Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and Kinross-shire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, in the context of the driving test backlog, if he will take steps to increase the number of driving test slots available, particularly in rural areas.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) operates a 24-week booking window for car tests and there are test slots available within this window.
Driver testing services were significantly disrupted during the pandemic, which has led to a high demand for learners who are now wanting to take their driving test. The DVSA is working hard to provide as many practical driving test appointments as it can and has a number of measures in place to do this. These include offering a national recovery allowance and annual leave buy back to examiners, asking all those qualified to conduct tests, but who do not do so as part of their current day job, to return to conducting tests, conducting out of hours testing (such as on public holidays and weekends), and resuming the number of driving tests per day to seven for each full-time examiner.
The DVSA is also recruiting more than 300 driving examiners across Great Britain. The DVSA’s examiner recruitment campaigns continue to be successful but, like many employers, it is finding the job market extremely competitive. As it moves through each recruitment campaign, the DVSA will continually review and make changes and improvements to its recruitment and selection process, and training courses.
To reduce the number of driving tests that go to waste, the DVSA has introduced a text messaging service to remind candidates about their test and has also launched a ‘Ready to Pass?’ campaign to improve learners’ understanding of what it means to be test ready and how they can assess their readiness.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and Kinross-shire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the financial impact on the UK audio-visual sector of his decision to expand the text and data mining exception.
Answered by Jane Hunt
The Government asked specific questions about impact in the consultation on AI and IP, but received very limited quantitative evidence. An impact assessment will be published alongside the legislation when laid. The proposed exception will be targeted to limit negative impacts, and the government welcomes further evidence from rights holders on how to best achieve this.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and Kinross-shire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much revenue has been raised from the Duty Stamps Scheme since the introduction of that scheme.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Duty stamps do not raise revenue, they are an anti-fraud measure that have helped secure the alcohol supply chain, making it more difficult for illicit products to infiltrate the market. HMRC’s tax gap estimate indicates that such measures are successfully keeping spirit’s fraud at historically low levels.
The Government is keen to support innovation in the alcohol sector. That is why, at Budget 2020, we announced plans to review alcohol duty with the aim of improving the current system to make it simpler, more economically rational and less administratively burdensome.
Following a Call for Evidence launched in October 2020, the Government is currently considering the responses. While scope of this review does not include duty stamps, HM Revenue and Customs will review the duty stamps policy when any changes to the alcohol regime have been developed.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and Kinross-shire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to review the application of duty stamps on Scotch whisky and spirits.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Duty stamps do not raise revenue, they are an anti-fraud measure that have helped secure the alcohol supply chain, making it more difficult for illicit products to infiltrate the market. HMRC’s tax gap estimate indicates that such measures are successfully keeping spirit’s fraud at historically low levels.
The Government is keen to support innovation in the alcohol sector. That is why, at Budget 2020, we announced plans to review alcohol duty with the aim of improving the current system to make it simpler, more economically rational and less administratively burdensome.
Following a Call for Evidence launched in October 2020, the Government is currently considering the responses. While scope of this review does not include duty stamps, HM Revenue and Customs will review the duty stamps policy when any changes to the alcohol regime have been developed.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and Kinross-shire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many instances of sprits and duty fraud have been successfully prosecuted since the introduction of the Duty Stamps Scheme.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
HMRC regularly publishes alcohol fraud prosecution data on the GOV.UK website. The most recent publication (Tackling alcohol smuggling: outputs – April 2016 to April 2019) shows that during the period April 2016 and March 2019 HMRC conducted 33 arrests with 25 convictions for offences relating to alcohol fraud. Figures for the periods since April 2019 will be published in due course.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and Kinross-shire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has had recent discussions with representatives from the EU to understand whether the simultaneous disclosure of unregistered designs in the UK and EU would provide protection for those designs in the UK and EU.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
The UK sought an agreement with the EU on reciprocal disclosure for unregistered designs. This would have been beneficial to UK design businesses. However, the
EU decided to pass up the opportunity to conclude such mutually beneficial text, which is disappointing. There are no plans to revisit this issue with our EU partners.
However, the Government recognises that this an important issue for UK designers and will consider it in our future work on the UK designs system.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and Kinross-shire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of raising the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court Small Claims Track Cap to £25,000 in line with a Fast-Track claim.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
As part of its work on IP enforcement issues the IPO has facilitated a series of working groups over the last year looking at the enforcement framework. The cost and accessibility of court processes for IP disputes was considered as part of this review, and questions on these topics were included in the call for views which closed in November this year. The IPO is currently considering the responses received from that exercise and will carry out further assessment as necessary before any recommendations are taken forwards.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and Kinross-shire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when he plans to implement recommendation 13b in Annex G of the Digital Market’s Taskforce’s report entitled A new pro-competition regime for digital markets.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government is committed to ensuring digital markets remain competitive and deliver positive outcomes for consumers, small businesses, and society. That is why we have announced funding to establish a new Digital Markets Unit within the Competition and Markets Authority from 2021-22.
We set up the Digital Markets Taskforce in March to offer expert advice. We will now consider the recommendations, including 13b and consult on proposals for a new pro-competition regime for digital markets in early 2021.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and Kinross-shire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing an online system to submit claims to the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court Small Claims Track.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
As part of its work on IP enforcement issues the IPO has facilitated a series of working groups over the last year looking at the enforcement framework. The cost and accessibility of court processes for IP disputes was considered as part of this review, and questions on these topics were included in the call for views which closed in November this year. The IPO is currently considering the responses received from that exercise and will carry out further assessment and consult other departments as necessary before any recommendations are taken forwards.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and Kinross-shire)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions his Department has had with the Ministry of Justice on the publication of judgments from the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court Small Claims Track.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
As part of its work on IP enforcement issues the IPO has facilitated a series of working groups over the last year looking at the enforcement framework. The cost and accessibility of court processes for IP disputes was considered as part of this review, and questions on these topics were discussed with Ministry of Justice officials before being included in the call for views which closed in November this year. The IPO is currently considering the responses received from that exercise and will discuss any potential recommendations with other departments and the Judiciary as appropriate.