Financial Services and Markets Bill

Baroness Chapman of Darlington Excerpts

Report stage
Tuesday 6th June 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Kramer (LD)]

My Lords, I can add very little to the extraordinary speeches we just heard, many of them quite brief but absolutely targeted and to the point. I simply want to add just two more issues that perhaps have been mentioned but not stressed.

The first is that a carve-out of financial services from the REUL Bill is not the carve-out of some minor area of insignificant interest. Financial services are in effect our largest and most significant industry at this point in time in the UK and will be for many years in the future, and indeed the products that come from financial services are the lifeblood of our economy, both for businesses and for ordinary people. Therefore, scrutiny of decisions that are made within this arena surely has to be a central and significant responsibility of Parliament.

I say to the Minister, who always prays in aid consultation, both formal and informal, in the process of making change, when did consultation replace scrutiny in the mind of this Government? Parliament is not a consultee but the body that is democratically elected to make the key legislative decisions about the future of our country. Its relegation to the role of a consultee, which in effect happens and which this legislation would in some ways counter, is, I believe, completely unacceptable to most people when they have the opportunity to face up to it and think through this issue. Therefore, we on these Benches are very much in support of these amendments, and if necessary we will go through the Lobbies if the Minister is unable to accept at least a significant one of them.

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

My Lords, before I address the amendments, I want to acknowledge the work of my noble friend Lord Tunnicliffe, who had been leading for these Benches on this Bill until very recently, and thank him for his hard work and generosity in the way he has handed over custody of the Bill to me and my noble friend Lord Livermore. We are very grateful to my noble friend for everything he did, and he continues to advise and support—as noble Lords who know him can well imagine.

However, we are on Report, and this is the stage where we cut to the chase and pick our battles. I have been leading on the retained EU law Bill and am very familiar with the arguments raised in this debate, but we are treating this Bill slightly differently to the retained EU law Bill because our concerns on that Bill revolved around the lack of certainty created by the Government’s approach. There was no definitive list of the terms of retained EU law that would be revoked at the end of the year, and the absence of that list meant limited scope for meaningful engagement, scrutiny or consultation. That was our fundamental objection to that Bill.

The process set out in this Bill is different, with most of the retained law listed in the legislation and to be repealed and revoked only once replaced by regulations that are UK-specific. Fundamentally, we think that changing the process outlined in the Bill at this stage in a manner that the sector has not asked for—it is very different to the engagement that we had on the retained EU law Bill, where there was strong demand from various sectors for change—would introduce uncertainty.

The Lords were right to ask the Government to think again on the retained EU law Bill, but amendments to one Bill do not automatically work for another and, in any event— as I know from having worked on the retained EU law Bill—the version of the amendment we are considering today has already been convincingly overturned by the elected House and we have had to come back with another. As we need to pick our battles and to prioritise at this stage in our proceedings, we on these Benches will not be participating should the issue be put to a Division today.

[The Parliamentary Secretary, HM Treasury (Baroness Penn) (Con)]

My Lords, before turning to the amendments at hand, I add my thanks to those of the noble Baroness, Lady Chapman, for the contribution of the noble Lord, Lord Tunnicliffe, to this Bill and the Labour Front Bench on Treasury matters. The noble Baroness referred to the noble Lord’s generosity; I have definitely found that to be the case. He has always had a very constructive approach and approached his work with kindness and wisdom, which is a great combination to bring to this House.

The amendments before us from the noble Lord, Lord Sharkey, Amendments 1, 116 and 117, would introduce new parliamentary procedures when exercising the powers in the Bill. As noble Lords have noted, very similar amendments were proposed to the retained EU law Bill, passed and then reversed by the Commons. We have just had a debate this afternoon on a modified version of those amendments, to which I listened very carefully, although I am not as expert in the passage of that Bill as some other noble Lords in the Chamber.

Many of the arguments covered in that debate also apply here, so I do not intend to repeat them at length. I want to focus on some specific considerations in relation to this Bill, which, as the noble Baroness, Lady Chapman, noted, takes a different approach to repealing retained EU law for financial services. That is because it enables the Government to deliver fundamental structural reform to the way in which the financial services sector is regulated.

