Every parliamentary written question tabled by Paula Barker this session, with the full answer and department. See how every department answers, or back to the MP page.
Showing 261–280 of 346 · this parliament
If her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of developing a system to tackle trends in the level of tax evasion from small businesses.
The Government is committed to tackling all forms of non-compliance, including evasion. Each year HMRC estimates the size of the tax gap, and the latest published tax gap (2022-23) was 4.8% of theoretical liabilities, or £39.8bn. The element attributable ...
What steps her Department is taking to (a) identify and (b) reduce the barriers facing young people not in work or education.
Our plan to get Britain Working includes a new Youth Guarantee for all young people aged 18-21 to ensure that they can access quality training opportunities, an apprenticeship or employment support. This will sit alongside; a new national jobs and careers...
If his Department will bring forward proposals to regulate the de facto monopoly of ticket sales by Ticketmaster.
Under competition law, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), as the UK’s competition authority, is responsible for investigating anti-competitive practices such as an abuse of a dominant position. The Government has ensured that the CMA has signifi...
What his planned timeframe is for implementing recommendations of the covid-19 inquiry.
The COVID-19 Inquiry’s first report, which covered resilience and preparedness, was published on 18 July 2024, and makes 10 recommendations for the Government. As the Prime Minister’s written ministerial statement to Parliament said, the Government will c...
Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to help increase access to home ownership for (a) homeless and (b) displaced people.
Homelessness and rough sleeping levels are far too high. This can have a devastating impact on those affected.We are taking action by setting up a dedicated Inter-Ministerial Group, which the Deputy Prime Minister will chair, to develop a long-term strate...
What categorisations of crimes will perpetrators be eligible for release from prison under the early release schemes; and what methodology was been used to determine the categories of offenders to be released.
Release provisions for different sentence types and length are fixed by law. This change has amended the automatic release point for standard determinate sentences. Certain offences have been excluded from this change. This includes sex offences irrespect...
What estimate her Department has made of the number of veterans in prison.
As per the statistics in the “Ex-service Personnel in the prison population: 2023” publication included at the following link, an estimated 3.6% of the prison population were ex-service personnel as of 30 June 2023: Offender Management Statistics quarterl...
If he will make an assessment of the legality under international humanitarian law of operational support to the Israeli military.
The Ministry of Defence only provides support to foreign militaries where it is satisfied that it is lawful under international law and domestic law to do so.
Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of recent Israeli military activity in the West Bank.
The UK is concerned by the Israel Defense Forces' (IDF) ongoing military operation in the occupied West Bank and attacks by Palestinian militants. We recognise Israel's need to defend itself against security threats, but we are worried by the methods Isra...
Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the removal of the single-person council tax discount on (a) under-thirties and (b) pensioners.
The Government currently has no plans to reform council tax. Decisions on future local authority funding will be a matter for the next Spending Review and Local Government Finance Settlement in which we are engaged.
What steps his Department is taking to support UK defence manufacturing through government procurement.
The UK’s defence manufacturing industry is vital not only to our national security but to our prosperity and economic growth.. This Government is committed to developing a UK defence industrial base that is able to better support our own and allies securi...
If she will make an assessment of the impact of the removal of Winter Fuel Payments on pensioners in receipt of attendance allowance.
Winter Fuel Payments will continue to be paid to pensioner households with someone receiving Pension Credit or certain other income-related benefits. They will continue to be worth £200 for eligible households, or £300 for eligible households with someone...
If she will pause the defunding of applied general qualifications scheduled for 2025 and 2026.
In July 2024, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education announced a short pause to the defunding of qualifications to enable a review of 16-19 qualification reforms at Level 3 and below. This ensured that 95 qualifications set to lose fun...
What assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the safety of smart motorways.
Safety on our roads is of the upmost importance and that is why the Government is committed to delivering a new Road Safety Strategy. The last set of safety data published by National Highways shows that, overall, all three types of smart motorway are saf...
What the proposed saving is from the reduction in the franchise of the Winter Fuel Payment.
The savings were estimated in Fixing the Foundations as Annually Managed Expenditure (AME) Winter Fuel Payments (WFP) savings of £1.4bn, for 2024/2025, for Great Britain. These included an assumption about increased take-up of Pension Credit which is in l...
What estimate she has made of the cost to the public purse of all people eligible for Pension Credit claiming it.
The estimated total cost if all people eligible for Pension Credit claimed is around £7.6 billion, for Financial Year Ending (FYE) 2022, for Great Britain. This has been calculated by adding the benefit expenditure for Pension Credit for 2021/2022 (Pensio...
What the administrative cost to her Department will be to means-test Winter Fuel payments.
The department will deliver this year’s winter fuel payments within the existing planned headcount and budget. This is due to linking eligibility to Winter Fuel with existing means tested benefits rather than means testing Winter Fuel separately. In terms...
What assessment she has made of the potential impact of the campaign to increase the uptake of Pension Credit on proposed savings from reductions in the Winter Fuel Allowance.
The Government estimates that linking entitlement to receipt of Pension Credit and other relevant DWP income-related benefits will reduce expenditure by around £1.4 billion in 2024/25 and £1.5bn in 2025/26.The responsibility to make a claim to Pension Cre...
What steps her Department is taking to reduce the cost of rail travel.
Affordability is one of our six key objectives for rail reform – wherever possible, prices should be kept at a point that works for both passengers and taxpayers. We have just announced a new networkwide Rail Sale that will launch early next year to tie i...
Communities and Local Government, how many and what proportion of households that receive the single person council tax discount are (a) widows and (b) widows of retirement age.
The Government does not collect data on the individual characteristics, or benefits received, of residents of households receiving a single person council tax discount.