Written Question Re: Gurkhas: Ex-Servicemen
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7th July 2009 - Written
Question Re: Gurkhas Ex-servicemen Mr. Betts: To
ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will estimate how many
Gurkhas who retired from the armed forces before 1997 have since
died; and if he will make a statement. Mr. Kevan Jones: Insufficient
information is held to enable a reliable estimate to be made of the
number of Gurkhas who retired from the armed forces before 1997 and
who have now passed away. Many generations of Gurkhas have served
with great distinction in the UK armed forces, since they were
first permitted to volunteer for British military service in the
1815 peace treaty that...
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Written Question Re: Gurkhas: Pensions
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7th July 2009 - Written
Question in reference to Gurkhas's Pensions Mr. Betts: To
ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will assess the merits
of increasing the future pension for Gurkhas who served prior to
1997 to a level equivalent to that of British Army soldiers with
the same service with effect from 1 April 2010; and if he will make
a statement. Bill Rammell: It has been the
policy of successive governments not to implement changes to
pensions and similar benefits retrospectively. This policy has been
applied across the public sector in the United Kingdom, not just to
Gurkha veterans. To do so now would...
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Written Question Re: Social Rented Housing Standards
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7th July 2009 - Written
Question in reference to Social Rented Housing
Standards Mr. Betts: To
ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
whether he plans to change his planned expenditure on the Decent
Homes programme for 2009-10 and 2010-11.
John Healey: The £1.5 billion
Housing Pledge will provide additional expenditure for new
affordable housing and related housing market provision as set out
in Building Britain’s Future. It is funded through contributions
from other Government Departments and reprioritisation of CLG
programmes....
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Oral Question Re: Social Housing
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7th July 2009 - Oral
Question in reference to Social Housing Mr. Clive Betts
(Sheffield, Attercliffe) (Lab): Will my right hon. Friend
confirm that giving more priority to people with local needs is not
about race but about trying to help people such as Katie Wilson, in
my constituency, who has been on the waiting list for 17 years and
simply wants to be housed in the community where she was brought
up, where her family and friends are? It is about allowing people
to move near grandparents so that they can support the children and
allow the parents to go out to work. It is those sorts of...
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Oral Question Re: Railways (North of England)
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1st July 2009 - Oral
Question in reference to Railways in the North of
England Mr. Clive Betts
(Sheffield, Attercliffe) (Lab): I am sorry that I cannot
be with my hon. Friend for the whole of this debate. I congratulate
her on succeeding in securing it. As well as the reduction of
congestion and the benefits to the economy, does she accept that
there would also be major benefits to the environment from two of
those projects? First, electrification of the midland main line
would result in a cleaner railway and, secondly, high-speed rail
lines serving both sides of the country would, we hope, attract
people away from short-haul air transport....
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Oral Question Re: Motorway Congestion
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25th June 2009 - Oral
Question in reference to Motorway Congestion Mr. Clive Betts
(Sheffield, Attercliffe) (Lab): I welcome you to the
Chair, Mr. Speaker, and hope that I shall catch your eye on many
future occasions. I am sure my hon. Friend is aware that one of
the most congested parts of the motorway network is the M1 south of
Sheffield, where a large number of accidents occur. Steps are being
taken to widen the M1 between junctions 25 and 28, and
consideration is being given to either widening it or introducing
hard-shoulder running up to junction 34. Will my hon. Friend assure
me that whatever scheme is adopted,...
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Oral Question Re: Business Rates
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15th June 2009 - Oral
Question in respect of Business Rates Mr. Clive Betts
(Sheffield, Attercliffe) (Lab): Can
the hon. Lady explain her party’s policy on transitional relief? By
definition, at some point that comes to an end. Is she saying that
it should always last for five years, instead of four? Does she
accept that, given the ability to defer part of the rate increase,
60 per cent. of the transitional relief, which ends in the fifth
year, can be deferred to the next two years?
Justine Greening: It is interesting that the last time the
revaluation took place, in 2000, the hon. Gentleman’s party chose
to adopt...
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Oral Question Re: Housing
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9th June 2009 - Oral
Question in respect of Housing Mr. Clive Betts
(Sheffield, Attercliffe) (Lab): I do
not know whether he has yet had a chance to read the comments of
Sir Bob Kerslake, the chief executive of the Homes and Communities
Agency, to the Select Committee on Communities and Local Government
the other day. He said that if the schemes were to succeed, local
authorities making bids would have to be prepared to put their land
in for free, to get the maximum value out of the Government’s
money. Can my right hon. Friend confirm that that is the case, and
will he encourage local authorities to come...
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Written Question Re: Television
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9th June 2009 - Written
Question in Respect of Television Mr. Betts:
To ask the Secretary of State for
Culture, Media and Sport what recent discussions his Department has
had with Ofcom on a timetable for the completion of its
investigation into the pay television market; and when he expects
Ofcom to publish a third consultation outlining potential remedies
to structural problems identified in the market.
Mr.
Bradshaw: Competition matters are the
responsibility of my right hon. Friend, the Minister of State for
Business, Innovation and Skills. However, my officials have
discussed the timetable of this investigation with Ofcom and I
understand that they expect to make a statement on their...
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Written Question Re: Children: Maintenance
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4th June 2009 - Written
Question in Respect of Children's Maintenance Mr. Betts:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work
and Pensions how many times the Child Maintenance and Enforcement
Commission has (a) deducted maintenance payments or
arrears from bank accounts without going through a court,
(b) issued a liability order under section 32M of the
Child Support Act 1991, (c) applied to a court for (i) a
disqualification from holding or obtaining a passport and (ii) a
curfew and (d) recovered arrears from a deceased person’s
estate.