The Government are not asking for a blank cheque to rewrite EU law. This Bill repeals EU law and creates the necessary powers for it to be replaced in line with the UK’s existing Financial Services and Markets Act 2000—FSMA—model of regulation, which we are also enhancing through this Bill to ensure strong accountability and transparency. A list of retained EU law to be repealed in Schedule 1 was included in the Bill from its introduction in July 2022 to enable scrutiny of this proposal.

Going forward, our independent regulators will generally set the detailed provisions in their rulebooks instead of firms being required to follow EU law. The Bill includes a number of provisions to enable Parliament to scrutinise the regulators; the Government have brought forward amendments to go further on this, as we will discuss later on Report.

Amendments 1, 116 and 117 would introduce rare parliamentary procedures, including the super-affirmative procedure, and create a process to enable Parliament to amend SIs. As I said in Committee, those procedures are not justified by the limited role that secondary legislation will have in enabling the regulators to take up their new responsibilities. The Government have worked hard to ensure that every power in the Bill is appropriately scoped and justified. As I noted in Committee, the DPRRC praised the Treasury for a

“thorough and helpful delegated powers memorandum”.

It did not recommend any changes to the procedures governing the repeal of EU law or any other power in this Bill.

The powers over retained EU law are governed by a set of purposes that draw on the regulators’ statutory objectives. They are limited in scope and can be used only to modify or restate retained EU law relating to financial services or markets, as captured by Schedule 1. However, of course, the Government understand noble Lords’ interest in how they intend to use the powers in this Bill and are committed to being as open and collaborative as possible when delivering these reforms.

The Government have consulted extensively on their approach to retained EU law relating to financial services and there is a broad consensus in the sector behind the Government’s plans. As part of the Edinburgh reforms, the Government published a document, Building a Smarter Financial Services Framework for the UK, which describes the Government’s approach, including how they expect to exercise some of the powers in this Bill. It also sets out the key areas of retained EU law that are priorities for reform. Alongside this publication, the Government published three illustrative statutory instruments using the powers in this Bill to facilitate scrutiny.

When replacing retained EU law, the Government expect that there will be a combination of formal consultation, including on draft statutory instruments, and informal engagement in cases where there is a material impact or policy change, such as where activities that are currently taking place in the UK would no longer be subject to a broadly equivalent level of regulation. The Government will continue to be proportionate and consultative during this process, just as we have been up to this point.

Through the retained EU law Bill, the Government have also committed to providing regular updates to Parliament on progress in repealing and reforming retained EU law. I am happy to confirm that these reports will also cover the financial services retained EU law listed in Schedule 1 to this Bill.

I hope that I have satisfied noble Lords that the Government are committed to an open, transparent and consultative approach to implementing the reforms enabled by this Bill. I ask the noble Lord, Lord Sharkey, to withdraw his Amendment 1.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Kramer (LD)]

My Lords, I will be very brief. I have no objection to either of these amendments, although for very different reasons from the previous two speakers. On the first, which is about the report on retained EU law, it seems sensible to have a proper and lasting reporting requirement to Parliament, although I point out to those who are very worried about additional burdens that the report itself generates a huge amount of effort, energy and paperwork, so I doubt it goes very far in reducing any burden on anybody.

I am more interested in the second amendment tabled by the noble Viscount, Lord Trenchard, Amendment 3B, because it embeds the principle of accountability to Parliament and the wider world and states that, where changes are made in regulation, other than in situations of genuine urgency—I underscore “genuine” because we have seen that flex a great deal, with things said to be very urgent that seem to have no urgency whatever attached to them—the Treasury should carry out consultations.

I say to both previous speakers that if they speak to the industry they will find that the struggles that the financial sector has been facing in the UK—the decline in listings, virtually the complete loss of the European swaps market, our gradual exclusion from a significant range of activities that are international and certainly pan-European and fintech outsourcing extensively into Europe—are post-Brexit consequences. Frankly, I do not think that amendments such as this, in the hope that there will be much lighter-touch regulation, which is what common law really means, are going to remedy that problem. We built our reputation on quality and consistency and, like it or not, those are quite demanding standards that light-touch standards do not achieve.

