Written Statements

Monday 27th March 2023 Written Statements

Monday 27 March 2023

Energy Bill Discount Scheme

Monday 27th March 2023 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero (Grant Shapps)]

The Government provided an unprecedented package of support for non-domestic users through the winter in the shape of the energy bill relief scheme (EBRS), with a total amount of support of £7.3 billion, shielding businesses and saving some around half of their wholesale energy cost. The Government have taken difficult but right and considered decisions when necessary, following an unprecedented rise in energy prices, to support our essential British businesses and public sector services.

The Government have been clear that such levels of support were time-limited and intended as a bridge to allow business to adapt. The latest data shows wholesale gas prices have fallen to levels before Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and have significantly decreased since the EBRS was announced. The energy bill discount scheme (EBDS), announced on 9 January and which comes into force on 26 April, with support backdated to the start of April, strikes a balance between supporting businesses between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024 and limiting taxpayers’ exposure to volatile energy markets. The scheme provides long-term certainty for businesses and reflects how the scale of the challenge has changed since September last year.

The EBDS will provide all eligible businesses and other non-domestic energy customers with a discount on high gas and electricity bills until 31 March 2024, following the end of the EBRS. It will also provide businesses in sectors with particularly high levels of energy use and trade intensity with a higher level of support as they are less able to pass these higher costs on to customers due to international competition. The price reduction will be linked to the wholesale element of a non-domestic customer’s gas and electricity bill and Government will reimburse suppliers in accordance with the scheme.

Further support will be available to domestic end users on heat networks, who fall under the EBDS due to the heat network operators having commercial energy contracts, to ensure they do not face disproportionately higher energy bills than consumers under the EPG from April 2023.

The EBDS will be established under powers conferred by the Energy Prices Act 2022 and Government intend to pass enabling legislation. Subject to the will of Parliament, it is intended to run for one year and cover energy consumed from 1 April 2023 until 31 March 2024.

Funding for the EBDS will be sought through the estimates process. Any future costs for the delivery of the EBDS can only be projections and will depend upon energy usage levels and changes to the wholesale price of energy. As a result, the EBDS will give rise to a contingent liability.

I have laid before Parliament a departmental minute describing contingent liabilities arising from the energy bill discount scheme (EBDS). It is normal practice when a Government Department proposes to undertake a contingent liability of £300,000 and above, for which there is no specific statutory authority, for the Department concerned to present Parliament with a minute giving particulars of the liability created and explaining the circumstances. If the liability is called, provision for any payment will be sought through the normal supply procedure.

I regret that due to the urgency of this scheme, I have not been able to follow the usual timelines for issuing notice at least 14 parliamentary sitting days before the liability begins to be incurred.

The Treasury has approved this proposal. If, during the period of 10 parliamentary sitting days beginning on the date on which this minute was laid before Parliament, a Member signifies an objection by giving notice of a parliamentary question or by otherwise raising the matter in Parliament, final approval to proceed with incurring the liability will be withheld pending an examination of the objection.

[HCWS672]

Post-implementation Review of Environmental Law

Monday 27th March 2023 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Dr Thérèse Coffey)]

Today the Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) is publishing a report, the post-implementation review of environmental law. This report highlights that over 40 post-implementation reviews of regulations required by statute have either not been undertaken or have not been published.

We are committed to delivering high standards for environmental protection and meeting the legal duties in this area. After prioritising resources to deliver a successful EU exit and supporting the country’s response during the pandemic, we recognise that we have not yet met all our obligations to deliver post-implementation reviews to time. My Department acknowledges this is unacceptable and is working to continually improve our mechanisms for capturing and delivering these requirements.

Steps are under way to address the post-implementation review backlog by the end of next year and prevent any further significant backlog occurring, including undertaking a Department-wide review, devising action plans with clear timescales for completion, accompanied by regular monitoring and reporting to the permanent secretary.

We will respond formally to the OEP report and will share our response with the lead Select Committees in each House.

[HCWS674]

Economic Crime Levy Allocations Update

Monday 27th March 2023 Written Statements

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

Today I am confirming the allocation of £300 million between 2023-24 and 2025-26 generated from the economic crime (anti-money laundering) levy. Announced at Budget 2020, the levy was legislated for in the Finance Act 2022. The levy supplements approximately £200 million of additional Government investment to tackle economic crime over the 2021 spending review period.

The levy funding has been allocated to deliver benefits to the entire anti-money laundering system across both the public and private sector and will underpin the priorities set out in the next three-year, public-private Economic Crime Plan.

Over the next three years, the levy has been allocated to:

Invest over £100 million in state of the art technology which will analyse and share data on threats in real time, to give law enforcement the tools it needs to stay ahead of criminals.

Provide funding for more skilled financial crime investigators. This includes funding to hire 475 new investigators and economic crime training for more than 6,500 existing investigators in the National Crime Agency and across national and regional intelligence, investigation and prosecution agencies. New and better trained officers will lead to more cases investigated, more criminals prosecuted, and more assets recovered.

A further £60 million will fund new specialist intelligence teams in the National Crime Agency and expand the combating kleptocracy cell in order to tackle the most complex global money laundering networks.

Funding for c.75 officers to sustain the increased staffing of the UK financial intelligence unit and provide funding for 22 new financial investigators to analyse suspicious activity reports embedded in regional organised crime units. The suspicious activity reporting regime is a key pillar of the UK’s anti-money laundering (AML) system and is a critical tool for law enforcement to identify and disrupt money launderers.

Invest £20 million in Companies House and the Insolvency Service to fund the creation of two new intelligence teams. These new teams will improve our understanding of how UK companies are misused to launder the proceeds of crime and help put a stop to it. A further £600,000 of funding has been allocated for the deployment of UK experts overseas to raise the global standards on beneficial ownership, multiplying the impact of our domestic reforms to Companies House.

£1.2 million for a dedicated surge team to accelerate the fundamental reform of the AML supervisory regime, leading to more effective risk-based supervision, more dissuasive enforcement, and greater sharing of high-value information and intelligence.

Recognising the importance of accountability and in line with the principle of transparency, this announcement made on 27 March will be followed in 2024 by the publication of an annual report on the operation of the levy. A more wide-ranging review of the levy will be undertaken by the end of 2027. These reports will be laid before Parliament.

[HCWS675]

NHS Dental Patient Charges

Monday 27th March 2023 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Neil O’Brien)]

The National Health Service (Dental Charges) (Amendment) Regulations 2023 (“the Amendment Regulations”) will be laid before Parliament to increase national health service dental patient charges in England from 24 April 2023.

NHS dental patient charges provide an important revenue source for NHS dentistry and are typically uplifted on 1 April each financial year. The most recent uplift was in December 2020, delayed from April 2020 due to the impacts of the pandemic. While there has been no uplift for two years, the cost of delivering NHS dental care has increased.

From 24 April 2023, dental patient charges in England will increase by 8.5%. This means that a dental charge payable for a band 1 course of treatment will rise by £2.00, from £23.80 to £25.80. For a band 2 course of treatment, there will be an increase of £5.50 from £65.20 to £70.70. A band 3 course of treatment will increase by £24 from £282.80 to £306.80.

Details of the revised charges for 2023-24 can be found in the table below:

Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures: 1 December 2022 to 28 February 2023

Monday 27th March 2023 Written Statements

[The Minister for Security (Tom Tugendhat)]

Section 19(1) of the Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures (TPIM) Act 2011 (the Act) requires the Secretary of State to report to Parliament as soon as reasonably practicable after the end of every relevant three-month period on the exercise of their TPIM powers under the Act during that period.

The level of information provided will always be subject to slight variations based on operational advice.