Kitty Ussher: The Child Maintenance and Enforcement
Commission is responsible for the child maintenance system. I have
therefore asked the child maintenance...
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Written Question Re: Taxation: Gambling
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22nd May 2009 - Written
Question in Respect of Taxation and Gambling Mr. Betts: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer
what assessment he has made of the effect of changes to amusement
machine licence duty announced in the 2009 Budget on (a)
pubs, (b) seaside arcades, (c) bingo clubs and
(d) the gaming machine industry. Angela Eagle: The Treasury assess the broad impact of
changes to gambling taxes and duties but the information collected
by HMRC from amusement machine licence duty returns does not
identify the sector in which the machine is located. Budget 2009
announced an increase in amusement machine licence duty, which is
expected to add around...
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Written Question Re: Taxation and Gambling
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15th May 2009 - Written
Question in respect of Taxation and Gambling Mr. Betts: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer
(1) what discussions his Department has had with representatives of
the bingo industry on levels of taxation in the industry in the
last three months;
(2) what discussions there have been between
representatives of his Department and the Department for Culture,
Media and Sport on the proposed transfer of gaming machines to a
gross profits taxation regime; (3) what discussions he had with
the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on gambling
taxation prior to the 2009 Budget. Angela Eagle: Treasury Ministers and officials met with a
wide...
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Written Question Re: Taxation: Bingo
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14th May 2009 - Written
Question in Reference to Taxation and Bingo Mr. Betts: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent
assessment he has made of the implications of the ruling by the VAT
and Duties Tribunal in 2008 that the application of value added tax
to bingo interval games breached the EU principle of fiscal
neutrality for the application of VAT to bingo interval
games. Mr. Timms: No recent assessment has been made. HM Revenue
and Customs (HMRC) disagreed with the decision of the Tribunal in
the case in question and has appealed to the High Court. This
appeal was heard in March this year. HMRC...
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Written Question Re: Gaming Machines
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10th March 2009 -
Written Question in Reference to Gaming
Machines Mr. Betts:
To ask the Secretary of State for
Culture, Media and Sport what assessment he has made of the effect
on the gaming machine industry of (a) the proposed
increase in stakes and prizes for category C and D machines and
(b) the increase in amusement machine licence duty in the
2009 Budget.
Mr.
Sutcliffe: As part of the second
public consultation on proposed increases in stake and prizes for
category C and D gaming machines, an impact assessment was
published on the DCMS website on 22 December 2008. The Department
has not made any assessment of the effect on...
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Oral Statement Re: Railway Lines
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10th March 2009 - Oral
Statement in Reference to the Proposed Railway
Line Mr. Clive
Betts: With regard to the new high-speed rail network, may
I ask my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State to be ambitious?
Instead of looking at a single line serving Manchester and Leeds by
a rather convoluted route, will he look at an alternative, which is
to have two lines—one going to Manchester and the north-west and
the other branching off at Rugby, serving Nottingham, Derby,
Sheffield and Leeds, which are the major population centres of the
east midlands, south Yorkshire and west Yorkshire? That option
would have major economic advantages.
Mr. Hoon: As my...
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Oral Statement Re: Icelandic Banks (Local Authority Finance)
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3rd March 2009 - Oral
Statement in Reference to Icelandic Banks and Local Authority
Finance Mr. Clive Betts
: My right hon. Friend will be aware that the Select
Committee on Communities and Local Government is conducting an
inquiry on this issue. We found that many local authorities do not
have the necessary internal expertise on these matters, so they
commission outside firms. What came as a shock to the Select
Committee and the Local Government Association, however, was that
in some cases that external help was not advice in the properly
understood meaning of the term, but amounted simply to passing on
to local authorities information that could have been...
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Written Question Re: East Midlands Line
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10th March 2009 -
Written Question in Reference to East Midlands
Line Mr. Betts: To
ask the Secretary of State for Transport when he expects to make a
decision on the proposed electrification of the East Midlands
Line. Paul Clark: A
decision on electrification of the Midland Main Line north of
Bedford will be announced later this year....
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Written Question Re: Planning
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9th March 2009 - Written
Question in Reference to Planning Mr. Betts: To
ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
when she plans to publish the revised version of planning policy
statement 4: Planning for Sustainable Economic
Development. Mr. Iain Wright: We plan to
publish the Government’s revised Planning Policy Statement later in
the spring....
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Written Question Re: Planning
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5th March 2009 - Written
Question in Reference to Planning Mr. Betts: To
ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (1)
when she plans to respond to the 2006 consultation on the General
Permitted Development Order 1995 (Demolition of Sports
Buildings); (2) if she will bring
forward proposals to (a) replace the Town and Country
Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 1995 and
(b) revise Planning Policy Guidance 17 to provide for the
protection of sports buildings from demolition and redevelopment
under the planning system. Mr. Iain Wright: A summary of
responses to the 2006 consultation on a proposal to make demolition
of sports buildings subject to planning...
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Written Question Re: Arson
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4th February 2009 -
Written Question in respect of Arson Mr. Betts:
To ask the Secretary of State for
Children, Schools and Families (1) how many schools closed for a
period of two weeks or more as a result of an act of arson in the
last 12 months;
(2) what estimate he has made of the cost of
repair to school premises following acts of arson in each of the
last three years; (3) how many incidents of arson
against schools have been recorded in the last 12 months; and what
estimate he has made of the number of such fires which were started
externally.
Jim
Knight: The Department...
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