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

My Lords, we are grateful to the noble Viscount, Lord Trenchard, for bringing these amendments forward and we ask him to pass on our very best wishes to the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, and her husband. I am sure she will be impressed by the way he introduced her ideas this afternoon. I feel somewhat that we are intruding on a bit of a family squabble on the Government Benches with this group in that, in the retained EU law Bill, the amendment that she brought forward was as a consequence of her deeply felt disappointment—shared by the noble Baroness, Lady Lawlor, if I remember her speech at the time, and others—at the Government’s change of approach to that Bill. The change of approach was one that we had been calling for and very much welcomed, and we did not feel on that Bill and we do not feel on this Bill that there is an awful lot to be gained by these amendments. There is not a huge amount to be lost either, particularly with Amendment 3A. We are interested in what the Government have to say about them, but they are not amendments that we take a particularly firm view on either way because we think they are designed with a rather different purpose in mind, which is to hold the Government’s feet to the fire.

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

My Lords, I join noble Lords in wishing my noble friend Lady Noakes and her husband well, and I look forward to her return to this House. As my noble friend Lord Trenchard noted, she worked with our noble friend Lord Callanan on amendments to the retained EU law Bill to introduce similar reporting standards to those in Amendment 3A. I can confirm that the reporting requirements in the retained EU law Bill already apply to the retained EU law repealed through Schedule 1 to this Bill, so the reports that the Government prepare under that obligation will include the Treasury’s progress in repealing retained EU law in Schedule 1.

I reassure my noble friends that through the Bill the Government are asking Parliament to repeal all legislation in this area, and we expect to commence it fully. The revocation is subject to commencement, and each individual piece of legislation listed in the Bill will cease to have effect only once the Treasury makes an SI commencing the repeal. As I noted in Committee, this is being taken forward in a carefully phased and prioritised way to deal with retained EU law, splitting it into tranches and prioritising areas that will provide the most concrete benefits to the UK. The implementation will take place over a number of years, which means that we are prioritising those areas with the greatest potential benefits of reform. We have demonstrated intent and action in this area. We have conducted a number of reviews into parts of retained EU law, including the Solvency II review, the wholesale market review and the UK listings review by my noble friend Lord Hill of Oareford, which my noble friend Lord Trenchard referred to in his Amendment 3B. The whole- sale markets review reform in Schedule 2 demonstrates the Government’s pace and ambition for reforming retained EU law, and that is very much the case.

I turn to Amendment 3B. Of course the Government must think carefully before choosing to replace EU law, and understand the impact of any replacement. The Government have consulted extensively on their approach to retained EU law relating to financial services, and there is broad consensus in the sector behind the Government’s plans, as I have already noted. However, I do not believe that an explicit mandatory statutory obligation to consult impacted parties is required. The powers in the Bill to designate activities under the designated activities regime are closely modelled on the secondary powers which already exist in FiSMA, especially the power to specify regulated activities. This existing power does not have an explicit statutory obligation to consult. I think the Government have already demonstrated that they will always consult when appropriate and will always approach regulating a new activity carefully. We can see this in the Government’s consultation on the regulation of funeral plans in 2019, and in draft legislation related to “buy now, pay later” published in February.

My noble friend Lord Trenchard referred to the listings review and implementing its results but, again, the Government have already consulted extensively. They launched a consultation in July 2021 that ran until September this year, and the proposals on listing reforms received broad support across the industry. The Government have already published a draft statutory instrument to illustrate how the new powers in the Bill could be used to bring forward a new regime in this area, so I believe that the Government have already demonstrated that they will consult properly when using the regulated activities order power. Therefore further amendments in this area are not necessary, so I hope my noble friend is able to withdraw Amendment 3A and will not move Amendment 3B.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Altmann (Con)]

My Lords, I support all the work that the noble Lord, Lord Tyrie, has put into this amendment. He has worked for so many years and has so much knowledge on this subject. If my noble friend cannot accept the amendment today, I urge her to come back at Third Reading if possible, perhaps with the Government’s own proposals for at least a consultation, which would be a reasonable compromise. There is a strength of feeling on this issue.

