Hate Crimes

Debate between Baroness Penn and Lord Kamall

Wednesday 21st February 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

My Lords, one of the most recent announcements from the Government in this area is indeed additional funding through the Department for Education to schools to increase education around this area. That is something the DfE is taking forward.

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

My Lords, when the Government look at their hate crime strategy, how much of it do they think they can achieve in a top-down way from central government, and how much can they achieve in working with local community organisations, so that it is a bottom-up approach to tackling hate crimes?

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

My noble friend is absolutely right that working at a local level is key to giving people more confidence in reporting, but it is also really important in thinking about solutions to these issues. One of the things that my department has been doing, in particular since 7 October, is regular engagement with local authorities to understand what is going on in their area, examples of best practice we can help share, and any particular issues that they are aware of that we can provide more support on.

Residential Leasehold for Flats

Debate between Baroness Penn and Lord Kamall

Thursday 30th November 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

Yes, the Autumn Statement set out the way forward we are going to take on that issue. We need proper financing to support our ambitions for more homebuilding. Some of that comes through government support, but the private sector is a key partner here and we need to do everything that we can to unlock investment.

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

My noble friend mentioned there were complications in extending freehold to leaseholders in flats. She does not have to answer everything right now, but I wonder whether she could write to me, and deposit a copy in the Library, about some of those complications, so noble Lords can better understand those barriers to extending freehold?

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

I would be very happy to write to my noble friend but, as I said, in looking at the distinction between houses and flats, the majority of houses have always been provided as freehold, and there are few justifications for building leasehold houses. We have seen, in recent years, this practice being exploited by developers to levy unfair charges on home owners. Flats, on the other hand, have shared fabric and infrastructure and therefore require some form of arrangement to facilitate management. Traditionally, this has been facilitated by a lease, but, as we discussed, commonhold is an alternative way to do this.

Bank of England: Interest Rate Policy

Debate between Baroness Penn and Lord Kamall

Wednesday 12th July 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

I am not aware of all the evidence that the Select Committee that the noble Lord refers to has received, but I am sure that once the Select Committee produces its report the Government will read it with interest.

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

My Lords, many people recognise that we have an independent Bank of England, but we also have a Bank of England that is supposed to meet a target of 2% inflation. Given that the Bank has continuously failed to meet that target—I understand also that government can contribute to this—one would expect the Bank either to comment on government policy which it saw as inflationary or, at the same time, to be accountable for not holding to its target. Given what the Minister says about tempting her or otherwise to talk about the Bank of England and its policy, it is important that people understand that when the Bank fails to meet its target it has to be held accountable to someone, and many noble Lords have not seen that accountability.

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

My Lords, when the steps were taken to make the Bank of England independent, measures were also put in place to ensure that it is accountable to the Government and to Parliament for its decisions.

Energy Profits Levy

Debate between Baroness Penn and Lord Kamall

Tuesday 9th May 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

My Lords, a number of factors affect predicted revenues from the EPL, not least the high degree of volatility that we have seen in commodity prices. I say to the noble Lord that, if we do not have investment allowances in place and if we do not invest in the future of this industry in the UK, there will be less revenue in future coming from UK oil and gas fields to contribute to the Exchequer and our priorities in future.

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

My Lords, following that answer by the Minister, I completely agree that we still need oil and gas as we transition to net zero. We cannot have a modern digital economy with high-speed electric rail running on solar and wind only, as the technology stands. However, the issue with the levy is that there are companies that are now saying they will pull investment from the North Sea. So how do we encourage that investment, given that we need it in the transition to net zero?

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

My noble friend is right. That is why the Government have always sought to deliver a balance between a fair return for the UK from the use of its resources and providing the right conditions to attract investment in the North Sea. That is why we have the investment allowance in the EPL that provides an additional incentive for companies to reinvest profits in the UK. On the point about environmental impact, the level of tax relief available for upstream decarbonisation expenditure was increased from January this year to incentivise companies for the cleaner production of oil and gas.

Alcohol Duty Bands

Debate between Baroness Penn and Lord Kamall

Thursday 12th January 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

My Lords, the Government have regular dialogue with the Scottish Government—indeed, the Prime Minister is there today. I agree with the noble Lord that the minimum-unit pricing approach has not always had the desired effect. The UK Government’s position is to address this through the level of duties, and relating that to the strength of alcohol. That is the better approach, and one that we can take now that we have left the EU.

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

Can my noble friend the Minister tell us whether the Treasury, or indeed any other government department, has done any modelling on the effect of the new rates and whether they would lead or incentivise drinkers to drink lower-alcohol drinks and reduce their overall consumption of alcohol?

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

My Lords, I am sure we have taken that into account in looking at this work, and that we work closely with the Department of Health and Social Care on it. Another aspect of the reforms we are bringing forward is to provide draught relief to allow pubs and other venues to be more competitive with off-licences and supermarkets selling alcohol.

Stock Markets

Debate between Baroness Penn and Lord Kamall

Thursday 17th November 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

I disagree with the noble Lord. I think that our leaving the EU presents opportunities for the City, which is exactly what the Government plan to capitalise on through the Financial Services and Markets Bill and other things that I have already mentioned. We do not just trade with Europe, and we continue to be one of the pre-eminent global financial centres in the world.

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

My Lords, my noble friend is absolutely right to say that there are a number of ways of measuring the rankings of different financial centres. In the ranking to which the Question refers, one reason why Paris has overtaken London is because of the value of LVMH—one company, which has doubled its share price. It shows the challenge of making sure that we are attracting growth companies. What are the City and Government doing to make sure that we continue to attract growth companies to list in London?

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

My noble friend is absolutely right that one factor in play here is that different sectors are represented more strongly in the different stock markets, which have been affected differently by the global uncertainty and inflationary pressures that we have faced. On his point about what we are doing to attract investment into the UK, I say that two elements of the growth plan that were retained were around the annual investment and small enterprise investment—I will get the acronym wrong, but I refer to the other investment allowances. We consider that to be incredibly important. I have mentioned before a number of the changes to listing rules including, for example, dual class share structures, which have been taken forward by the FCA.

UK Green Taxonomy

Debate between Baroness Penn and Lord Kamall

Thursday 3rd November 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

I assure my noble friend that we will be led by science in this area. Earlier in this Question, noble Lords referred to the work of the Green Technical Advisory Group, which was set up to advise the Government on the UK green taxonomy and is informing our work in this area. There is a question about the inclusion of both gas and nuclear in the green taxonomy. The Government have not made any decisions on their inclusion, but they will engage with experts and the market before making any final decision in this area.

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

I also welcome my noble friend back to the Front Bench, even though the Prime Minister has fired me but not rehired me—

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

I apologise; I was not after the violins. When I dealt with developing the green taxonomy in the European Parliament, we did not look only at companies that can certify themselves as green and ensure investors; we also looked at how to incentivise companies that are not yet green to become greener. How will the Government tackle that in developing their green taxonomy?

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

I take this opportunity to pay tribute to my noble friend’s work. I saw at first hand the energy and commitment that he brought to his roles. He is absolutely right that information is the first step on this path, and it then needs to be used to ensure that firms working in all sectors make plans for transition and action to ensure that their activities are aligned with net zero by 2050. Our green finance road map sets out the path that the Government think firms can take towards that aim.

Health and Care Bill

Debate between Baroness Penn and Lord Kamall

3rd reading
Wednesday 23rd March 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

I think that noble Lords may want to make a few remarks before we reach the Question.

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

Is that me?

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

Yes.