Asked by: Faisal Rashid (Labour - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what plans she has to develop fair and ethical trade.
Answered by Conor Burns
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Faisal Rashid (Labour - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what funding her Department has allocated to programmes supporting the payment of living wages in global value chains; and whether this funding is supporting workers in the cocoa sector.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Faisal Rashid (Labour - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, with reference to her Department's Economic Development Strategy, what steps she is taking to track progress towards the achievement of living incomes in developing countries.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Faisal Rashid (Labour - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will publicise to eligible pensioners their right to claim pension credit.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
It is important to highlight that there are over 1.6 million people already claiming some £5.4 billion in Pension Credit but the Government wants to ensure that all pensioners eligible can claim the Pension Credit to which they are rightly entitled.
On a national basis the DWP targets activity on engaging with people who may be eligible to Pension Credit at pivotal stages, such as when they claim State Pension or report a change in their circumstances. The DWP uses a wide range of channels to communicate information about benefits including Pension Credit to potential customers; including information on https://gov.uk/, in leaflets and by telephone.
We know that often the best ways to reach eligible customers is through trusted stakeholders working in the community. That is why we have developed and resourced the Pension Credit toolkit which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pension-credit-toolkit and contains resources for anyone working with pensioners and includes guides to Pension Credit. It also contains publicity material and guidance designed to help older people understand how they could get Pension Credit and help organisations support someone applying for Pension Credit as well as ideas for encouraging take-up.
In addition, the Pension Credit calculator https://www.gov.uk/pension-credit-calculator enables potential customer to check if they are likely to be eligible and get an estimate of what they may receive; and of course the easiest way to make a Pension Credit claim is via the Freephone number 0800 99 1234.
Asked by: Faisal Rashid (Labour - Warrington South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make it his policy to reduce the level of beer duty in Budget 2019.
Answered by Simon Clarke
The Government supports consumers, pubs and breweries. To this end, the Government has cut or frozen beer duty at six of the last seven Budgets. These actions have ensured the price of a pint of beer is 14p is lower than it otherwise would have been since ending the beer duty escalator in 2013.
All taxes are kept under review and the impact of a change to beer duty is considered at each fiscal event, including its effect on pubs and the wider economy.
Asked by: Faisal Rashid (Labour - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will commit to building 100,000 homes for social rent per year.
Answered by Esther McVey - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
We are committed to increasing the supply of social housing to further support struggling families and those at risk of homelessness. We have invested over £9 billion into our Affordable Homes Programme to deliver approximately 250,000 affordable homes by 2022, including at least 12,500 for social rent in areas of acute affordability pressure.
We have increased the size of the Affordable Homes Programme, re-introduced social rent, removed the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) borrowing cap for local authorities, and have set out a long-term rent deal for councils and housing associations in England from 2020. Housing associations and local authorities now need to accelerate delivery and build more affordable homes.
Since 2010, we have delivered over 430,000 new affordable homes, including over 308,000 affordable homes for rent.
On 18 September we announced an additional £2 billion of long-term funding certainty for housing associations. This extra funding will deliver more affordable homes and stimulate the sector’s wider building ambitions, through strategic partnerships.
We do not publish yearly targets but, deliver flexibly throughout the years of the programme to achieve our overall target and hold Homes England and the Greater London Authority (GLA) to account for delivery.
We will continue to provide opportunities for more people to afford home ownership and seek to build on the progress that has been made on building new social homes.
Asked by: Faisal Rashid (Labour - Warrington South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent progress his Department has made in reviewing the legal aid means test.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The Government announced the review of the legal aid means test on 7 February 2019, as part of the Legal Support Action Plan.
The review will consider the full range of means-testing criteria including the applicable thresholds for legal aid entitlement and their interaction with wider criteria.
The review is in progress, bringing together data, evidence and expertise, and liaising with experts from across the field to explore potential improvements to the system.
This comprehensive review of the legal aid eligibility regime is expected to conclude in summer 2020 after which we will publish a full consultation paper setting out our future policy on the proposals in this area. We will seek to implement any final recommendations as soon as practicable following public consultation.
Asked by: Faisal Rashid (Labour - Warrington South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make it his policy to prevent fossil fuel projects from being funded through his Department's foreign aid programmes.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
The UK Green Finance Strategy, launched on 2 July 2019, included a commitment to align Official Development Assistance (ODA) spending with the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Asked by: Faisal Rashid (Labour - Warrington South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will take steps to ensure those affected by IR35 changes and who pay national insurance contributions will receive holiday and sick pay and other benefits associated with employment.
Answered by Jesse Norman
At present there is no direct link between employment status for rights and employment status for tax.
Those who wish to challenge their employment status for rights can take their case to an employment tribunal, regardless of their tax status. In order to modernise and enhance the enforcement of the employment rights for workers, the government is currently consulting on the proposal to introduce a new single enforcement body for employment rights. The government is also consulting on strengthening enforcement and extending entitlement to statutory sick pay.
Asked by: Faisal Rashid (Labour - Warrington South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will take steps to ensure that state pensions for UK citizens living overseas increase at the same rate as pensions for pensioners who remain in the UK.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The UK State Pension is payable worldwide. It is up-rated for overseas residents where there is a legal requirement to do so and it is up-rated abroad at the same rate as in the UK.