As the noble Lord said, the FCA has already been clipping the RDC’s wings. We can see dangers and that there is huge support for proper independence on a statutory basis. We do not want the City to become an oligopoly; we need to protect some of these smaller firms for healthy competition. What is the Government’s objection to this proposal?

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

My Lords, we commend the noble Lord, Lord Tyrie, on his amendment and on using it to raise important questions. We understand that concerns have been raised about the perceived watering down of the RDC’s role within the FCA. While we know that the Government respect the operational independence of the FCA, we hope that the Minister is able to say something about the regulator’s recent decisions on the RDC, which are causing substantial concern.

The FCA believes that the current balance of responsibilities is correct and that the recent reforms were necessary to ensure quicker decision-making. However, it would help if the Minister could outline what steps, if any, the Treasury might take in future, should it come to the view, if it has not today, that the system is not quite working in the way that it should.

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

My Lords, I am also grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Tyrie, for raising this important issue through Amendment 8. The Regulatory Decisions Committee, or RDC, takes contested enforcement decisions on behalf of the FCA where the FCA has not been able to settle a case with the relevant firm. The Government recognise that the RDC performs a critical function within the regulatory framework. FSMA requires that decision-makers are independent, and the design of the RDC reflects this.

It is important that the RDC makes decisions fairly and transparently. To ensure this, the members of the RDC are wholly independent of the FCA’s executive. The RDC also has its own team of support staff and legal advisers. This structure ensures that FCA personnel involved in the investigation of the enforcement case are not involved in supporting the RDC in its final decision-making.

As noble Lords noted, the FCA has recently made a number of operational changes to transfer decision-making responsibilities in certain cases from the RDC to the FCA executive, which will increase the speed of decision-making. However, decisions in contested enforcement cases continue to be made by the RDC.

In addition, should a firm or senior manager disagree with the final enforcement decision taken against them by the RDC, they generally have the right to refer the case to the Upper Tribunal. Where decisions fall to FCA executives, the relevant parties retain the right to make representations in writing. The FCA will also consider taking oral representations in exceptional circumstances, when not doing so would be detrimental to the fairness of decision-making. As set out above, the decisions made by FCA executives can also be referred to the Upper Tribunal should a firm disagree with them.

Any proposed legislative changes to the structure of the FCA’s supervision and enforcement framework should be subject to appropriate public consultation. As we have discussed previously during the passage of the Bill, the Government sought views from stakeholders on the operation of the future regulatory framework through a review. However, we concluded during that review that the case had not been made for changes to the FCA’s enforcement and supervision functions given that these responsibilities were not increasing as a result of the UK’s departure from the EU, unlike the significant increase in its rule-making responsibilities, which was the focus of the review and the subsequent enhancements made by the Bill.

Nevertheless, I am grateful to the noble Lord for bringing the importance of the FCA’s supervisory and enforcement framework to the Government’s attention. The Government do not see the need for legislative change in this area at this time. However, we support the noble Lord’s aim to ensure greater independent scrutiny of and accountability within the regulatory framework. The Economic Secretary and I will look at this issue further, outside the passage of this Bill, to ensure that the FCA’s supervisory and enforcement framework remains appropriate as it takes on new powers. We will continue to listen to the views of the noble Lord and other stakeholders as we do so.

I have also raised the issue with the FCA, and will pass on the response with further detail on the decisions and changes made to the operation of the RDC to this House. Therefore, I hope, for the reasons I have set out, that at this stage the noble Lord is content to withdraw his amendment and continue this conversation further outside the passage of the Bill.

Insider Dealing (Securities and Regulated Markets) Order 2023

Baroness Chapman of Darlington Excerpts

Tuesday 16th May 2023 Grand Committee

[Lord Sharkey (LD)]

My Lords, this SI seems admirably straightforward and uncomplicated. We support it and I can be brief. I have only a couple of questions and one observation.

