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Written Question
Workplace Pensions
Wednesday 3rd May 2023

Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of (1) men, and (2) women, who earn less than £12,570 in any one job, who are members of auto-enrolment workplace pension schemes which operate on a Net Pay basis.

Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

DWP do not hold this data.

A policy paper has been published showing the number of people who save into an occupational pension under net pay arrangements whose taxable pay is below the personal allowance is estimated to be 1.2 million in 2026-27. In 2023/24, the Personal Allowance is £12,570.

Women are estimated to make up 75% of those earning below the personal allowance and contributing to a pension scheme that uses net pay arrangements. The 1.2 million can therefore be broken down into around 0.3 million men and 0.9 million women.

Notes:

  • These figures were produced for accrual in 2026-27 and the Personal Allowance at the time was not set to £12,570 in that tax year.
  • These figures look at total pay across jobs and less contributions to Net Pay Arrangements, so it is possible that someone with total earnings above the Personal Allowance is included because removing their Net Pay Arrangement contributions takes them below the Personal Allowance or someone earns less than the Personal Allowance in a single job but their pay across jobs takes them above the Personal Allowance.
  • These figures were produced for the Autumn Budget 2021 fiscal event using the 2018-19 SPI projected using Autumn Budget 2021 OBR determinants.
  • Further detail can be found at the source which is linked below.

Source: Pensions relief relating to net pay arrangements - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)


Written Question
Parking: Fees and Charges
Tuesday 2nd May 2023

Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have issued any guidance to councils to protect older people in (1) England, (2) Wales, (3) Scotland, and (4) Northern Ireland, who have removed cash or telephone credit card payment options from parking services and have introduced digital or app-only payments that require ownership and Wi-Fi connection of smartphones.

Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

The Secretary of State recently wrote to all local authorities in England setting out his expectations that parking services for which councils are responsible for remain accessible. For example, it would not seem appropriate for parking on a high street to be solely available for those who have access to a mobile phone. Nor would it appear sensible for local authorities to phase out paper-based parking options such as 'scratch cards' if the only available replacement is an entirely digital option.

All local authorities have statutory duties to ensure that they do not discriminate in their decision making against older people or those with vulnerabilities. Cash remains legal tender and it will continue to be used by people who favour its accessibility and ease. Local authorities should ensure that there are alternative provisions for parking payments available so that no part of society is digitally excluded.

A copy of the letter is available on gov.uk

Questions about medical appointments should be directed to the Department of Health and Social Care. Responsibility for local government is devolved in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, but officials in this department will engage counterparts on these matters.


Written Question
Parking and Public Sector: ICT
Tuesday 2nd May 2023

Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to ensure that all parking facilities and essential public services, including (1) medical appointments, (2) council enquiries, (3) service payments, and (4) registrations, are always available to those who do not have internet access, Wi-Fi connection or smartphones.

Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

The Secretary of State recently wrote to all local authorities in England setting out his expectations that parking services for which councils are responsible for remain accessible. For example, it would not seem appropriate for parking on a high street to be solely available for those who have access to a mobile phone. Nor would it appear sensible for local authorities to phase out paper-based parking options such as 'scratch cards' if the only available replacement is an entirely digital option.

All local authorities have statutory duties to ensure that they do not discriminate in their decision making against older people or those with vulnerabilities. Cash remains legal tender and it will continue to be used by people who favour its accessibility and ease. Local authorities should ensure that there are alternative provisions for parking payments available so that no part of society is digitally excluded.

A copy of the letter is available on gov.uk

Questions about medical appointments should be directed to the Department of Health and Social Care. Responsibility for local government is devolved in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, but officials in this department will engage counterparts on these matters.


Written Question
Payments: Digital Technology
Tuesday 2nd May 2023

Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the compliance of digital or app-only payment options for essential services such as parking in public spaces with the Equality Act 2010.

Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

The Secretary of State recently wrote to all local authorities in England setting out his expectations that parking services for which councils are responsible for remain accessible. For example, it would not seem appropriate for parking on a high street to be solely available for those who have access to a mobile phone. Nor would it appear sensible for local authorities to phase out paper-based parking options such as 'scratch cards' if the only available replacement is an entirely digital option.

All local authorities have statutory duties to ensure that they do not discriminate in their decision making against older people or those with vulnerabilities. Cash remains legal tender and it will continue to be used by people who favour its accessibility and ease. Local authorities should ensure that there are alternative provisions for parking payments available so that no part of society is digitally excluded.

A copy of the letter is available on gov.uk

Questions about medical appointments should be directed to the Department of Health and Social Care. Responsibility for local government is devolved in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, but officials in this department will engage counterparts on these matters.


Written Question
Individual Savings Accounts: Older People
Friday 28th April 2023

Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what recent estimate they have made of how many people over the age of 60 have ISAs in the UK; and what is the (1) total, and (2) average, value of those ISAs.

Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)

The latest information is available in Hansard under reference HL1263, which gives this specific breakdown for the 2019 to 2020 tax year. Breakdowns of ISAs by age bands for tax year 2020 to 2021 will be published in HMRC’s Annual savings statistics in June 2023. These statistics show ISA breakdowns for individuals aged over 65.


Written Question
Low Incomes
Wednesday 12th April 2023

Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their latest estimate of the numbers of (1) men, and (2) women, employees who earn less than £12,570 per annum in (a) full-time, and (b) part-time roles.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to the Noble Peer’s Parliamentary Question of 27 March is attached in the answer.

