Asked by: Lord Hutton of Furness (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have for the future of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Decisions on funding post March 2025 are a matter for the Budget on October 30th.
We recognise the challenges this brings for some projects. We are working closely with local authorities and key stakeholders to ensure a smooth transition to future funding, so communities continue to benefit from this vital support. In the meantime, officials remain available to discuss any issues impacting delivery.
Asked by: Lord Hutton of Furness (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many home visits were made by NHS out of hours clinicians in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
This information is not held in the format requested.
Asked by: Lord Hutton of Furness (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of out of hours home visits were made by NHS GPs in each of the last three years.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
This information is not held in the format requested.
Asked by: Lord Hutton of Furness (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the cost savings resulting from the 2014 reforms to the Local Government Pension Scheme.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Shadow Minister (Work and Pensions)
In 2014 and 2015, significant reforms were made to public service pension schemes to address increases in the costs of providing pension benefits to public workers, and to place schemes on a more sustainable and affordable long-term footing. In the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), reforms were implemented from 1st April 2014 and included moving the scheme from a final salary benefit structure to a career average benefit structure.
In May 2012, the Government published documents (attached)on the planned reforms to the LGPS including a costings analysis from the Government Actuary’s Department (http://data.parliament.uk/DepositedPapers/Files/DEP2012-1614/Buildupofcostsandcostreconciliationtables-Final.pdf). This analysis outlined that the existing final salary scheme design was estimated to cost in total 21.73% of pay (p2) and the planned career average scheme was estimated to cost in total 19.51% of pay (p3), suggesting an overall saving of just over 2.2% of pay.
To ensure consistency with other public service pension schemes, the final design of the reformed LGPS was changed so that scheme members received revaluation of their in-year accrued pension immediately. This increased the costs of the career average scheme by an estimated 0.4% (see table 7.1 at (attached) http://lgpslibrary.org/assets/othergov/2013VRep.pdf
The Government is currently considering the changes to public service pension schemes which will be necessary to comply with the findings of the Courts in the McCloud and Sargeant cases (https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2019-07-15/HCWS1725/) and these will have cost implications for the reformed scheme.
Asked by: Lord Hutton of Furness (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the cost savings resulting from the use of pooled investment funds in the Local Government Pension Scheme.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Shadow Minister (Work and Pensions)
In November 2015, the Government published criteria and guidance for the creation of pooled investment funds in the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) in England and Wales, to be operational by April 2018. Eight LGPS asset pools have been established to manage the investments of the scheme.
Estimates provided by the LGPS pools indicate that across the scheme, total savings of around £155 million have been achieved over the period from 2015 up to March 2019. The pools have estimated total savings by 2033 at between £1 billion and £2 billion, with annual savings of up to £200 million.
Asked by: Lord Hutton of Furness (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to their commitment to reduce carbon emissions to net-zero by 2050, made on 27 June, what plans they have to require that all new (1) policy, (2) legislation, and (3) regulations, are accompanied by impact assessments setting out their effect on carbon emissions.
Answered by Lord Duncan of Springbank
The template government officials use when completing a regulatory impact assessment for government policy already requires that information is provided to answer the question “what is the CO2 equivalent change in greenhouse gas emissions” for the respective policy.
Asked by: Lord Hutton of Furness (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have undertaken of the impact of establishing independent governance committees to improve oversight of defined contribution pension schemes.
Answered by Lord Bates
This is a matter for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), who are operationally independent from Government.
The question has been passed to the FCA, who will reply directly to the Noble Lord by letter. A copy of the letter will be placed in the Library of the House.
Asked by: Lord Hutton of Furness (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have changed their assessment of the economic impact on the UK of leaving the EU from that set out in the April 2016 document HM Treasury Analysis — the long term economic impact of EU membership and the alternatives.
Answered by Lord Bates
Government has undertaken a significant amount of work to assess the economic impacts of leaving the EU. This is part of our continued programme of rigorous and extensive analytical work on a range of scenarios on a sector by sector basis.
Our long-term analysis examined scenarios based on existing alternative models to EU membership. The Prime Minister has since made clear however that the UK aims to agree an ambitious and comprehensive economic partnership with the EU that is of far greater scope and ambition than any existing free trade agreement
Asked by: Lord Hutton of Furness (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what guidance they have given, or plan to give, to the Local Government Pension Scheme and similar public sector pension schemes, concerning the scope of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
Answered by Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth
The Local Government Pension Scheme is the only major public sector pension scheme which maintains independent investment funds out of which member benefits are paid. Investment decisions are the responsibility of scheme administering authorities.
Asked by: Lord Hutton of Furness (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much financial support they have provided to regimental museums in each of the last five years.
Answered by Earl Howe - Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
In addition to the National Army Museum, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) currently supports 69 regimental and corps museums across the UK through a combination of a grant in aid, salary costs, and providing utilities and some support running costs where a museum is located on a MOD site. It is not possible to disaggregate utilities or support costs but the table below shows the details of support provided, by financial year (FY), where available:
Cost | FY 2012-13 | FY 2013-14 | FY 2014-15 | FY 2015-16 | FY 2016-171 |
Grant in Aid | £0.6 million | £0.8 million | £1.2 million | £1.4 million | £1.6 million |
CS salaries | Not available2 | Not available2 | Not available2 | £1.6 million | £1.4 million |
Notes:
1. Figures for FY 2016-17 are projected.
2. Salary information is not available for FY 2012-13 to 2014-15.