Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to ensure that 33 per cent of government contracts are given to small and medium-sized businesses by the end of the 2017 Parliament.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Government has already made a number of changes to its procurement processes to help SMEs, which includes banning the use of prequalification questionnaires for low value contracts; ensuring opportunities are advertised on Contracts Finder; and requiring the payment of all undisputed invoices in no more than 30 days.
All of the government’s strategic suppliers have now signed up to the Prompt Payment Code, boosting cash flow for SMEs and allowing them to invest in growth.
We have a national Small Business Panel made up of 24 experts who advise government on the barriers which businesses face when trying to supply goods and services to central government. The panel is working on a number of key issues which will contribute to the 33% target by increasing the number of small businesses contracting with government departments.
We will shortly be consulting on new measures to further break down barriers to entry for SMEs.
Finally, SMEs can use the excellent Mystery Shopper service - recently praised to me by the Federation of Small Businesses as 'stonkingly good' - to tell us about the problems and concerns they have in doing business with the whole public sector.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of the working population of East Ham constituency is employed in the (a) public and (b) private sector.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the effect on UK data privacy legislation of not incorporating into UK law, Article 8 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The UK has a long history of protecting the rights of its citizens, and we intend to continue
to protect those rights through our domestic legislation. The Data Protection Bill will set
high standards for protecting personal data in accordance with the GDPR. We will
continue to provide a world-class standard of data protection after we leave the European
Union
The removal of the Charter from UK law should not affect the substantive rights that
individuals already benefit from in the UK when their data are processed. The Charter is
not the source of rights contained within it, it was intended only to catalogue rights that
already existed in EU law. The Government has committed to implementing the GDPR,
which affords individuals judicial redress in the event of a data breach.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the number of eligible electors in East Ham constituency who are not registered to vote in the 2017 UK General Election.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many new businesses have been set up in the London Borough of Newham in each year since 2010.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many voters were on the electoral register on 1 January in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
Information regarding the total number of registered electors is not held centrally by the Government as each local authority maintains their own local register. Full register totals can be found on the Office for National Statistics website, where annual electoral statistic reports are located. You can find these at goo.gl/uXB4aK
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of lowering the voting age to 16.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to the hon. Member for Easington on Wednesday 28 June 2017 to written question 358.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to increase voter registration.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The Government is committed to working with the electoral community to maximise electoral registration to ensure everyone who is eligible to vote in polls is able to do so. It is widely recognised that the introduction of online registration has transformed democratic engagement, making it easier, simpler and faster for people to register to vote. For the recent General Election, nearly 3 million applications to register to vote were received between the announcement of the General Election on April 18 and the registration deadline on May 22. Informal indications are that the parliamentary registers used for the general election were the largest ever.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many teenage pregnancies there have been in (a) the UK, (b) Greater London and (c) the London Borough of Newham in each year since 2010.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the average salary of full-time equivalent employees was in East Ham constituency in April of each year since 2010.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.