The first question relates to paragraph 7.7 in the EM. Why is it necessary to keep NASDAQ and the successor to the SWX Swiss Exchange explicitly in scope, and to add the New York Stock Exchange for that matter? Are they not already brought into scope by this SI’s adoption of the definitions in Article 4? I am sure that there is a good reason but I would be grateful if the Minister can explain what it is.

My observation concerns paragraph 7.8 of the EM. It points out that

“the set of securities to which the criminal offence of insider dealing applies to is narrower than the securities covered … in MAR”.

It goes on to give examples of the missing securities. It lists currency options, credit default swaps and units in collective investment undertakings, such as exchange traded funds—and says that the list is not exhaustive. It rather coyly says that this is “not optimal”. I agree entirely. I understand that this SI corrects that but, given the historical absence of these securities in the list of activities that may be pursued in the criminal courts for insider dealing, today’s SI rather looks like having just noticed that the stable door has been left open for 20 years and hastily closing it. It is good that no more horses will be able to bolt but that invites the question of how many have already bolted and how many, if any, were caught by the civil procedures in MAR. Does the Minister have an assessment of how many criminal cases would or could have been brought had the missing securities categories been within the purview of the Criminal Justice Act and how many were taken forward instead under the MAR provisions?

Finally, why does this instrument not come into force immediately? Does not the 21-day delay provide a further window for possibly unactionable criminal malfeasance? I look forward to the Minister’s reply.

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

We agree with the Minister’s assertion that there should be serious consequences for those who break the law. We also agree with the comments from the Liberal Democrat Benches and echo the comments about the seriousness of insider dealing. We share the curiosity shown in the other place when this instrument was considered about the length of time it has taken to bring in this measure, given we understand that it came about as a result of a review that took place in 2015. I am not asking this to be facetious, but what assessment have the Government made of the number of criminal offences that would have been caught had this measure been in place sooner, which were treated under the civil regime because this instrument had not yet been brought? We want to highlight the consequences of leaving things quite this late, because we are concerned. That underscores our support for this measure. The Government are right to address this gap between the two regimes and we support this instrument.

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

My Lords, I thank both noble Lords for their support for this statutory instrument.

On the time it has taken to deliver this measure and the potential impact in the meantime of not having the criminal regime and the civil regime aligned, it is important to note that since the Fair and Effective Markets Review was published, considerable work has been undertaken to modernise the UK’s market abuse legislation. For example, the civil regime for market abuse was updated in 2016 by the EU market abuse regulation and the Government and UK regulators have implemented the majority of the recommendations from the Fair and Effective Markets Review, including making changes in the Financial Services Act 2021 to increase the maximum sentence for criminal market abuse from seven to 10 years, bringing it into line with comparable economic crimes such as fraud and bribery. The Government have also recently completed a broader review of the criminal market abuse regime as part of the 2019 to 2022 economic crime plan. While this measure has taken longer to implement, there has been other action in this space in the meantime, including delivering on other recommendations from that review.

On the impact of the length of time in which the scope of the criminal offences has been different from that of the civil offences, it is important to note that the FCA has a number of tools available to tackle market abuse, of which the criminal insider dealing offence is only one. In addition to prosecutions under the criminal regime, between 2013 and 2022 the FCA has had 36 regulatory outcomes relating to market abuse, with regulatory fines totalling more than £70 million in that period.

The Government do not have data on the number of criminal prosecutions that have not been pursued due to the difference in the scope of the regimes. The FCA does not routinely record and track cases that it cannot take forward. This includes cases taken forward under the civil regime that could have resulted in a criminal prosecution with the changes made by this SI. Moreover, it is important to remember that there are a number of reasons why the FCA may choose to pursue a civil rather than a criminal prosecution other than the scope of the two regimes. For example, the FCA will consider the severity of the offence in question and whether the evidence meets the higher legal threshold needed to secure a criminal conviction.

