Asked by: William Bain (Labour - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what recent discussions he has had with cabinet colleagues on implementation of the UK's domestic and international legal obligations on human rights.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave to the oral question from the Hon. Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn) earlier today.
Asked by: William Bain (Labour - Glasgow North East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many individuals and companies have been prosecuted for tax evasion in each of the last five financial years.
Answered by David Gauke
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is not a prosecuting authority. Where cases do proceed to the criminal courts the prosecution is carried out by the relevant independent prosecuting authority. This is the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) in England and Wales, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) in Scotland, and the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland (PPSNI). Prosecutions for criminal offences are only instigated against individuals, not companies.
This Government has invested over £917million over this Parliament which has seen the volume of mass market evasion prosecutions implemented as a result of HMRC Criminal Investigations increase fivefold.
The table below shows all prosecutions arising from HMRC criminal investigations including those for money laundering, other prohibitions and restrictions and other non-fiscal offences.
| Year | Total number of persons prosecuted as a result of HMRC Criminal Investigations |
| 2010-11 | 420 |
| 2011-12 | 545 |
| 2012-13 | 770 |
| 2013-14 | 915 |
The following table excludes cases prosecuted for money laundering, other prohibitions and restrictions and other non-fiscal offences as included in the table above and shows prosecutions for tax evasion offences only.
| Year | Total number of persons prosecuted for tax evasion as result of HMRC Criminal Investigations |
| 2010-11 | 372 |
| 2011-12 | 501 |
| 2012-13 | 739 |
| 2013-14 | 880 |
HMRC is not able to supply a time series of full year prosecution decisions and convictions resulting from their criminal investigations for years up to 2009–10. Complete, comparable data is only available from 2010–11 onwards.
Asked by: William Bain (Labour - Glasgow North East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many staff in HM Revenue and Customs have been assigned to deal with (a) pursuing cases of tax evasion and (b) investigating tax avoidance schemes in each of the last four financial years.
Answered by David Gauke
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) allocates resources in a flexible manner, so that it maximises performance.
Information on the structure and organisation of HM Revenue and Customs is available at
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrcs-annual-report-and-accounts
Asked by: William Bain (Labour - Glasgow North East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will assess the effect on revenues to the Exchequer of buy-to-let landlords (a) being able to offset their bank interest against taxable income, (b) claiming the 10 per cent wear and tear allowance and (c) minimising their exposure to capital gains tax on the sale of properties by use of allowances or reliefs in each of the last three years.
Answered by David Gauke
The information requested is not available.
Asked by: William Bain (Labour - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will publish a list of the high charging pension schemes referred to by the Independent Project Board in its report, Defined contribution workplace pensions: The audit of charges and benefits in legacy schemes, published in December 2014.
Answered by Steve Webb
The recent audit of charges and benefits in legacy pension schemes was undertaken by an Independent Project Board, on which the Department for Work and Pensions was represented. The data collected as part of the legacy audit which was shared with members of the Independent Project Board was aggregated and anonymised. We do not therefore hold provider or scheme specific information.
Asked by: William Bain (Labour - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to the government of Sudan on the legal status and detention of Dr. Amin Mekki Medani, Farouk Abu Eissa and Farah Ibrahim Mohamed Algar.
Answered by Lord Swire
Officials from our Embassy in Khartoum have made representations to the Government of Sudan about the detention of Dr. Amin Mekki Medani, Farouk Abu Eissa and Farah Ibrahim Mohamed al-Agar. Additionally, we issued a statement with our Troika partners (the United States and Norway) on 23 December calling for their immediate release.
Asked by: William Bain (Labour - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he has received any reports from the government of Sudan regarding the legal status and detention of Dr Amin Mekki Medani, Farouk Abu Eissa and Farah Ibrahim Mohamed Alagar.
Answered by Lord Swire
We have not received any reports from the Government of Sudan on the legal status and detention of Dr Amin Mekki Medani, Farouk Abu Eissa and Farah Ibrahim Mohamed Alagar. Officials from our Embassy in Khartoum have been told by the detainees’ legal team that they remain under arrest but have not been charged. Our officials will keep monitoring their cases.Asked by: William Bain (Labour - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Leader of the House:
To ask the Leader of the House, what assessment he has made of the effect of the creation of the Backbench Business Committee on the work of the House.
Answered by Lord Hague of Richmond
I have not made a recent assessment of the effect of the creation of the Backbench Business Committee on the work of the House, but the Government response to the Procedure Committee review, published in February 2013, agreed that the Backbench Business Committee had been 'widely welcomed as a successful and effective innovation'.
Asked by: William Bain (Labour - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers who have been granted permission to work, where the claimant has waited more than 12 months for an initial decision on their asylum claims for asylum-based further submissions, are recorded as having subsequently secured employment in each of the last three years.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The information requested by the Honourable Member is not centrally recorded and as such could only be answered with data collated through a disproportionately expensive manual search of individual case files.
Asked by: William Bain (Labour - Glasgow North East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum seekers have been granted permission to work where the claimant has waited more than 12 months for an initial decision on their asylum claim or asylum-based further submissions in each of the last three years.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The information requested by the Honourable Member is not centrally recorded and as such could only be answered with data collated through a disproportionately expensive manual search of individual case files.