Asked by: Lord Bishop of Southwark (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the plan to allocate additional Official Development Assistance (ODA) for (1) 2024–25, and (2) 2025–26, to compensate for the share of ODA being spent on refugees in the United Kingdom.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to restoring ODA spending at the level of 0.7 per cent of GNI when fiscal circumstances allow. The Government is currently undertaking a Spending Review and will set out its approach to the House in due course.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Southwark (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to revise the fiscal tests used for determining when the Official Development Assistance Budget has returned to its required level of 0.7 per cent of gross national income.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to restoring ODA spending at the level of 0.7 per cent of GNI when fiscal circumstances allow. The Government is currently undertaking a Spending Review and will set out its approach to the House in due course.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Southwark (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to apply a cap to the share of Official Development Assistance reported as "in-donor refugee costs".
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to restoring ODA spending at the level of 0.7 per cent of GNI when fiscal circumstances allow. The Government is currently undertaking a Spending Review and will set out its approach to the House in due course.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Southwark (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to regulate identity tracing agencies in relation to the recovery of debt.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The Government wants to see fair treatment of individuals in problem debt, and there is a range of work underway across government and regulators to promote responsible practices for debt recovery.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulates the collection of debt by lenders and certain debt collection agencies arising under credit agreements, consumer hire agreements and peer-to-peer loans. The FCA sets clear expectations for firms undertaking the collection of these debts, including the expectation for firms to establish the correct identity, where this is disputed.
On 18 March 2024 the UK Regulators Network (UKRN), including the FCA, Ofgem, Ofwat and Ofcom, published joint guidance which sets out their expectations for firms’ debt collection practices across their respective sectors. This is to ensure that firms support customers in debt and that firms’ collection practices are not causing harm to customers.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Southwark (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the recent loan provided by the International Monetary Fund to the country of Zambia, what discussions, if any, they have had with (1) the government of China, and (2) private western lenders, about cancelling debt owed by the government of Zambia.
Answered by Baroness Penn
Zambia is one of three countries to have requested a debt treatment under the Common Framework. The Common Framework was agreed in November 2020 by the UK, along with the G20 and Paris Club, to help deliver a long-term, sustainable approach for supporting low-income countries to tackle their debt vulnerabilities.
Following agreement by the IMF Board of a new $1.3 billion reform programme, it is a Government priority to work with our G20 partners, including China, to make swift progress on Zambia’s debt treatment and we are a full participant in multilateral discussions on this issue.
The Government also routinely engages private creditors on international debt issues and is focused on ensuring private creditors fully play their part in Zambia’s debt treatment.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Southwark (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the claim by the Trades Union Congress that thousands of key workers are earning less in real terms than they were a decade earlier.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Shadow Minister (Work and Pensions)
To examine the real terms earnings of key workers, we focus on public sector workers - which represent the majority of key workers.
Public sector pay in real terms (total pay, deflated by CPI) has grown at an annualised rate of 0.2% over the last decade (since the three months to November 2011). The level of public sector average weekly earnings (in real terms) is now in line with that of the private sector in the three months to November 2021.
The public sector has, on average, better remuneration packages than the private sector. ONS suggested a 7% premium in 2019 (controlling for characteristics, including pensions). In 2020, the median salary in the public sector was £3,500 higher than the private sector, this gap is most acute amongst the lowest paid, where ONS data suggests public sector average hourly wages are 20% higher.
Looking ahead, pay for most frontline workforces – including nurses, police officers, prison officers and teachers is set through an independent Pay Review Body process. Public sector workers will see pay rises across the whole Spending Review period (2022/23-2024/25) as the strong recovery in the economy and labour market has allowed us to return to a normal pay setting process.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Southwark (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, given the operation of vulture funds and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on poorer income countries, what consideration they have given to introducing legislation similar to the time-expired Debt Relief (Developing Countries) Act 2010.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
At this stage, the UK is not considering legislative options to force private sector creditors to participate in debt treatments. We are focused on the swift and full implementation of the G20-Paris Club Common Framework for Debt Treatments beyond the Debt Service Suspension Initiative which will ensure fair burden sharing between all official and private sector creditors. At their 5 June 2021 meeting, G7 Finance Ministers were clear that the private sector is expected to provide at least as favourable debt treatment as official creditors and the Government will be working with international partners to seek to ensure this is the case.