It is not possible to say with certainty whether the FCA’s decision not to pursue criminal proceedings in a particular case was due to the issues that this statutory instrument addresses or to other factors, and we do not believe that attempting to determine that retrospectively would be a good use of government legal resources. It is a perfectly legitimate question to ask but, given that other mechanisms were available to the FCA to tackle market abuse under the civil regime—and it has also continued to bring prosecutions under the criminal regime—we can be reassured that it has been able to take action in this period. The Government are confident that the FCA has a strong track record of identifying, investigating and prosecuting insider dealing.

The noble Lord, Lord Sharkey, asked why we include specific US and Swiss exchanges and why they are not covered under the more general definitions that have been used in this SI to avoid the need to update this list again as specific named instruments change. My understanding is that for the more general definitions there are commonly understood definitions used in the UK and EU markets that this can work for, but that when you are looking at other exchanges further afield outside that scope, there remains a need to name those trading venues. That is the difference between continuing to need to name some trading venues versus going for the more general definition-based approach that this SI has done.

As to why we have chosen to include specific US and Swiss exchanges in addition to the UK and EU exchanges that will be covered by this measure, the FCA has seen a persistent trend of organised crime groups recruiting UK insiders to disclose inside information relating to securities traded on those markets. While of course this abusive behaviour is also possible for other third-country venues, this SI includes the third-country markets where the FCA has observed the greatest risk of harm. With regard to other third-country trading venues, and indeed in respect of these ones too, you would expect the home regulator to take action to tackle market abuse in those cases.

I hope that with those remarks I have answered the questions put forward today.

Banks: Closures and Shared Banking Hubs

Baroness Chapman of Darlington Excerpts

Thursday 27th April 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Cormack (Con)]

What about cheques?

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

I do not think my children know what a cheque is, actually. The Social Market Foundation and the Treasury Select Committee in the other place have expressed some concern about the overreliance on post offices as a stopgap. Postal staff are wonderful, but they are not trained banking specialists. Does the Minister agree that we need that trusted expertise to be available on our high streets? Does she also agree that some post offices just are not suitable for many of the requirements of face-to-face banking, especially for more vulnerable customers, as they do not provide the privacy and dignity that many bank customers need?

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

I agree with the noble Baroness that the Post Office can play a really important role in ensuring ongoing provision, but it should not be the only provider of services. There are other services that are more appropriately delivered in other ways, including in person, which is part of where banking hubs come in. As I have said, we hope to see the delivery of those hubs accelerated this year. It is also reassuring to hear that several banks have committed that if their branch is the last in town, it will stay open until the relevant banking hub is up and running, to ensure continuity of service.

VAT: Building Repairs and Maintenance

Baroness Chapman of Darlington Excerpts

Wednesday 19th April 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

On the noble Baroness’s specific point, if I may I will write to her with the details because I do not have them to hand at the moment.

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

My Lords, can the Minister confirm that around one-third of the money allocated by the Government to fund installation of heat pumps and home insulation has so far gone unspent? That is £2.1 billion that could have been spent on making British homes cheaper to keep warm. Do the Government have a plan to spend this money? For example, could it help to fund VAT reductions on improvements to energy efficiency, encouraging more people to upgrade their homes?

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

I can confirm to the noble Baroness that we already have a reduced rate of VAT in place for energy-efficiency installations. She will also be aware that we are extending the available support through a new energy company obligation, the energy-efficient Great British insulation scheme. It is estimated that the scheme will make around 300,000 homes more energy efficient, primarily through the installation of insulation measures, reducing household bills by around £300 to £400 on average per year and, crucially, reducing emissions.

Public Spending: Barnett Formula

Baroness Chapman of Darlington Excerpts

Wednesday 15th March 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

My Lords, it is a real pleasure to take part in this debate. I too live on the Darlington-Stockton railway line in Darlington. We are very proud of our railway heritage, and we are looking forward to the centenary in 2025, when we will celebrate our fine contribution to the railway infrastructure of the world, all starting in Darlington.

I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Shipley, on securing this debate, which is timely, given today’s Budget Statement and in the light of other developments, such as the UK internal market Act and the creation of a new UK subsidy control scheme, as well as the distribution and spending of levelling-up funds. We are all very interested in those issues, today especially.

