Asked by: Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans are in place to ensure that the UK is prepared for any impact resulting from a solar superstorm; and which department is responsible for those preparations.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
This Government understands that good management of risk is essential for contingency planning, increasing the likelihood that the services we rely on day-to-day are available for citizens and ensuring that we can protect people’s health and safety.
The Department is the Lead Government Department for the risk of a severe space weather event. BEIS is therefore responsible for coordinating a Cross-Government work programme to ensure that appropriate preparedness and mitigation measures are in place so that impacts from severe space weather are minimised. BEIS working closely with the Met Office, Civil Contingencies Secretariat, other Government Departments, and academic partners has taken significant steps to increase the UK’s preparedness for major space weather events.
The Department will publish a new space weather strategy later this year, which will set out a five-year road map for how we intend to boost resilience and build on existing UK strength and capacity in this area, to continue to increase our preparedness for a severe space weather event.
Asked by: Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they plan to bring forward proposals for the regulation of Prepack Administrations; and if so when.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government will publish a report in due course of its review of the voluntary measures that were introduced in 2015 to enhance regulation of pre-pack administrations. The report will set out the Government’s plans for the future of pre-pack administrations.
Asked by: Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to reform the regulation of the accounting profession.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government is committed to acting on the findings of the three independent reviews of audit: the FRC review, the CMA review and the Brydon review, covering respectively the regulator, the market and the audit product itself. We will set out comprehensive proposals for audit reform in the Spring and will then bring forward legislation as soon as parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to require beneficial share owners to be included on shareholder registers.
Answered by Lord Henley
The Companies Act (2006) requires companies to keep a register of members and enter the details of members in this register. In the UK, a shareholder is defined as the member on the company’s register of members. In some cases, the shareholder is also the beneficial owner of the shares. The Government has no plans to require beneficial share owners to be included on shareholder registers.
Asked by: Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to make UK share registers more transparent.
Answered by Lord Henley
The Companies Act 2006 already requires companies to keep their register of members up to date. Companies whose shares are not traded must file the names of their members on the public companies register held at Companies House. Companies whose shares are traded must file the name and address of shareholders who hold 5% or more of any class of issued shares.
Asked by: Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when the members of the UK International Financial Reporting Standards Endorsement Board will be announced.
Answered by Lord Henley
The UK Endorsement Board for international accounting standards is currently being established. It will consist of between 11 and 13 Board members plus the Chair. The Chair will be appointed by my rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State, following the public appointments process, while the remaining Board members will be appointed by the Chair from a short list provided by the FRC Nominations Committee. The Committee will be required to follow the recommendations on diversity made in the Independent Review of the FRC and the Secretary of State will retain a veto over any of the appointments. All posts will follow an open and transparent recruitment process.
Preliminary work for appointing the Chair and Board members has begun. We expect a Chair to be in place by the end of 2019, with an announcement shortly before. The remaining Board members are expected to be announced in early 2020.
Asked by: Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have undertaken any consultation with consumer groups about whether consumers involved in the recent Mastercard court case were adequately protected by the provision of the Consumer Rights Act 2015.
Answered by Lord Prior of Brampton
The Consumer Rights Act enhances consumers’ ability to seek full compensation for any detriment suffered as a result of a breach of competition Law. Schedule 8 of the Act amended the Competition Act 1998, expanding the jurisdiction of the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT), to hear standalone actions (powers akin to those of the High Court) and to hear collective proceedings.
A case was filed against Mastercard at the CAT in September this year (by representative Walter Merricks) on behalf of up to 40 million consumers, which is still in its early stages. It is the first claim of its sort, for a potential £14 billion pounds, brought on behalf of all UK consumers who have suffered loss, following the long-running European Commission case that ended in 2014 and the Commission’s decision that Mastercard had infringed EU competition law. Developments in the case can be followed through the CAT website.
It would be premature to undertake a consultation on the Act’s impact at present. The Government is required to carry out a full review, consulting a wide variety of stakeholders, including consumer groups, once the Act has been in force for five years.
Asked by: Lord Hodgson of Astley Abbotts (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 8 September (HL Deb, cols 1125–6), when they intend to publish the consultation document setting out a range of options for improving corporate governance.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government intends to publish a discussion paper on options for improving corporate governance before the end of the year.