Asked by: John Robertson (Labour - Glasgow North West)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what recent estimate he has made of the level of investment in (a) Glasgow North West constituency, (b) Glasgow and (c) Scotland that resulted from EU membership in each of the last five years.
Answered by David Mundell
The Government does not collate figures for the level of investment in Scotland that results from UK membership of the EU.
Asked by: John Robertson (Labour - Glasgow North West)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what recent assessment he has made of the effects of membership of the EU on jobs in (a) Glasgow North West constituency, (b) Glasgow and (c) Scotland.
Answered by David Mundell
The Government does not collate figures for the number of jobs in Scotland that depend on UK membership of the EU. However, independent analysis published by the Centre for Economics and Business Research in March 2014 suggested that, in 2011, approximately 335,000 jobs in Scotland were associated with Scottish exports to the EU. The analysis was not broken down to the level of individual UK cities or by Parliamentary constituency
Asked by: John Robertson (Labour - Glasgow North West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent discussions he has had with Glasgow City Council on the Glasgow Guarantee.
Answered by Esther McVey
The Secretary of State has not had recent discussions with Glasgow City Council on the Glasgow Guarantee.
Asked by: John Robertson (Labour - Glasgow North West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to publicise information on changes to child maintenance.
Answered by Steve Webb
Since the Child Maintenance Service launched in December 2012 we have been talking to clients (via caseworkers and through our Child Maintenance Options service) about the planned introduction of charging, and letters to Child Maintenance Service clients have made reference to the charges.
More widely we have engaged with stakeholders, partners, MP caseworkers and intermediaries to share information about the reforms to the child maintenance system.
Ahead of existing Child Support Agency cases closing, a regional media trial is currently running in the Manchester area. The media activity includes digital, radio and press advertising to let parents know that the Child Support Agency is changing and to reassure them that they don't need to take any action until they receive a letter. We will evaluate the results of this media activity before confirming plans to run this campaign nationally later this year.
Asked by: John Robertson (Labour - Glasgow North West)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what information he holds on the proportion of companies in (a) Glasgow North West, (b) Glasgow and (c) Scotland are ultimately owned by companies based in (i) Scotland, (ii) other parts of the UK, (iii) other countries in the EU and (iv) outside the EU.
Answered by David Mundell
According to Glasgow City Council figures (November 2013), there are approximately 18,000 businesses in Glasgow. The Scotland Office holds no information on the ownership nationality of companies located in neither Glasgow North West nor Glasgow.
However, across the UK as a whole, over 99% of private sector businesses will be small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and ownership for these is therefore highly likely to be based locally.
In 2013, registered private sector enterprises with ultimate ownership outside Scotland accounted for 3.1% of firms. These are disproportionately larger firms and so account for over 35% of employment. This suggests that 96.9% of businesses in Scotland have Scottish ownership, accounting for 64.8% of employment.
Asked by: John Robertson (Labour - Glasgow North West)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, if he will estimate the revenue generated in Scotland by companies that have their headquarters (a) in Scotland and (b) outside of Scotland.
Answered by David Mundell
There are no estimates of the number of companies headquartered in Scotland, of the 343,105 enterprises operating in Scotland as at March 2013. Registered private sector enterprises with ultimate ownership outside Scotland accounted for 3.1% of firms, and 58.1% of turnover. This means that 41.9% of business turnover in Scotland is generated by enterprises with ownership in Scotland. These figures come from the Scottish Government publication Businesses in Scotland 2013.
Asked by: John Robertson (Labour - Glasgow North West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent estimate he has made of the annual amount of carcinogens that are released by biofuels activity in the UK.
Answered by Robert Goodwill
The Department for Transport has not made any annual estimates of carcinogens that are released by biofuels activity. This data is not required to meet the mandatory sustainability criteria under the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED), which is applicable to biofuels supplied in the UK under the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO).
Voluntary schemes approved by the European Commission can set criteria for aspects of biofuel production aimed at minimising adverse environmental impacts associated with agricultural production, including on air quality, in addition to setting sustainability criteria. In 2012/13 eighty one per cent of biofuel supplied in the UK under the RTFO was covered by an approved voluntary scheme, the vast majority of which include additional aspects aimed at minimising the impact on air quality of the cultivation and harvesting of biofuel feedstocks.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' Air Quality Expert Group has considered the potential impacts of increased biofuel use on air pollutants, such as particulate matter, and concluded that these should fall with most biofuel uptake scenarios. The Group's Report Road Transport Biofuels: Impact on UK Air Quality, is published at:
http://uk-air.defra.gov.uk/assets/documents/110322_AQEG_Biofuels_advice_note.pdf
In respect of the biofuel supply chain the European Commission produced a staff working document accompanying its renewable energy progress report to the European Parliament in 2013 which is published at:
http://ec.europa.eu/energy/renewables/reports/doc/swd_2013_0102_res_en.pdf
It concluded that between 2008 and 2010, there was limited change in threats to air quality from EU biofuel demand.
Asked by: John Robertson (Labour - Glasgow North West)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what proportion of investment by the Green Investment Bank has been given to biofuels to date.
Answered by Michael Fallon
The Green Investment Bank (GIB) has yet to finance any projects in the biofuels for transport sector. To date, GIB has committed a total of £1.3billion to green projects including the following projects that involve use of biomass for energy generation:
· £100m to one coal to biomass conversion project (Drax power station);
· £40.1m to three projects (in Northern Ireland, Birmingham and Port Talbot) that involve generating energy from recovered waste wood;
· £19.7m to a number of energy efficiency projects which involve the use of biomass boilers at enterprises such as distilleries, schools and farms.
Asked by: John Robertson (Labour - Glasgow North West)
Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate he has made of the average profit made by energy companies on the energy bills of households in each constituency in the UK.
Answered by Michael Fallon
Data on the average profit made by energy companies at the level of households in each constituency is not available.
The average pre-tax profit made per household consumer in 2012 was £53 or 4.3%. (Source: “Making the Profits of the six largest energy suppliers clear” factsheet, Ofgem). Ofgem also estimates pre-tax margins over the next 12 months using current data in their Supply Market Indicator. Their latest estimate of pre-tax margins for May 2014-April 2015 was £96 or 7% (Source: Understanding energy bills, Ofgem).
Asked by: John Robertson (Labour - Glasgow North West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of children in poverty in (a) Glasgow North West constituency, (b) Glasgow, (c) Scotland and (d) the UK in each year until 2020.
Answered by Esther McVey
The Government does not produce forecasts of the number of children living in income poverty either locally or nationally. The number of children in poverty is dependent on a number of factors which cannot be reliably predicted, including the median income.
The Government does not believe it is possible to accurately project child poverty to 2020. Poverty projections are rarely accurate. For example, IFS projections in October 2011 suggested the number of children in relative poverty would fall by 100,000 in 2010/11, whereas in fact it fell by 300,000.