Asked by: Lindsay Roy (Labour - Glenrothes)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent fiscal steps he has taken to support small and micro-sized businesses in Scotland.
Answered by David Gauke
The government is committed to supporting small businesses across the UK, and has recently taken a number of measures to support Scotland’s 326,000 SMEs.
In February 2014, the Start Up Loans programme went live in Scotland, and has already supported 500 Scottish entrepreneurs to start their own business with £1.6m of loans.
In April 2014, the Government launched the Employment Allowance to allow businesses and charities throughout the UK to deduct up to £2,000 off their employer National Insurance contributions (NICs) bill each year. By June 2014, 57,000 Scottish SMEs had benefitted from this scheme. Also in April 2014, the government increased the rate of the credit payable to loss-making SMEs investing in research and development from 11% to 14.5% and doubled the Annual Investment Allowance to £500,000 until 2016 to support business investment.
The Government has also launched new tax reliefs for the production of high-end television, animation, video games and theatre and introduced the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme to support small early stage companies seeking equity investment.
Asked by: Lindsay Roy (Labour - Glenrothes)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress he has made on tackling tax avoidance in the UK; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by David Gauke
This Government is committed to taking strong and robust action to tackle tax avoidance. Since April 2010 the government has made 42 changes to tax law, closing loopholes and introducing major reforms to the UK tax system. These include the introduction of a General Anti-Abuse Rule and strengthening the Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Schemes regime.
Through a tougher monitoring regime for high-risk promoters of tax avoidance schemes, backed up with penalties, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is taking significant action to discourage people from entering into expensive avoidance schemes which, in the majority of cases, don’t work. We legislated for Accelerated Payments in this year’s Finance Act, which will enable HMRC to collect disputed tax upfront, along with the new High Risk Promoters regime.
We have invested £1 billion over this spending review period to tackle tax avoidance and evasion. HMRC have secured over £77bn in compliance yield since the beginning of the parliament; £31 billion of which was from large businesses, and £850m of which was from High Net Worth individuals. Around 80% of the avoidance cases heard in the courts are being won by HMRC, with 30 wins protecting £2.7bn of tax in 2013/14
Asked by: Lindsay Roy (Labour - Glenrothes)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will take steps to ban the use of snares across the UK.
Answered by George Eustice
The Government takes animal welfare issues very seriously. My noble Friend, Lord de Mauley, has met interested parties from both sides of the debate. He has invited them to work with Defra to consider the range of solutions for improving welfare standards when managing fox and rabbit issues.
As part of this we are working with stakeholders to improve the Government’s advice on how to comply with existing requirements.
Asked by: Lindsay Roy (Labour - Glenrothes)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what (a) land and (b) buildings of what value belonging to the Coastguard Service have been sold since May 2010.
Answered by John Hayes
The proceeds from the sale of land and buildings previously used by Her Majesty Coastguard sold since May 2010 are shown below:
| Land at: | Value | Buildings at: | Value |
| Hartlepool | £18,200 | ||
| Cley | £8,200 | Cley | £40,000 |
| Mundesley | £3,500 | Mundesley | £41,700 |
| Daedalus | £1,520,000 | ||
| Eday | £2,500 | Eday | £5,001 |
| Porlock | £25,286 |
Asked by: Lindsay Roy (Labour - Glenrothes)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many (a) internal and (b) external complaints have been received by her Department about alleged breaches of the Civil Service Code of Conduct since 2010; and what actions her Department has taken in response to each such complaint.
Answered by Karen Bradley
This information could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Complaints are normally dealt with by the line management chain within
Departments in the first instance, with the most serious cases escalated to
senior managers, HR or the Permanent Secretary.
Where a Civil Servant is not satisfied with how the matter has been handled by
a Department, he or she can raise the matter with the Civil Service Commission.
The Commission publishes details of the number of complaints received annually.
Asked by: Lindsay Roy (Labour - Glenrothes)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what contribution his Department is making to the preparations for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Answered by David Mundell
The Scotland Office is committed to the success of the Commonwealth Games and has played a coordinating role in UK Government departments' vital work on the preparations for the Games in a wide range of areas. Scotland Office Ministers and officials have been in extensive, regular and proactive contact with ministerial colleagues and officials in other UK Government departments, with Shona Robison MSP (Scottish Government Cabinet Secretary for the Commonwealth Games) and her officials, with Councillor Gordon Matheson and others in Glasgow City Council, with the Glasgow 2014 Organising Committee, and with Police Scotland, and other stakeholders, to ensure that UK Government departments, fulfilling their reserved responsibilities, work as closely as possible with the Devolved Administration and the Organising Committee.
Asked by: Lindsay Roy (Labour - Glenrothes)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many (a) internal and (b) external complaints have been received by his Department about alleged breaches of the Civil Service Code of Conduct since 2010; and what actions his Department has taken in response to each such complaint.
Answered by Lord Maude of Horsham
This information could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
The Civil Service Code sets out the clear procedure that civil servants should follow if they believe they are being required to act in a way which conflicts with the Code, or they become aware of action by others which they believe conflicts with the Code. Complaints are normally dealt with by the line management chain within Departments in the first instance, with the most serious cases escalated to senior managers, HR or the Permanent Secretary.
Where a Civil Servant is not satisfied with how the matter has been handled by a Department, he or she can raise the matter with the Civil Service Commission. The Commission publishes details of the number of complaints received annually.
Asked by: Lindsay Roy (Labour - Glenrothes)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many (a) internal and (b) external complaints have been received by his Department about alleged breaches of the Civil Service Code of Conduct since 2010; and what actions his Department has taken in response to each such complaint.
Answered by Anna Soubry
The information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. This is because grievance cases are not categorised according to whether they relate to alleged breaches of the Civil Service Code of Conduct.
Asked by: Lindsay Roy (Labour - Glenrothes)
Question to the Scotland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, how many (a) internal and (b) external complaints have been received by his Department about alleged breaches of the Civil Service Code of Conduct since 2010; and what actions his Department has taken in response to each such complaint.
Answered by David Mundell
The Office has not received any (a) internal and (b) external complaints about alleged breaches of the Civil Service Code of Conduct by individual officials since 2010.
Asked by: Lindsay Roy (Labour - Glenrothes)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many (a) internal and (b) external complaints have been received by his Department about alleged breaches of the Civil Service Code of Conduct since 2010; and what actions his Department has taken in response to each such complaint.
Answered by David Gauke
The Civil Service Code sets out the clear procedure that civil servants should follow if they believe they are being required to act in a way which conflicts with the Code, or they become aware of action by others which they believe conflicts with the Code. Complaints are normally dealt with by the line management chain in the first instance, with the most serious cases escalated to senior managers, HR or the Permanent Secretary. Because most issues are dealt with locally or within the line management chain, there is no formal or systematic register of all complaints within the department.
Where a Civil Servant is not satisfied with how the matter has been handled by a Department, he or she can raise the matter with the Civil Service Commission. The Commission publishes details of the number of complaints received annually.