Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending the Coronavirus Jobs Retention Scheme for businesses affected by social distancing or travel restrictions until the end of Q3 2021, particularly in the live events and conference sectors.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government has provided a comprehensive economic response that is one of the most generous globally, including very substantial steps to protect jobs. The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) has helped to pay the wages of people in 9.9 million jobs across the country, providing £46.4bn worth of support as of 13 December. The Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) has received claims from 2.7 million self-employed workers, amounting to £13.7bn as of 13 December.
The Government will set out the next phase of the plan to tackle the virus and support jobs at Budget 2021.
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking at an international level to agree a global plan to ensure the safe return of all children to school.
Answered by Wendy Morton
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, two thirds of the academic year have been lost on average worldwide. It is important that schools in low and lower middle income countries reopen as soon as it is safe to do so.
The FCDO is playing a leading role in championing every girl's right to 12 years of quality education. We are using our G7 presidency to ensure the safe return of all children to school. We are asking our international partners to get behind two ambitious global targets - to see 40 million more girls into education, and a third more reading by the age of 10 in low and middle income countries by 2025. On 28 and 29 July, the UK and Kenya will co-host the Global Education Summit: Financing the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) in London. GPE aims to raise $5 billion over the next five years to help education systems build back better following COVID-19, and ensure all children return to school to learn.
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to help ensure the return of (a) the poorest and most marginalised and (b) all children to school.
Answered by Wendy Morton
FCDO country offices are actively supporting partner governments to open schools up when it is safe to do so to ensure that the poorest and most marginalised are not left behind.
The UK is also supporting global efforts to ensure all children return to school. We have provided £20 million to UNICEF to protect vulnerable children, £5 million to the Education Cannot Wait fund to support emergency education in conflict-affected countries, and £5.3 million to UNHCR to fund the salaries of over 5,500 teachers in refugee camps across 10 countries. In the meantime, our bilateral support to 18 countries has pivoted to ensure that girls, children with disabilities, and those affected by conflict can continue to access learning materials so that they are ready to return to school once it is safe to do so.
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what exceptions and general licences to the US Houthi terror designation will be issued to protect organisations supplying essential commercial and humanitarian produce to Yemen.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
On 5 February, the US announced that they will reverse the previous administration's designation of the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation. We welcome this decision and have engaged closely with the US administration on this matter, sharing our concerns that designation would seriously disrupt humanitarian operations in Yemen.
However, we cannot ignore Houthi actions. These include the use of children and sexual violence as tools of war, the persecution of religious minorities and attacks on civilians. On 30 December, the Houthi attack on Aden airport killed 27 civilians and injured over 100 others. We must address the Houthi sense of impunity to make progress of the peace process.
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effect on the humanitarian situation in Yemen of the US designation of the Houthis as a terror organisation.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
On 5 February, the US announced that they will reverse the previous administration's designation of the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation. We welcome this decision and have engaged closely with the US administration on this matter, sharing our concerns that designation would seriously disrupt humanitarian operations in Yemen.
However, we cannot ignore Houthi actions. These include the use of children and sexual violence as tools of war, the persecution of religious minorities and attacks on civilians. On 30 December, the Houthi attack on Aden airport killed 27 civilians and injured over 100 others. We must address the Houthi sense of impunity to make progress of the peace process.
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he publish a comparative estimate of the contribution of (a) personal care settings such as hair and beauty salons, barbershops and in mobile services and (b) hospitality and leisure sectors to the covid-19 R rate.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
It is not possible to systematically identify where infection occurs in individual positive cases definitive data on the different locations where transmissions occur is not available.
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions he has had with (a) EU and (b) other international counterparts on the relaxation of visa term limits for UK citizens abroad while global travel restrictions remain in place due to the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The current advice for those across the UK remains to stay at home and not travel abroad unless it is for a legally permitted reason. Our advice to British nationals abroad is that they should follow the public health advice of the country which they are in, including current COVID-19 restrictions. Other countries maintain their own visa regimes. Requirements for stays beyond visa or visa free periods are subject to national procedures for each country. Any queries on applicable regimes are for the relevant immigration authorities in that country.
If a British national overseas requires consular assistance, the FCDO can be contacted by phone or email 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year. The kind of assistance we offer is tailored to the individual circumstances of each case. Ministers raise specific issues of concern affecting British nationals overseas as appropriate. As of 1 January 2021, British Citizens do not need a visa when travelling to the EU for visits of up to 90 days in any 180-day period, for tourism and similar activities.
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans her Department has to set up a serial number registration scheme to tackle the theft of catalytic converters from cars.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The Government recognises the negative impact this crime has on industry and the public, causing distress and disruption to victims. We continue to work closely with police and motor manufacturers through the National Vehicle Crime Working Group, established by the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for vehicle crime and overseen by the Government’s Crime and Justice Taskforce, to understand what more can be done to tackle the theft of catalytic converters.
The Government is committed to reducing both the opportunity for these crimes to occur and the ability to profit from acquisitive crime. We are working with the police to identify where and how stolen goods are sold and are examining ways to ensure property is identifiable and traceable.
We are committed to providing funding to set up the National Infrastructure Crime Reduction Partnership, ensuring national co-ordination of policing and law enforcement partners to tackle metal theft. Through this, the partnership has already started sharing intelligence and providing training to police forces, and the partnership will also enable intelligence sharing between police and industry partners such as transport, power, and telecommunications, to target offenders and implement crime prevention measures.
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 15 December 2020 to Question 128274, what support allocated to the cinema sector remains unallocated as at 25 January 2021; and how his Department plans to distribute the remaining funding.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The government recognises the significant cultural and economic value of cinemas, and has supported them through both sector-specific and economy-wide measures during the COVID-19 crisis.
In the first round of the £1.57bn Culture Recovery Fund, more than 200 independent cinemas have so far received funding. As of 25 January 2021, £16.6m has been awarded from the Culture Recovery Fund for Independent Cinemas, managed by the British Film Institute on behalf of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. This is from the £30m pot allocated as part of the Fund’s first round.
We have agreed a thorough and robust assessment process for the Fund and are confident in the process established to support the sector. The BFI are continuing to process and assess a small number of outstanding applications, so we cannot confirm the final round one award total at this stage.
Further to this funding, we announced in December that cinemas will be able to apply to a pot of up to £14 million in grants as part of the second round of the Culture Recovery Fund in 2021. This will support cinemas as they transition back to a viable and sustainable operating model from April to June 2021.
In addition to the Culture Recovery Fund, cinemas have also benefited from economy-wide measures including the VAT cut on tickets and concessions, a business rates holiday, access to Bounce Back Loans, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and Local Restrictions Support Grants.
Asked by: Nickie Aiken (Conservative - Cities of London and Westminster)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of providing direct access to funding for the Bounce Back Loan to (a) non-bank organisations and (b) electronic money institutions whose clients may be unable to access the Bounce Back Loan through other lenders.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
There are 29 accredited lenders under the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) including challenger banks and non-bank lenders (NBLs) who have played a vital role in providing 1.4 million businesses with financial support worth over £42 billion throughout the Covid crisis.
The Government position remains that it does not provide capital to financial institutions, who must source their own funding. Last year, the Treasury issued a Call for Evidence in order to explore a possible private-sector led funding model that would support accredited NBLs to access finance to participate in the BBLS. Based on the feedback we received, including the significant commercial challenges highlighted by both non-bank lenders and the banks, the Government decided not to pursue this funding solution any further. Notwithstanding that decision, we have made changes to allow the transfer and assignment of the Government guarantee for all government-guaranteed loan schemes loans, which is something that NBLs have requested, to support their ability to access funding from commercial partners.