Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Kenny MacAskill and Kemi Badenoch

Wednesday 13th December 2023 Commons Chamber

[Kenny MacAskill (East Lothian) (Alba)]

T5.   Keep Prisons Single Sex has disclosed that police forces are still failing to adequately record the sex of offenders at birth and sometimes record self-identification. This can have a considerable effect on criminal justice data. Will the Minister take any steps to ensure that the correct data is given, so that appropriate analysis can be given and we do not have skewed information?

[Kemi Badenoch]

That is something that my Department is working on. The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right that we need to ensure that data is accurate, that people understand what is being recorded and that this does not have an impact on how public services are delivered. If he has any further information that he would like to share, I would very much like to see if there are specific constituency circumstances we can look into.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Kenny MacAskill and Kemi Badenoch

Tuesday 7th September 2021 Commons Chamber

[Kenny MacAskill (East Lothian) (Alba)]

T2. Scottish communities, other than those in Shetland, failed to benefit from the North sea oil and gas bounty landing on their shores. Now that the North sea’s offshore wind is casting ashore on East Lothian, will the Treasury ensure that East Lothian will actually benefit, as opposed to it all simply being transmission-stationed down south? Or will it go the same way as Scotland’s oil and gas: down to the Treasury?

[The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (Kemi Badenoch)]

We support the UK oil and gas sector, especially as gas is a transition fuel to net zero. The sector supports 147,000 jobs directly in its supply chains. I take the point that the hon. Gentleman raises; if he would like to write to me with more detail, I think I will be able to give him more comprehensive answers.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Kenny MacAskill and Kemi Badenoch

Tuesday 9th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Kenny MacAskill (East Lothian) (SNP) [V]]

If the Government are unwilling to support the licensed trade through varying duty rates, there is another fiscal policy to sustain hard-pressed pubs in our communities. Italy has reduced VAT and alcohol sales in pubs and restaurants. Should that not be replicated here, sustaining public revenue while supporting the consumption of alcohol on supervised premises and maintaining community assets in our towns and villages?

[The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (Kemi Badenoch)]

The hon. Gentleman will know we are carrying out an alcohol duty review that will look at all these decisions in the round, and I am very happy to speak to him in more detail specifically about any particular schemes or requests that he has.

Covid-19: Disparate Impact

Debate between Kenny MacAskill and Kemi Badenoch

Thursday 22nd October 2020 Commons Chamber

[Kemi Badenoch]

Evidence shows that Government covid-19 guidance is not reaching certain communities or audiences who are being disproportionately impacted. That is why we are providing up to £25 million to local authorities, and voluntary and community sectors, to improve the reach of official public health guidance and other messaging into specific places and groups most at risk—and that does include tier 3. We want to ensure that the funding is used to support communities and groups who have been shown to have suffered a disproportionate impact.

[Kenny MacAskill (East Lothian) (SNP) [V]]

The Minister acknowledged that disadvantage through ethnicity can be compounded further by disadvantage through disability. In those circumstances, will she press her Government colleagues to recognise the vital need to address poverty that compounds it still further, and argue for the retention of the universal credit uplift and an extension to legacy benefits, including those for the disabled?

[Kemi Badenoch]

I know that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and my right hon. Friend the Chancellor have spoken about that specific issue many times in this Chamber. What I would say to the hon. Gentleman is that poverty, deprivation and various factors are contributing to health inequalities. That is something we do know. Those issues will not be solved by a year-long review. They need to be looked at across Government, as he says, and the Government are absolutely committed to that. We talk over and over again about levelling up. That is absolutely the ambition of this Government and we will do it in the ways that we believe are best.