Devolved Governments: Public Expenditure

Debate between Lord Agnew of Oulton and Baroness Wheatcroft

Thursday 20th January 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Agnew of Oulton (Con)]

My Lords, I think we all know that the Barnett formula was something of a fudge, put together many years ago. It is an extremely complicated thing to try to unravel. We know that the amount of funding that goes to individual citizens is favourable to the devolved regions, but the formula is not necessarily satisfactory—so I would encourage the noble Lord to keep up his campaign to push for a review.

[Baroness Wheatcroft (CB)]

My Lords, given the Minister’s dislike of waste in government, could he comment on the article earlier this month by the Comptroller of the National Audit Office, Gareth Davies? He criticised the lack of any formal process for evaluating both the efficiency and delivery of cross-government projects. He said that there was very little information on

“what difference is made by the billions”

spent by government. What does the Minister think of that?

[Lord Agnew of Oulton (Con)]

I think the noble Baroness makes a very good point. I will suggest to the relevant Ministers that the work on the fiscal framework, announced in October, includes a review of the points raised.

Money Laundering

Debate between Lord Agnew of Oulton and Baroness Wheatcroft

Thursday 13th January 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Agnew of Oulton (Con)]

It is important to remind the House that the overseas territories are independent entities and that we cannot just force them to comply with our own regulations. But we have an ongoing dialogue with them. For example, we have a very useful exchange of information through the exchange of notes arrangements, and they have agreed to introduce publicly accessible registers of companies’ beneficial ownership. The discussions are very much ongoing and I respect the right reverend Prelate’s concern.

[Baroness Wheatcroft (CB)]

My Lords, at the anti-corruption summit in 2016, the Government committed to producing a register of overseas owners of British properties. In 2018, they produced a draft Bill on that which has still to become law. Could the Government say whether they are in fact committed to stopping this sort of overseas activity in the UK?

[Lord Agnew of Oulton (Con)]

My Lords, I can assure the House that we are absolutely committed to stopping that. I accept that the introduction of the Bill is taking too long, but active discussions are going on at the moment about a new economic crime Bill and I hope that we might see its introduction within the next few months.

Cash Network

Debate between Lord Agnew of Oulton and Baroness Wheatcroft

Tuesday 7th September 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Agnew of Oulton (Con)]

To reassure the noble Baroness, there are still some 40,000 ATMs in the country at the last count, and we remain committed to supporting their continuation. Link, the payment services provider for cash machines, has restated that a number of times. The other side of the coin is that the percentage of transactions using cash has declined dramatically; it was 56% of all transactions in 2010, and is now down to 17%. The usage is declining, which is why some of these facilities are going.

[Baroness Wheatcroft (CB)]

My Lords, post offices are highly valued by the communities they serve. Will the Government consider committing to the Post Office’s future by developing it as “The People’s Bank”, providing cash withdrawal facilities in the communities that need them?

[Lord Agnew of Oulton (Con)]

My Lords, the Post Office plays a vital role in supporting payments across the system. There are some 11,000 post offices, and some 95% of business customers and 99% of personal banking customers are able to deposit cheques, check their balances and withdraw and deposit cash. The banking framework allows banking via post offices.

Future of Financial Services

Debate between Lord Agnew of Oulton and Baroness Wheatcroft

Wednesday 11th November 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Wheatcroft (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, I declare my interests as listed in the register. The Treasury papers say that it will give audit equivalence to the EEA states and approve as adequate their competent authorities. It is important that investors should be able to have confidence in audits provided by EEA auditors for overseas operations of UK businesses. However, does this also mean that EEA auditors will be able to continue practising in the UK after the end of the transition period, while UK auditors will be excluded from EEA markets? If this is the case, can the Minister say what the cost will be of this lack of reciprocity?

[Lord Agnew of Oulton (Con)]

I am not able to give specific answers to the noble Baroness, Lady Wheatcroft, on those subjects at the moment. They will, no doubt, be included in the ongoing negotiations. If we receive clarity on that in the next few weeks, I will happily write to her.