Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he plans to respond to the letter of 7 April 2020 from the hon. Member for Perth and North Perthshire, reference PW10166.
Answered by Jesse Norman
HM Treasury has received unprecedented amounts of correspondence since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, and apologises for the delay in responding to the Honourable Member. The Honourable Member’s correspondence is receiving attention and will be replied to as soon as possible.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he plans to respond to the letter of 8 April 2020 from the hon. Member for Perth and North Perthshire, reference PW10205.
Answered by Jesse Norman
HM Treasury has received unprecedented amounts of correspondence since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, and apologises for the delay in responding to the Honourable Member. The Honourable Member’s correspondence is receiving attention and will be replied to as soon as possible.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
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 respond to the letter dated 14 April 2020 from the hon Member for Perth and North Perthshire, reference PW10251.
Answered by Paul Scully
A reply was sent to the hon Member on 29 April.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
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 respond to the letter dated 3 April 2020 from the hon Member for Perth and North Perthshire, reference PW10093.
Answered by Paul Scully
A reply was sent to the hon Member on 4 May.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what visa requirements will apply after the transition period for individuals from other European countries wishing to volunteer for a period of one to two years in the UK.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Under the current Immigration Rules, there are a range of routes for specialist activities, including temporary charity workers.
There are no current plans to change these routes, though from January 2021, these routes will be opened to EEA and Swiss citizens.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the compliance of the blog post entitled Two hands are a lot, published by Dominic Cummings on 2 January 2020, with paragraphs (a) 5, (b) 6 and (c)14 of his Department's December 2016 Code of Conduct for Special Advisers.
Answered by Oliver Dowden - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
I refer the Hon member to the response which I gave to PQ1411 on 14 January 2020.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the shortfall in the number of seasonal workers in (a) the horticultural sector and (b) other forms of agriculture (i) in 2018 and (ii) between April and October 2017; and what steps he is taking to prevent a shortfall in future years.
Answered by George Eustice
Peak demand for seasonal labour takes place in the third quarter of the year so it is too early to make an assessment for the current year.
Defra’s best estimate of the number of seasonal workers is 64,200 from the June 2016 Survey of Agriculture and Horticulture, however industry have higher estimates.
The ONS does not collect data on seasonal labour from the EU, so statistics on shortages in 2017 are not available.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effect of the closure of the seasonal agricultural workers scheme on the economic output of the horticultural industry in (a) the UK and (b) Scotland since 2014.
Answered by George Eustice
The Government keeps its position on seasonal workers under close review.
Defra has been monitoring the economic output of the horticultural industry and there has been an increase in output in real terms between 2014 and 2017 (latest available data) for both the UK and Scotland.
According to Agriculture in the United Kingdom 2017[1] output of potatoes, vegetables and horticultural products in the UK saw an increase of £531 million in real terms between 2014 and 2017. Output of fruit in the UK saw an increase of £110 million between 2014 and 2017 in real terms.
Output of the horticultural industry in Scotland increased between 2014 and 2017 by £66million in nominal terms. These figures have been taken from the Scottish Government website. [2][3]
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions his Department has had with internet service providers on the continued high search result rankings of secondary ticketing websites on the internet.
Answered by Margot James
We are determined to crackdown on unacceptable behaviour in the online ticketing market and improve fans’ chances of buying tickets at a reasonable price. We recognise that Government can’t act alone in addressing this issue, and that the ticketing industry and online platforms need to take actions themselves. We therefore welcome the announcement by Google requiring ticket resellers to be certified before they can advertise through its AdWords platform, and trust that it will be working to ensure its effectiveness, and that it will take action to enforce compliance with the new rules.
Asked by: Pete Wishart (Scottish National Party - Perth and North Perthshire)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what plans his Department has to ensure that UK musicians can tour the EU after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Margot James
The Department is working closely with the music industry to better understand the potential impacts of the UK’s exit from the European Union (EU) on UK musicians being able to tour the EU. .
In addition, we are working closely with the Home Office, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU) to ensure that they are well informed of these issues.
We want to continue to build on the success of the live music scene and are committed to supporting artists perform across the world to ensure the continued growth of this vital and vibrant sector.