Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - North West Durham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to help ensure that British Overseas Territories are not being used to circumvent sanctions.
Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Government is proud of the principled stand that the Overseas Territories have taken in relation to implementing sanctions. UK sanctions apply in all Overseas Territories. The elected leaders of the Territories have publicly confirmed their commitment to continuing to uphold the highest international standards of transparency and accountability and to fully implementing the UK sanctions against Russia. The Government will continue to provide guidance and support on implementation of sanctions where appropriate. Additionally, the UK's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation, which sits within HM Treasury, engages regularly with Overseas Territories on compliance, enforcement and licensing. This engagement has assisted these jurisdictions in improving the implementation of financial sanctions across the wider British Family.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - North West Durham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, in the context of the conflict in Ukraine, whether the Government plans to encourage British Overseas Territories to speed up the introduction of publicly accessible registers of beneficial ownership.
Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The UK and the Overseas Territories stand united in condemning the Russian Government's egregious violation of international law and the UN Charter. The Overseas Territories released a joint statement in solidarity with the UK, which reaffirmed their commitment to continuing to uphold the highest international standards of transparency and accountability.
All Overseas Territories have committed to introduce publicly accessible registers of company beneficial ownership. These commitments exceed the standards set by the Financial Action Task Force on beneficial ownership transparency, and put them ahead of most jurisdictions. The UK Government expects the registers to be in place by the end of 2023.
The six Overseas Territories with global financial centres already share beneficial ownership information with UK law enforcement agencies under the exchange of notes arrangements.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - North West Durham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to support young people on the Kickstart scheme to progress to apprenticeships and further education to up-skill them.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) Kickstart Scheme was a job creation programme established to ensure that 16-24 year olds in receipt of Universal Credit would have access to fully-funded six-month job opportunities. Our work with employers has seen over 162,600 jobs having been started by young people, who were most at risk of suffering the scarring effects of long-term unemployment as a result of the pandemic.
Employers participating in the Kickstart Scheme are required to provide employability support to young people to allow them to build their skills in the workplace. This support is intended to improve their chances of progressing to find long-term sustainable work. DWP provided additional grant funding to employers of £1,500 for each young person to support with this.
Young people returning to Universal Credit following the end of a Kickstart job will be given bespoke support appropriate to their circumstances by their Jobcentre Plus Work Coach. This may include coaching or guidance towards other provision or support options if appropriate. Work coaches also promote apprenticeship opportunities to claimants of all ages as a first step in a career as part of their regular interventions. In addition to this, DWP secured an agreement with the Department for Education that Kickstart jobs would not count as previous employment with that employer for the purposes of the apprenticeship incentive. This was intended to encourage employers to actively consider transitioning on a young person into an apprenticeship after their Kickstart job.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - North West Durham)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to help ensure an adequate supply of cobalt steel for UK industry following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
It has not proved possible to respond to my hon Friend in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - North West Durham)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to ensure that steel required for UK manufacturing that is not produced in the UK is accessible to UK industry in the context of the impact of import quotas on market access to that product.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
It has not proved possible to respond to my hon. Friend in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - North West Durham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when her Department reviewed the (a) thresholds for and (b) amount of pension tax credit in each of the last five years; and what changes were made to those (i) thresholds and (ii) amounts at each of those reviews.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - North West Durham)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with representatives of energy companies on the reasons for the increase in the day-to-day connectivity charge for smart metering for (a) existing and (b) new customers.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Energy consumers are not subject to a day-to-day connectivity charge for having a smart meter.
Energy suppliers may apply standing charges, a fixed charge that suppliers pass on to cover the cost of providing a live supply, for each metering point whether for a smart or traditional meter.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - North West Durham)
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 implications for his policies of the increase by energy companies in standing charges on energy bills; and if he will make an assessment of the reasons for that increase given that the pure cost of connection has not risen.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The standing charge is a fixed charge that suppliers pass on to their customers to cover the cost of providing a live supply. One component of these costs relates to transmission and distribution costs, which have increased recently, as the Supplier of Last Resort (SoLR) levy is paid via network costs. The SoLR levy covers the unrecoverable costs of a supplier taking on the customers of a failed supplier and reflects the significantly higher costs of purchasing wholesale energy since August. The standing charge is passed on to consumers as a flat rate per day, rather than as a percentage charge, based on how much energy they use.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - North West Durham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the difference in financial support provided from (a) universal credit and (b) legacy benefits for an average family with two children aged six and eight with one parent working full time on the minimum wage and one working 16 hours a week.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
No estimate has been made of the difference between UC and legacy for an average family and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
We have not looked at all families with 2 children aged 6 and 8 with these earnings and established the difference. The average difference would be impacted by other UC elements that they might be eligible for, including for example if claiming housing costs or not.
This information is held across a number of data sets therefore would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - North West Durham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the average length of time is between the first appointment with a GP and obtaining a full diagnosis of female autism; and if he will make an assessment of the effectiveness of NHS procedures for diagnosing that condition; and whether he plans to improve those procedures.
Answered by Gillian Keegan - Secretary of State for Education
The information requested is not held in the format requested. NHS Digital began reporting experimental data on waiting times for autism assessments in November 2019. However, this data is not available by gender and does not report an average waiting time between referral and diagnosis. While no specific assessment of the effectiveness of autism diagnostic procedures for women and girls has been made, the 2019 public call for evidence to inform the autism strategy received evidence about the barriers women and girls experienced in the diagnosis process. NHS England and NHS Improvement are reviewing ways to improve the quality of diagnosis for women and girls to ensure the effectiveness of autism diagnostic pathways. In addition, an early identification of autism pilot is also testing whether identification and diagnosis of girls can be improved.