First elected: 6th May 2010
Left House: 30th March 2015 (Defeated)
Speeches made during Parliamentary debates are recorded in Hansard. For ease of browsing we have grouped debates into individual, departmental and legislative categories.
e-Petitions are administered by Parliament and allow members of the public to express support for a particular issue.
If an e-petition reaches 10,000 signatures the Government will issue a written response.
If an e-petition reaches 100,000 signatures the petition becomes eligible for a Parliamentary debate (usually Monday 4.30pm in Westminster Hall).
These initiatives were driven by Mike Crockart, and are more likely to reflect personal policy preferences.
MPs who are act as Ministers or Shadow Ministers are generally restricted from performing Commons initiatives other than Urgent Questions.
Mike Crockart has not been granted any Urgent Questions
Mike Crockart has not been granted any Adjournment Debates
The Bill failed to complete its passage through Parliament before the end of the session. This means the Bill will make no further progress.
Mike Crockart has not co-sponsored any Bills in the current parliamentary sitting
The UK and Scottish Governments have both said that there can be no pre-negotiations on what the terms of Scottish independence might be before the referendum takes place on 18 September.
The UK and Scottish Governments have both said that there can be no pre-negotiations on what the terms of Scottish independence might be before the referendum takes place on 18 September.
Information collected centrally does not distinguish between apprentices living at home with parents and those who have moved away for the purpose of study.
We annually ask apprentices for their views and 88% say they are satisfied with their apprenticeship.
The last Apprentice Pay Survey was published in 2012. The Government has recently commissioned a new Apprentice Pay Survey. This will provide a complete overview of Apprentice pay in Great Britain by autumn 2014. In addition it is now possible to specifically identify information relating to apprentices within the large Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings.
Apprentice pay is reviewed annually by the independent Low Pay Commission (LPC) as part of their review of the Apprentice National Minimum Wage. Since its introduction in 2010 the LPC has not found any evidence that the Apprentice rate damaged employment levels.
The Government has recently accepted the LPC's recommendation to increase the Apprentice rate by 2% to £2.73 per hour. In the judgment of the LPC a higher rate would risk damaging employment of Apprentices. Research shows that in reality the majority of employers pay more – the average pay for apprentices in 2012 is £200 per week (England only).
The Apprentice minimum wage recognises that employers invest significantly in apprenticeships and may be put off recruiting apprentices due to their lack of experience in the workplace and the additional training costs involved. Young people who complete an Apprenticeship derive significant long-term advantages and their investment in training has clear benefits.
We plan to publish a consultation document shortly, which will seek views on proposals to lower the legal threshold for enforcement of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) 2003. Following consultation we will look to implement any reforms as soon as parliamentary time allows.
The roundtable on nuisance calls and texts last met on 23 September 2013 and since then we have worked with stakeholders to finalise our Nuisance Calls Action Plan, which was published on 30 March of this year. The next roundtable meeting is being arranged and will be confirmed soon subject to diary commitments.
All food imported from the US must adhere to EU rules and TTIP will not change that. Any changes to food safety measures in the European Union must be subject to a robust scientific risk assessment and agreed by EU Member States and the European Parliament.
No central records are held of the details of dog warden services provided by local authorities.
There are no central records of the numbers of dogs in the UK. However, estimates by animal welfare organisations and pet food manufacturers of the dog population in the UK range from 7 to 10 million.
Statistics for numbers in receipt of State Pension are available from 100% data and are published on the Department’s website at:
http://tabulation-tool.dwp.gov.uk/100pc/sp/tabtool_sp.html
Guidance for users is available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dwp-tabulation-tool-guidance
Information is not available on the number of people entitled but who have not claimed their State Pension or how many people in each local authority area are expected to receive it in 2015-16.
Currently the child element will be awarded to the parent with whom the child or qualifying young person normally lives. Where separated parents both share the care of a child or qualifying young person they are expected to jointly nominate which of them has the main responsibility.
Where parents are unable to come to an agreement themselves, a determination will be made. This will take account of where the child normally lives and who has the main day to day responsibility.
The proposed approach to Universal Credit was set out in a White Paper "Universal Credit: Welfare that Works" and in draft Regulations upon which a wide range of organisations responded to in the consultation exercise carried out by the Social Security Advisory Committee.
