Show Search Form

Search Results

registered interest	true false
date	exactly: or between: and
answering body
answering dept id
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name
house id
legislature	pref label
question text
tabling member constituency
tabling member printed
uin
answer	is ministerial correction true false date of answer exactly: or between: and answer text answering member constituency answering member printed grouped question UIN question first answered answering member label
tabling member	label

Search

47135

registered interest
date	07/04/2014
answering body	Department for Culture Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Culture, Media and Sport
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent steps she has taken to increase tourism to (a) Berkshire and (b) the South East; and if she will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Windsor
tabling member printed	Adam Afriyie
uin	195452
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/04/2014 answer text <p> </p><p>DCMS is responsible for the policy that supports the growth of domestic and international tourism, working in partnership with other Government Departments and our Arms-Length Bodies, VisitBritain and VisitEngland. Between 2011 and 2015, Government is investing more than £105m in tourism through the GREAT and other international campaigns. Investment to date is showing positive results. 2013 was a record year for inbound tourism with 32.9 million international visits being made which generated a record £21 billion into the UK in 2013.</p><p>In terms of Berkshire specifically, VisitBritain's public-facing website includes a range of tourism information relating to Windsor which is available via the following link: <a href="http://www.visitbritain.com/en/Destinations-and-Maps/History-and-heritage/Windsor.htm" target="_blank">http://www.visitbritain.com/en/Destinations-and-Maps/History-and-heritage/Windsor.htm</a>. VisitBritain's ‘Heritage is GREAT' advertising campaign also prominently featured Highclere Castle, which is the setting for Downton Abbey.</p><p>The South East region will benefit from a number of thematic campaigns currently being run by VisitEngland which can be found at <a href="http://www.visitengland.com/" target="_blank">http://www.visitengland.com/</a>. It will also benefit from VisitEngland's Holidays at Home are GREAT campaign, which has been broadcast on mainstream terrestrial channels since 1 April, while those areas in the South East region affected by the recent floods are also benefitting from both VisitEngland's ‘Spot on England' marketing campaign and business support events.</p> answering member constituency Maidstone and The Weald answering member printed Mrs Helen Grant question first answered 28/04/2014 12:00:00 answering member 4018 label Biography information for Mrs Helen Grant
tabling member	1586 label Biography information for Adam Afriyie

47136

registered interest
date	07/04/2014
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will break down by component elements the increase in the RAB charge from 33 per cent to 45 per cent.
tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Hodge Hill
tabling member printed	Mr Liam Byrne
uin	195456
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/04/2014 answer text <p>The increase in the RAB charge has been due to:</p><p> </p><p>- macroeconomic effects – earnings growth has been lower than expected since the £21,000 threshold was set making it more generous in real terms than was expected at the time it was set; and</p><p>- modelling changes – we have made methodological improvements to our modelling of individual borrower's earnings over time. We have done this through a new approach that takes greater account of an individual's past earnings and of Student Loans Company data on actual loan repayments.</p> answering member constituency Havant answering member printed Mr David Willetts question first answered 28/04/2014 12:00:00 answering member 53 label Biography information for Lord Willetts
tabling member	1171 label Biography information for Liam Byrne

47137

registered interest
date	07/04/2014
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of the proportion of student loans issued under the (a) pre-2012 and (b) new funding system that will be fully written off.
tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Hodge Hill
tabling member printed	Mr Liam Byrne
uin	195458
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/04/2014 answer text <p>Our model is designed to estimate aggregate repayments across the full range of borrowers. It does not estimate outcomes at the individual level, such as the probability of an individual's loan balance being fully written off.</p><p> </p><p>However, Student Loans Company data for early pre-2012 cohorts show that that around 10% of the cohorts up to 2005 have made no repayments since taking out their loans.</p> answering member constituency Havant answering member printed Mr David Willetts question first answered 28/04/2014 12:00:00 answering member 53 label Biography information for Lord Willetts
tabling member	1171 label Biography information for Liam Byrne

47138

registered interest
date	07/04/2014
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what his Department's estimate is of the latest RAB charge for part-time students.
tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Hodge Hill
tabling member printed	Mr Liam Byrne
uin	195459
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/04/2014 answer text <p>The current estimate for the resource accounting and budgeting charge for part-time students is 65%.</p> answering member constituency Havant answering member printed Mr David Willetts question first answered 28/04/2014 12:00:00 answering member 53 label Biography information for Lord Willetts
tabling member	1171 label Biography information for Liam Byrne

47139

registered interest
date	07/04/2014
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what his Department's estimate is of the latest RAB charge for further education students.
tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Hodge Hill
tabling member printed	Mr Liam Byrne
uin	195461
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/04/2014 answer text <p>The Department models the proportion of loans which we expect will not be repaid (the RAB charge). The 2012 impact assessment on the introduction of 24+ Advanced Learning Loans stated that we anticipated this RAB charge would be 60% of the total loan amount. Now that we are beginning to receive figures on actual learner numbers, we are reviewing the assumptions within the RAB charge model. This 60% figure may therefore be subject to change in the future.</p> answering member constituency West Suffolk answering member printed Matthew Hancock question first answered 10/04/2014 12:00:00 answering member 4070 label Biography information for Matt Hancock
tabling member	1171 label Biography information for Liam Byrne

47140

registered interest
date	07/04/2014
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what he expects the RAB charge to be for extra students entering higher education when the present cap on student numbers is removed in 2014-15.
tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Hodge Hill
tabling member printed	Mr Liam Byrne
uin	195413
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/04/2014 answer text <p>We produce a single RAB charge that is an estimate of the overall cost of issuing loans to students. This charge is currently around 45% for full time students. Similarly, a single RAB charge will be applied to all students entering higher education in 14-15.</p> answering member constituency Havant answering member printed Mr David Willetts question first answered 28/04/2014 12:00:00 answering member 53 label Biography information for Lord Willetts
tabling member	1171 label Biography information for Liam Byrne