As the helpful Lords Library briefing outlines, the Barnett formula is a long-running Treasury policy. It does not have a statutory underpinning, but it is very well established. I was struck by the noble Lord, Lord Wigley, saying that he spoke in the debate in 1978 in which it was introduced. I doubt whether the Minister was born in 1978, which goes to highlight just how long this has been going on.

As someone who lives in the north-east and is married to a Welsh MP, I am very familiar with the sense of grievance that exists around the current situation. We know that various complaints are levelled against the Barnett formula, and the Government should engage positively with those debates and attempt to move this forward. Of course, the formula is not the only way in which the Government claim to be closing disparities between the nations and regions of the UK. The levelling-up fund is, contrary to initial expectations, allocated by Westminster rather than being devolved. That has raised questions, particularly from the Welsh Government, and I hope that the Minister can address those concerns.

The noble Lord, Lord Greenhalgh, spoke about setting regions and councils free. Obviously, everyone would like to see that, but I gently point out that it is quite difficult to be free when you are tied up in spending thousands of pounds, if not more, which you would like to spend on services, bidding for various funds to help you grow and regenerate your area as you would like to do.

Concerns have been raised about the use of the levelling-up fund, and there have been plenty of accusations of funds being given to certain local authorities for perhaps more political purposes rather than on the basis of need. We on these Benches are deeply concerned about that and support the prioritisation of need in allocation of funds. In recent weeks there have also been reports of significant sums being allocated but not actually being spent, which suggests that the system is not functioning as well as intended and that some funds might have been better spent in other parts of the UK.

Alongside Barnett and levelling-up funding, there is also of course the question of the UK shared prosperity fund, which is coming on stream to replace EU regional development funds—I think the noble Lord, Lord Shipley, referred to this as well. The UK shared prosperity fund has identified geographical areas in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, but the formula used is different to Barnett and the precise forms of support for each part of the UK seem to differ, as does the nature of the interaction between Whitehall and the devolved Administrations.

I also recognise and congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill, on his maiden speech. As someone with great experience at the top of FirstGroup, Transport for London and Network Rail, he has a solid track record of overseeing public spending on infrastructure projects, and we all look forward to benefiting for years to come from that insight and experience, and we welcome him here. I especially congratulate him on including Darlington in his maiden speech and encourage him to continue to do so throughout his many years and contributions in this place.

Carers in England

Baroness Chapman of Darlington Excerpts

Monday 6th March 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

My Lords, the Government have considered a number of aspects for the adult social care workforce, including the support for training that can be provided and proper recognition of the profession. Of course, the noble Lord makes a point about pay as well.

[Baroness Chapman of Darlington (Lab)]

My Lords, the Government have long promised an employment Bill, which would allow Ministers to address some of the specific issues faced by carers, as well as others who face barriers to full economic participation. Given the absence of the Bill from last year’s Queen’s Speech, does it remain the Government’s intention to bring it forward? If so, when will we see it and, if not, how else will these issues be addressed?

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

My Lords, perhaps I can pick up on the noble Baroness’s final point. The Government are supporting the carer’s leave Private Member’s Bill to provide an entitlement to employees of one week of unpaid leave per year. We also support the flexible working Private Member’s Bill, which will make requesting flexible working an employment right from day 1, also providing more flexibility for those seeking to balance work and care. We are seeking to take forward the policies and proposals that we have set out while we await the arrival of the employment Bill.

No-deal Brexit: Short Positions against the Pound

Baroness Chapman of Darlington Excerpts

Monday 30th September 2019 Commons Chamber

[Mr Clarke]

My hon. Friend puts it with his customary robustness, but he is absolutely right that the real threat to the economy, to the strength of sterling, to our competitiveness and to jobs and living standards across the country would be a series of bad decisions made by a reckless, hard-left Labour Government.

[Jenny Chapman (Darlington) (Lab)]

My constituents and the Minister’s constituents are working multiple jobs and long hours to keep themselves afloat. Does he understand at all just how distasteful it is for them to see people making millions betting against our country?