Currently the child element will be awarded to the parent with whom the child or qualifying young person normally lives. Where separated parents both share the care of a child or qualifying young person they are expected to jointly nominate which of them has the main responsibility.
Where parents are unable to come to an agreement themselves, a determination will be made. This will take account of where the child normally lives and who has the main day to day responsibility.
The proposed approach to Universal Credit was set out in a White Paper "Universal Credit: Welfare that Works" and in draft Regulations upon which a wide range of organisations responded to in the consultation exercise carried out by the Social Security Advisory Committee.
Companies pay all Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme payments to the Department of Health in England. The total United Kingdom payments will be allocated to each of the four UK countries in a fair way and the estimated payments for England have been included within the NHS England budget. The method for apportioning 2014-15 payments will be based on primary care data for spend on licensed branded medicines, as the most consistent data set available across the UK. Income will be apportioned using prescribing data for the same period as the income relates, on a quarterly basis.
HMRCs compliance performance is measured using internal management information systems. This data is constructed from information derived from individual cases or activities within HMRC. These systems can be split into type of tax, but not into behaviour and customer group, as this is not a standard HMRC performance reporting metric.
The additional tax revenues collected from compliance activities by HM Revenue and Customs for each year since May 2010 is as follows.
(£bn) | 2010/11* | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 |
Outturns | 13.9 | 18.6 | 20.7 | 23.9 | |
Target | 26 |
*Note: the methodology for calculating additional tax revenues from compliance activity changed between 2010/11 and 2011/12, and so the figure of £13.9bn is not directly comparable to later years.
HMRCs compliance performance is measured using internal management information systems. This data is constructed from information derived from individual cases or activities within HMRC. These systems can be split into type of tax, but not into behaviour and customer group, as this is not a standard HMRC performance reporting metric.
The additional tax revenues collected from compliance activities by HM Revenue and Customs for each year since May 2010 is as follows.
(£bn) | 2010/11* | 2011/12 | 2012/13 | 2013/14 | 2014/15 |
Outturns | 13.9 | 18.6 | 20.7 | 23.9 | |
Target | 26 |
*Note: the methodology for calculating additional tax revenues from compliance activity changed between 2010/11 and 2011/12, and so the figure of £13.9bn is not directly comparable to later years.
Estimates of the amounts of income tax paid by taxpayers at the basic rate and other rates of tax in the years 2011-12 to 2014-15 are published in HM Revenue and Customs’s (HMRC’s) National Statistics table 2.5 which is available at the following internet address;
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/306857/Table_2.5.pdf
These estimates are based on the Survey of Personal Incomes (SPI) outturn data up to 2011-12, and then projected to 2014-15 in line with the Office for Budget Responsibility's March 2014 economic and fiscal outlook.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is active in assessing and tackling the risks of evasion, avoidance and error amongst large businesses. HMRC’s approach has enabled it to recover over £16billion in additional compliance revenues from large businesses between April 2012 and March 2014.
No external agencies currently carry out specific character enquiries on behalf of UK Visas and Immigration as part of the application process. UK Visas and Immigration routinely completes robust checks itself to inform its assessment
of character, accessing information collated by other Government departments and agencies for their own purposes. No information is aggregated in national reporting systems to enable reporting on the time taken for these checks to be
returned.
Armed Forces pensions are currently uprated annually in April using the Consumer Price Index (CPI) figure from the previous September. These are occupational pensions and are therefore paid, including any CPI increase, to scheme members wherever they reside in the world.
The UK Government is confident that the people of Scotland will continue to support remaining within the UK. There have, therefore, been no discussions with the Scottish Government about this matter.
Armed Forces pensions are currently uprated annually in April using the Consumer Price Index (CPI) figure from the previous September. These are occupational pensions and are therefore paid, including any CPI increase, to scheme members wherever they reside in the world.
The UK Government is confident that the people of Scotland will continue to support remaining within the UK. There have, therefore, been no discussions with the Scottish Government about this matter.
Latest official figures show that employment levels are at a record high with 2.6 million people over 16 now employed in Scotland. Over the last year 68,000 more people entered work, including an increase of 46,000 in the female employment level.
These figures show that the Government's long term economic plan is working, and how Scotland benefits as part of the UK.