The Baroness Altmann CBE


House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW

3 April 2023

Dear Lady Altmann,


As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what is the latest estimate of the numbers of (1)
men, and (2) women, employees who earn less than £12,570 per annum in (a) full-time, and (b) part-time roles (HL6837).

The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) [1], carried out in April each year, is the most comprehensive source of earnings information in the United Kingdom. ASHE is based on a 1% sample of employee jobs taken from HM Revenue and Customs' Pay As You Earn (PAYE) records. Table 1 (below) shows the numbers of (1) men, and (2) women, employees who earn less than £12,570 per annum in (a) full-time, and (b) part-time roles for April 20221 (the latest period for which ASHE estimates are available). As with any survey, estimates from ASHE are subject to a margin of uncertainty.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

Table 1: Estimates of the number of employee jobs with annual earnings below £12,570, UK, 2022 [1,2,3]

Group

Number of employee jobs with annual earnings of less than £12,570 (thousands) [2,3]

Total number of
employee jobs in
group (thousands) [2, 3]

All employees

3,346

22,363

Male

907

11,294

Female

2,439

11,069

Full-time

309

16,547

Part-time

3,037

5,817

Full-time male

134

9,856

Full-time female

175

6,691

Part-time male

773

1,439

Part-time female

2,264

4,378

Source: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings

[1] Estimates for 2022 are provisional

[2] Employees on adult rates who have been in the same job for more than a year

[3] Figures for Number of Jobs are for indicative purposes only and should not be considered an
accurate estimate of employee job counts


Written Question
Mobile Phones
Monday 3rd April 2023

Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the proportion of people in the UK that do not own a smartphone in each of the following age ranges: (1) 18–24, (2) 25–44, (3) 45–64, (4) 65–74, (5) 75–84, and (6) 85 and above.

Answered by Viscount Camrose - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Data on smartphone use, Wi-Fi and internet access is collected by the Office of Communications and the Office for National Statistics.

According to Ofcom data, in 2020, the vast majority (85%) of all adults used a smartphone. This rose to more than nine in ten for those aged 16-54. Use was lower for those aged 65+ (55%), who were more likely than average (29%) to use a mobile device that wasn’t a smartphone. The smartphone was the device most likely to be used by people to go online; 85% of internet users used it for this purpose. Older internet users, aged 65+, were less likely to go online via most devices asked about, and in particular, they were less likely to have adopted smart technology, such as a smartphone.

ONS data indicates that 92% of adults in the UK were recent internet users in 2020, up from 91% in 2019. Almost all adults aged 16 to 44 years in the UK were recent internet users (99%), compared with 54% of adults aged 75 years and over. While there has been little change in internet use for adults aged 16 to 44 years in recent years, the proportion of those aged 75 years and over who are recent internet users nearly doubled since 2013, from 29%, to 54% in 2020. 6.3% of adults in the UK had never used the internet in 2020, down from 7.5% in 2019.


Written Question
Internet: Access
Monday 3rd April 2023

Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the proportion of people in the UK who have no internet or Wi-Fi access in the following age groups: (1) 20–39, (2) 40–59, (3) 60–79, and (4) 80 and above.

Answered by Viscount Camrose - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Data on smartphone use, Wi-Fi and internet access is collected by the Office of Communications and the Office for National Statistics.

According to Ofcom data, in 2020, the vast majority (85%) of all adults used a smartphone. This rose to more than nine in ten for those aged 16-54. Use was lower for those aged 65+ (55%), who were more likely than average (29%) to use a mobile device that wasn’t a smartphone. The smartphone was the device most likely to be used by people to go online; 85% of internet users used it for this purpose. Older internet users, aged 65+, were less likely to go online via most devices asked about, and in particular, they were less likely to have adopted smart technology, such as a smartphone.

ONS data indicates that 92% of adults in the UK were recent internet users in 2020, up from 91% in 2019. Almost all adults aged 16 to 44 years in the UK were recent internet users (99%), compared with 54% of adults aged 75 years and over. While there has been little change in internet use for adults aged 16 to 44 years in recent years, the proportion of those aged 75 years and over who are recent internet users nearly doubled since 2013, from 29%, to 54% in 2020. 6.3% of adults in the UK had never used the internet in 2020, down from 7.5% in 2019.


Written Question
Audit
Monday 13th March 2023

Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to bring forward legislation this year to enable the creation of the new Auditing, Reporting and Governance Authority.

Answered by Lord Johnson of Lainston - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Government will bring forward legislation when Parliamentary time allows.


Written Question
Pension Funds: Advisory Services
Friday 10th March 2023

Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to adopt the Competition and Market Authority’s recommendation of December 2018 to make investment consultants advising on pension funds subject to regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority; and if so, when.

Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)

The principal finding of the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) 2018 Investment Consultants Market Investigation report was that the investment consultancy and fiduciary management market was insufficiently competitive, leading to adverse impacts for their customers. One of the recommendations of that report was that investment consultants should be brought into Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) regulation.

In the March 2019 response to the recommendations of the CMA’s final report, HM Treasury committed to consulting on the CMA’s recommendation that the FCA’s regulatory perimeter be extended to cover the activities of investment consultants. A number of other priorities, including the urgent work required to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic, meant that the work to develop this consultation has been delayed.

However, a number of other recommendations made by the CMA to address competition in this market have been taken forward, such as the Department for Work and Pensions’ legislation requiring pension scheme trustees to carry out a competitive tender for fiduciary management services.

HM Treasury works closely with the FCA and has held regular discussions with them on this matter.