Asked by: Lord Hylton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to ensure that the Child Trust Fund payments for children born between 1 September 2022 and 2 January 2011 are taken up in full.
Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)
The government is committed to helping people access the savings and money they are entitled to and continues to explore new routes to reunite young people with their Child Trust Funds.
While primary responsibility for communicating with account holders and their registered contact lies with Child Trust Fund (CTF) providers, HMRC works closely with providers, the wider industry and the Money and Pensions Service to ensure that young people are aware of, and can access, their CTFs. This includes requiring CTF providers to write to their customers to inform them of their options in their 17th year and to provide statements annually after the account holder turns 18.
HMRC also issues a range of communications through regular press releases, social media posts and by providing resources for key intermediaries who have greater influence and visibility amongst the CTF audience.
The government’s current plans will reunite the vast majority of accounts with their owners, but there may be some cases where further action will be required. The government will monitor how many accounts remain open and judge when it is appropriate to intervene in other ways.
Asked by: Lord Hylton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to increase VAT on wet wipes.
Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)
Wet wipes are subject to the 20 per cent standard rate of VAT. As with all elements of tax policy, the Government keeps this under review.
Asked by: Lord Hylton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many live-in carers working under a Health and Care Worker visa have been denied payments under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)
HM Revenue & Customs does not hold this information. The rules of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme included employees on any type of employment contract, including full-time, part-time, agency, flexible or zero-hour contracts, providing they met the eligibility criteria. Individuals who employed someone, such as a live-in carer, could claim if they met the eligibility criteria.
Asked by: Lord Hylton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to discuss a new debt relief programme at the G20 level, so that developing countries do not have to delay health and poverty reduction plans.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
In 2020 the G20 and Paris Club agreed to the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) which has provided participating countries with fiscal space to respond to the pandemic, freeing up resources to fund social, health and economic measures. Preliminary estimates suggest the DSSI has suspended over $12.7 billion in debt service repayments.
In addition, to deliver a longer-term, more sustainable approach to dealing with debt vulnerabilities the UK and its G20 partners are now focusing their attention on the Common Framework for Debt Treatments. Agreed in 2020, the Common Framework was a landmark achievement for the G20. It commits both new lenders and more traditional lenders in the Paris Club to coordinated debt treatments, including debt cancellation if required. This should pave the way for more equitable and effective case-by-case restructurings for low-income countries.
Asked by: Lord Hylton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to prevent British financial institutions from (1) knowingly, or (2) unknowingly, (a) investing in, or (b) facilitating, the destruction of rainforest in the Amazon basin.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The UK is taking clear steps to ensure that financial decisions take the environment into account. This includes plans to introduce economy-wide Sustainability Disclosure Requirements for businesses and investment products to report on their impact on climate and the environment – and the risks/opportunities these pose to their business. This builds on and streamlines existing sustainability reporting requirements such as our commitment to reporting aligned with the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, where the UK is already a world-leader.
Further to this, Defra is supporting the scoping of a Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), which will develop guidance for the finance sector in relation to biodiversity and nature-related risks. TNFD will provide a framework for corporates and financial institutions to assess, manage and report on their dependencies and impacts on nature.
The Government convened the Global Resource Initiative (GRI) Taskforce in July 2019, bringing together representatives from business, finance and civil society. This Taskforce investigated what more the UK can do to reduce our footprint on the global environment by enhancing sustainability and reducing the impacts of supply chains on the world’s forests and other ecosystems. The Taskforce’s report in March 2020 included 14 recommendations addressing a range of areas, including finance. The Government has responded to the Taskforce’s initial report and has funded Phase 2 of the GRI’s work through 2021 to help take forward practical actions to reduce deforestation-linked finance in the UK.
Asked by: Lord Hylton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they intend to have with the most economically developed countries, the World Bank, and the IMF, about effective cooperation to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic consequences; and whether they intend to include conditional debt relief in any such discussions.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The UK Government continues to engage very closely and regularly with the international community, the World Bank, and the IMF, to respond to the economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. G7 Finance Ministers continue to convene on a regular basis to work together on critical economic issues, and G20 Finance Ministers will next meet on 19 July to continue to coordinate the international response to the pandemic.
The UK recently led the development of the G20 Action Plan, which brings together ambitious and wide-ranging commitments to address the economic impact of the virus. As part of this, the Chancellor and his G20 counterparts, in close consultation with the World Bank and the IMF, agreed to a temporary suspension on debt service repayments from the poorest countries. We are working closely with G20 partner countries and international organisations (including the IMF and World Bank) to monitor the implementation of the Action Plan and ensure it maintains efficacy. The UK Government will also work through the G20 and Paris Club of official creditors to monitor sovereign debt vulnerabilities in developing countries closely.
To ensure that the most vulnerable are able to successfully respond to the crisis, the UK has also committed up to £150m to the IMF’s Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust. This will suspend upcoming IMF obligations for the poorest countries, allowing them to better respond to Covid-19.
Asked by: Lord Hylton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether existing and new freeports will be required to maintain the rules and precautions on plant and animal hygiene that now apply in all other ports; and if not, why not.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Freeports will be subject to the same high standards for plant and animal hygiene that apply in other UK ports.
We are currently consulting on the policy model underpinning Freeports. However, any eventual Freeport policy model will maintain the UK’s high standards for security, safety, workers’ rights, and the environment.
Asked by: Lord Hylton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to increase family benefits and tax credits in line with the cost of living; and if so, when.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
As the Chancellor has made clear, the government has no intention of repeating the current freeze on working-age benefits, including family benefits and tax credits. From April next year, the government expect to resume increases to frozen benefits in line with CPI in the normal way.
Asked by: Lord Hylton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what efforts they are making to secure substantial amendments to Panama's Corporation Law 32 following the publication of Overcoming the Shadow Economy by the Freidrich Ebert Stiftung in November 2016, and other analyses of the Panama Papers and of opaque offshore financial transactions.
Answered by Lord Bates
Tackling the shadow economy and improving international tax transparency is a priority for this Government. We work with a range of international partners to tackle illicit financial flows, and have worked closely with Panama’s government to amend and implement key legislation before and after the so-called “Panama Papers”.
Rather than focus specifically on amending Corporation Law 32, this Government continues to work with Panama on the implementation of new laws, which help it improve regulation of the sector.
As part of President Varela’s visit to the UK in May 2018, the Prime Minister, Chancellor and others discussed the importance of passing and enforcing relevant legislation.
Asked by: Lord Hylton (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have proposals for improving banking arrangements between the UK and Iran, in order to overcome trading difficulties.
Answered by Lord Bates
The government remains committed to the full implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which includes ensuring that Iran gains tangible benefits from the sanctions relief agreed under the deal.
HM Treasury officials are acutely aware of the reluctance of financial firms to support Iran-related activities and are continuing to work with UK banks and banking associations to understand their concerns and to identify practical approaches that will help facilitate trade with Iran.