47142

registered interest
date	07/04/2014
answering body	Cabinet Office
answering dept id	53
answering dept short name	Cabinet Office
answering dept sort name	Cabinet Office
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether it is his policy to encourage civil servants to use video conferencing in order to reduce costs; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Kemptown
tabling member printed	Simon Kirby
uin	195411
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/04/2014 answer text <p>Yes. Video conferencing can be used to reduce costs but specialist equipment can be required. Officials and ministers also make use of telephone conferencing.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Horsham answering member printed Mr Francis Maude question first answered 29/04/2014 12:00:00 answering member 115 label Biography information for Lord Maude of Horsham
tabling member	3929 label Biography information for Simon Kirby

47143

registered interest
date	07/04/2014
answering body	Cabinet Office
answering dept id	53
answering dept short name	Cabinet Office
answering dept sort name	Cabinet Office
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what his policy is on ensuring that Government IT initiatives represent best value for money; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Kemptown
tabling member printed	Simon Kirby
uin	195412
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/04/2014 answer text <p>After the 2010 General Election, this Government formed the Efficiency and Reform Group to help and support departments in maximising value for money. Although responsibility for projects remains the responsibility of individual departments, we introduced strict controls to provide further scrutiny of spend including on IT projects.</p><p>These controls can and have been used by the Cabinet Office to block inappropriate spending. In 2012-13 alone these controls helped us save taxpayers over £500 million from IT, contributing to overall efficiency savings of £10billion in 2012-13 (the last year for which we have audited figures).</p><p>We have clarified our ‘red lines' for IT procurement – these are designed to encourage competition in the sector, free the government from longstanding inflexible contracts with IT providers and ensure maximum taxpayer value. These rules include:</p><p>· we will no longer let ICT contracts over £100 million in value – unless there is an exceptional reason to do so. Contracts should be smaller to ensure the widest possible range of suppliers can compete for them.</p><p>· we will not give a contract for service provision to a company providing the system integration function in the same part of government. It's an important way of ensuring we are an intelligent customer.</p><p>· we won't extend existing contracts unless there is a compelling case - it's rare to find any good reason to extend the pricing and technology of the past.</p><p>· we do not expect to let hosting contracts for more than 2 years. The cost of hosting seems to halve every 18 months. Businesses wouldn't sign up for years upon end - and neither should government.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner answering member printed Mr Nick Hurd question first answered 30/04/2014 12:00:00 answering member 1561 label Biography information for Mr Nick Hurd
tabling member	3929 label Biography information for Simon Kirby

47147

registered interest
date	07/04/2014
answering body	Cabinet Office
answering dept id	53
answering dept short name	Cabinet Office
answering dept sort name	Cabinet Office
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, which five companies were used most often to provide temporary workers for his Department in the last financial year; and how much in agency fees was paid to each of them.
tabling member constituency	Nottingham East
tabling member printed	Chris Leslie
uin	195546
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/04/2014 answer text <p>The Prime Minister's Office is an integral part of the Cabinet Office.</p><p>Before the last General Election, including for the entire period while the Hon. Member was a minister in this very department, there were no effective cross-Governmental controls on consultancy spend. Nor were spending controls exercised on other areas such as procurement, advertising and marketing, and IT spend.</p><p>That's all changed and ministers - supported by Cabinet Office officials - now closely scrutinise what we spend on consultants and temporary labour. Departments saved over £1billion in 2012-13 (the last year for which we have audited figures) compared to the spending levels in the final year of the last administration, 2009-10. This helped us save taxpayers £10 billion in 2012-13 against a 2009-10 baseline.</p><p>We will continue to spend money on consultants and temporary labour when there is an appropriate business need to do so. Indeed in some cases engaging temporary labour is more flexible and cheaper for the taxpayer than taking on new staff. But we are also ensuring that the Civil Service has the skills needed. Our Capabilities Plan is designed to address long-standing gaps in four particular areas: digital skills, project management skills, commercial skills, and the leadership and management of change.</p><p>We publish all spend data over £25,000 and contracts over £10,000 on Gov.uk and Contracts Finder.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Horsham answering member printed Mr Francis Maude grouped question UIN 195560 195568 195582 question first answered 29/04/2014 12:00:00 answering member 115 label Biography information for Lord Maude of Horsham
tabling member	422 label Biography information for Mr Chris Leslie

47152

registered interest
date	07/04/2014
answering body	Cabinet Office
answering dept id	53
answering dept short name	Cabinet Office
answering dept sort name	Cabinet Office
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many jobs have been transferred from the public to private sector from (a) his Department and (b) the Office of the Leader of the House as a result of privatisation or outsourcing since May 2010.
tabling member constituency	Manchester Central
tabling member printed	Lucy Powell
uin	195522
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 29/04/2014 answer text <p>The Leader of the House's Office is an integral part of the Cabinet Office.</p><p>Since May 2010, twenty-two jobs have been transferred to the Private Sector.</p><p>Six posts through the SWIRL joint venture and 16 posts with the mutual joint venture of the Behavioural Insights Team.</p><p>We know that joint ventures and mutuals can help drive up productivity and we will continue to support innovative business models.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Horsham answering member printed Mr Francis Maude question first answered 29/04/2014 12:00:00 answering member 115 label Biography information for Lord Maude of Horsham
tabling member	4263 label Biography information for Lucy Powell