year, with 80% to go to COVAX. As of 9 August, the UK has donated 10.3 million doses, of which 4 million have been given bilaterally. We are aware of the challenges associated with storing and distributing COVID-19 vaccines, particularly in hard-to-reach communities. Resilient supply chains are essential, and cold chain equipment can bring capacity to this critical global challenge.
The UK's direct funding on COVID-19 vaccines has focused on vaccine development and procurement. For delivery, the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) has been engaging Multilateral Development Banks to make funds available to countries as part of a combined $29 billion COVID-19 financing envelope that can support vaccine procurement. Gavi has also raised $775 million to support vaccine delivery. The FCDO is also active in the UNICEF-convened Country Readiness and Delivery Working Group to drive coordination across donor and international organisation delivery programming. We are specifically engaging through our humanitarian networks to ensure that delivery planning and financing addresses the challenges of delivery in fragile environments.
Asked by: Craig Williams (Conservative - Montgomeryshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many Extended Area Service are being constructed to a specification where they could be shared between all four Mobile Network Operators as part of the Shared Rural Network.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Extended Area Sites (EAS) are being built in the most remote and rural areas of Great Britain to supplement the infrastructure provided for the Emergency Services Network (ESN) by EE.
When an Extended Area Site (EAS) site is activated, it will be able to handle Emergency Service Network calls and data transmission. On the majority of sites, it will also be available for EE’s commercial customers to use.
Wherever possible, the design of mast structures will be future-proofed so they can easily be upgraded to offer a commercial service. We will make all 292 EAS sites available, where possible, for mobile network operators to deploy on them as part of the Shared Rural Network although we recognise that, in some cases, upgrades may not be possible due to technical, financial, or other reasons. I can confirm that 117 sites meet the criteria to be utilised as part of the shared Rural Network with work ongoing on the status of the remaining sites.
Asked by: Craig Williams (Conservative - Montgomeryshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to paragraph 2.41 of the Budget 2021 Red Book, what steps his Department has taken to end the 15 year limit for overseas voter registration following the commitment by the Government of £2.5 million of funding for the removal of that limit.
Answered by Chloe Smith
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to PQ133213, published on 11 January 2021.
Asked by: Craig Williams (Conservative - Montgomeryshire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether it is the Government's policy that permanent Agenda Item 7 at the United Nations Human Rights Council represents systematic institutional bias.
Answered by James Cleverly
The UK has stood up for Israel when it faces bias and unreasonable criticism, and has been clear that the existence of a dedicated agenda item ('Item 7') damages the prospect for a two-state solution and does little to advance dialogue, stability or mutual understanding. As such, at the 40th session of the Human Rights Council in March 2019 we moved to voting against all resolutions under Item 7. However, the UN and its member states have every right to address issues of concern in a measured, balanced and proportionate way. We will continue to support scrutiny of Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories in the Human Rights Council, so long as it is justified, proportionate, and not proposed under Item 7.
Asked by: Craig Williams (Conservative - Montgomeryshire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has received a copy of the EU interim report on the Palestinian Authority school curriculum.
Answered by James Cleverly
Publication of the interim report is not currently foreseen by the EU. The UK has repeatedly lobbied the EU to push for publication, but this is ultimately a decision for the EU.
Asked by: Craig Williams (Conservative - Montgomeryshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
What preparations his Department has made ahead of the planned deployment of the Carrier Strike Group in 2021.
Answered by Ben Wallace
The Carrier Strike Group (CSG) will deploy for the first time in 2021, providing tangible reassurance and security to our friends and credible deterrence to those who seek to undermine global security. During this autumn the CSG will be tested through a series of increasingly demanding exercises with allies so that by the end of this year we can declare with full confidence that the CSG has met Initial Operating Capability and is ready for operations.
Asked by: Craig Williams (Conservative - Montgomeryshire)
Question to the Wales Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, what discussions he has had with the Welsh Government on support for local authority finances throughout Wales.
Answered by Simon Hart
I have had many online meetings with Welsh Government ministers over recent months, including several discussions with Ken Skates, the Welsh Government Minister for Economy, Transport and North Wales.
These discussions have covered multiple topics, including the support that is being made available through Local Authorities to support businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The finances of local authorities in Wales is devolved and is a matter for the Welsh Government.