Written Statements

Tuesday 5th June 2018 Written Statements

Tuesday 5 June 2018

Financial Services

Tuesday 5th June 2018 Written Statements

[The Economic Secretary to the Treasury (John Glen)]

The Government have sold just over £2.5 billion-worth of Government-owned RBS shares, as part of the Government’s policy to return the bank to private ownership: 925 million shares (representing approximately 7.7% of the bank) were sold at a price of 271p per share, reducing the Government’s shareholding to 62.4%. The sale commenced on Monday 4 June when markets closed and concluded this morning, Tuesday 5 June, before markets opened.

This sale follows the progress RBS has made in addressing major legacy issues and is a further step in the Government’s plan to return RBS in full to private ownership.

The Government received advice from UK Government Investments (UKGI) that selling shares through an accelerated book-build represented value for money for the taxpayer. The proceeds of this sale will go towards reducing our national debt.

It remains the Government’s objective to return the bank fully to private ownership, and further sales will be made when it represents value for money to do so and market conditions allow. This is in the best interests of the taxpayer and the wider UK economy.

[HCWS734]

Carers Action Plan

Tuesday 5th June 2018 Written Statements

[The Minister for Care (Caroline Dinenage)]

I am today publishing a “Carers Action Plan 2018-2020—Supporting carers today” in the week leading up to Carers Week (11 to 17 June).

The cross-government carers action plan is an essential step towards realising the Government’s commitment to value, recognise and support carers to provide care in a way that supports their own health and wellbeing, employment and other life chances.

The plan sets out a two-year programme of targeted work to support unpaid carers. It puts a focus on practical actions to support carers and gives visibility to the work already under way or planned within Government.

In 2016, the Government ran a call for evidence to seek the views and experiences of unpaid carers. A summary of the 6,800 responses received will be published alongside the plan. Their contributions have informed its development and content, helping us to focus actions around the following five themes:

Services and systems that work for carers

Employment and financial wellbeing

Supporting young carers

Recognising and supporting carers in the wider community and society

Building evidence and research to improve outcomes for carers

In this way, we will seek to build accessible carer-friendly communities and public services, promote innovative local projects and support carers to stay in work.

The Government recognise there is more to do and that is why the needs of carers will be central to the forthcoming Green Paper on care and support, as set out in the Secretary of Health’s speech in March.

The plan has been developed in close collaboration with Ministers and officials in other Government Departments including the Government Equalities Office, Department for Education, Department for Work and Pensions, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

The Government want to ensure that caring is a choice or responsibility that is always recognised and valued. The publication of this carers action plan today is an important part of that commitment.

“The Carers Action Plan 2018-2020 [for England] —Supporting carers today” is available as an attachment online and on gov.uk.

Attachments can be viewed online at:

https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-06-05/HCWS732/

[HCWS732]

Biometrics Commissioner

Tuesday 5th June 2018 Written Statements

[The Minister for Security and Economic Crime (Mr Ben Wallace)]

My hon. Friend the Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Williams of Trafford) has today made the following written ministerial statement:

I am pleased to announce that my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary is today publishing the fourth annual report of the Biometrics Commissioner, together with the Government’s response.

The Commissioner, Paul Wiles, is appointed under section 20 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012. His responsibilities are:

to decide applications by the police for extended retention of DNA profiles and fingerprints from persons arrested for serious offences but not charged or convicted;

to keep under review national security determinations made by chief officers under which DNA profiles and fingerprints may be retained for national security purposes;

to exercise general oversight of police use of DNA samples, DNA profiles and fingerprints.

His report is a statutory requirement of section 21 of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012.

I am grateful to Mr Wiles for this report, which we have published in full.

Copies of the report will be available from the Vote Office. The Government’s response will be placed in the House Library.

[HCWS736]

EU Information Systems

Tuesday 5th June 2018 Written Statements

[The Minister for Policing and the Fire Service (Mr Nick Hurd)]

The Government have decided to opt in (under the UK’s JHA opt-in protocol) to a proposal for establishing a framework for interoperability between EU information systems (police and judicial co-operation, asylum and migration) and not to opt out (under the UK’s Schengen opt-out protocol) of the proposal, to the extent it affects the Schengen acquis in which we already participate.

The proposal will allow law enforcement and border guards to search all the relevant databases with a single query and will link together matching biometric information. It will also create links between related records, and will alert officials when potential multiple identities have been found. It covers three existing databases (Schengen Information System II, Visa Information System, EURODAC) and three planned databases (European Travel Information and Authorisation System, Entry Exit System, European Criminal Records Information System-Third Country Nationals). The UK participates in SIS II, EURODAC and ECRIS-TCN.

The intended aim of the work is to prevent incorrect or fragmented data amongst JHA databases and improve their efficiency and usage by law enforcement. This should prevent identity fraud and reduce inconveniences to honest travellers due to errors or similarities in biographical information. This will have benefits for UK policing being able to identity third country nationals who are victims, witnesses or suspects of crimes and terrorist incidents. It will also improve the quality and scope of data available to asylum officials. The Government support the aims of this work and have made this decision to maximise the benefits to the UK from access to these databases.

The decisions announced here have no implications for our general opt out from the internal border-free zone established by Schengen.

Until the UK leaves the EU it remains a full member, and the Government will continue to consider the application of the UK’s right to opt in to, or opt out of, forthcoming EU legislation in the area of justice and home affairs on a case by case basis, with a view to maximising our country’s security, protecting our civil liberties and enhancing our ability to control immigration.

[HCWS735]

Personal Independence Payments

Tuesday 5th June 2018 Written Statements

[The Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work (Sarah Newton)]

Personal independence payment (PIP) is a modern, personalised benefit that assesses people on needs not conditions. PIP is a fairer benefit than the old DLA system as it takes a much wider look at the way an individual’s health condition or disability impacts them on a daily basis.

We are constantly looking at ways to continually to improve the PIP service. In response to Paul Gray’s second independent review and the recent Work and Pensions Select Committee report we outlined numerous further improvements to the PIP service. This included numerous measures to improve the clarity of our communications products and increasing the level of clinical coaching, feedback and support available to each assessor.

A key part of our efforts to improve the assessment process will be making video recording of the PIP assessment a standard part of the process. We will be piloting videoing the assessment with a view to then rolling this out across Great Britain.

We have seen improvements in the overall quality of assessments since 2015 but we recognise there is still more to do to deliver the high quality of service those claiming PIP rightly expect. We will continue to work closely with stakeholder groups and our assessment providers to improve the quality of claimant communications, assessments, decision making and the overall claimant experience.

It is vital for claimants that we continue to have a stable service. My Department therefore intends to explore options to extend the current contracts for approximately two years as this will better allow for a stable transition to any new provision. At the same time we will look to enable more providers to deliver PIP by developing a DWP owned IT system. Throughout this period we will continue to focus on improving the service and the experience of claimants and offering the best value for money for the taxpayer.

We remain committed to understanding how the benefit is working and to continuous improvement in this space. Furthermore we remain committed to working closely with claimants and the organisations who represent them, and will continue to do so.

The measures I have outlined today will improve the claimant experience and we will continue to work with stakeholders to identify and implement further improvements to ensure we are delivering the high quality service claimants rightly expect and deserve.

[HCWS733]