[Mr Clarke]

I yield to nobody in my appreciation of how hard people work in the Tees valley and, indeed, how passionate they are about our area, but there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that democracy needs to be honoured. We need to deliver on the referendum result and to get this done. There will no actions for the City to take if we get a good deal across the line and the hon. Lady votes for it.

Youth Services

Baroness Chapman of Darlington Excerpts

Wednesday 24th July 2019 Commons Chamber

[Cat Smith]

My hon. Friend makes an excellent point about the diversity of the current provision of youth work, and I pay tribute to the work that he does in Leeds, where he champions young people’s needs. I look forward to working with him over the summer on a particular project that he is launching.

[Jenny Chapman (Darlington) (Lab)]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for giving way; she is being very generous. This is just to tie the two previous interventions together. Something that concerns me is that so much of the delivery now is on a project basis, so we do not get the career, the professionalisation and that real expertise and experience in our youth workforce that we have had previously. Over the past nine years, we have seen a tragic hollowing out of this important service.

[Cat Smith]

I agree. That is why much of the excellent work that is being delivered is being done by volunteers and lower-level qualified youth workers. Many services are lacking that sufficiency of management and the qualified youth workers, as well as the administrative resources, which are all too often focused on applying for short-term funding.

Voluntary sector innovation has not happened everywhere, and it is reliant on talented individuals and committed organisations. Does the Minister agree that we are feeling a real gap as a result of the withdrawal of local authorities’ role in leading and facilitating youth work provision and that this is a burden on the already overstretched voluntary sector?

Oral Answers to Questions

Baroness Chapman of Darlington Excerpts

Tuesday 11th September 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hammond]

Provided that I can have it in writing that my hon. Friend is buying, I am very tempted to consider his offer. I will negotiate with him.

I understand the pressure that pubs and many other traditional businesses are facing. Pubs in Shrewsbury have benefited from recent cuts in alcohol duties and business rates, but of course we recognise the challenge that many smaller businesses face, and we will keep that challenge very much in mind as we formulate our policies.

[Jenny Chapman (Darlington) (Lab)]

The Chancellor is obviously very welcome to join me in a pub crawl around Darlington as well. I always stand my round.

Many of us who represent towns are fighting very hard to support our high streets, and the business rate pressures that have confronted retail businesses are exactly the same when it comes to pubs and catering outlets. In my town, there are so many anomalies in relation to pubs and business rates that such anomalies have become almost normal. The situation needs to be looked at as a matter of urgency. Will the Chancellor investigate the way in which smaller pubs are particularly disadvantaged by the business rates system?

[Mr Hammond]

It is true that pubs are assessed in a different way from other retail premises for business rates purposes. We looked into that recently and concluded that the current system was in fact the best system for pubs, but I shall be happy to look into it again.

We all recognise—every single one of us, whichever part of the country we represent—that high streets are under pressure, primarily because the behaviour of consumers is changing. I think that our challenge is to support the high street as it undergoes that process of change. We cannot simply turn our backs on a change that is driven by consumer behaviour, but we must support businesses as they make it.

Paradise Papers

Baroness Chapman of Darlington Excerpts

Monday 6th November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mel Stride]

My hon. Friend is right. We know how much we have brought in through clamping down on avoidance and evasion: £160 billion since 2010. We also know that we have about the lowest tax gap in the world and that it is far lower than it was under the last Labour Government. Those figures speak for themselves.

[Jenny Chapman (Darlington) (Lab)]

Further to the Minister’s response to my right hon. Friend the Member for Tottenham (Mr Lammy), will he explain why he thinks people saving for their children’s future would need to make use of accounts in Bermuda and the British Virgin Islands, when my constituents seem to manage it with the use of local building societies?

[Mel Stride]

I think that if the hon. Lady checks my answer to the question from her right hon. Friend in Hansard, she will see that that was not the totality of my response, and that I also referred to dollar-denominated trading and the complexities thereof. She may then be able to answer her own question.