Asked by: Lord Macpherson of Earl's Court (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what were the receipts from stamp duty land tax on residential properties sold for over £1 million in each year from 2013–14 to 2018–19.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The table below summarises the amount of Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) paid on residential properties valued over £1 million.
Tax year | Stamp Duty Land Tax (£million) |
2013/14 | 1,810 |
2014/15 | 2,155 |
2015/16 | 2,820 |
2016/17 | 2,530 |
2017/18 | 2,845 |
2018/19 | 2,625 |
Asked by: Lord Macpherson of Earl's Court (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress has been made towards implementing the recommendations of the review of quality assurance of government models, published on 5 March 2013.
Answered by Earl of Courtown - Opposition Deputy Chief Whip (Lords)
The recommendations of the 2013 review of quality assurance of government models continue to be used to drive best practice in this area across government.
Individual government departments are primarily responsible for implementing the recommendations of the review. As an example of the type of action being taken in departments, HM Treasury has a working group of senior analysts (“Strength in Numbers”) responsible for promoting and embedding best practice in modelling and quality assurance, adhering closely to the recommendations set out in the 2013 review. To further ensure high standards, the Government Internal Audit Agency conducts an audit of HMT business-critical models every twelve months. Findings and responses to these feed into the HMT Audit Risk Committee, which support the Permanent Secretary in managing risk, control and governance.
Some recommendations are also being addressed on a cross-government basis. Specifically, in response to Recommendation 7 an expert inter-departmental working group was established. In 2015 this working group produced The Aqua Book: guidance on producing quality analysis for government, which is published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-aqua-book-guidance-on-producing-quality-analysis-for-government.
The Working Group has continued to meet approximately monthly with representatives from a number of Departments and Bodies to discuss quality assurance matters, publish quality assurance resources and provide informal advice to members. A number of resources created by Departments in response to the recommendations of the Review have been made available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/aqua-book-resources. These include guidance and research that underpin and complement the Aqua book, QA checklists and templates and other relevant materials and approaches currently used by Departments including the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, and the Department for Transport.
Further, the Office for National Statistics has recently established a Modelling Best Practice Unit within its Quality Centre, with the aim of supporting quality assurance in the modelling area across Government; officials from this Centre are members of the previously mentioned Working Group.
Asked by: Lord Macpherson of Earl's Court (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress they have made in enabling British exporters to conform with wooden packing requirements under International Standards For Phytosanitary Measures No. 15 following the UK's departure from the EU.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Defra, the Forestry Commission and other relevant UK plant health authorities have established a strong and trusted relationship with the wood packaging material (WPM) sector who understand what actions they will need to take to manage these new international standards for plant health, International Standards for Phytosanitary Measures No. 15 (ISPM15). Both the UK WPM industry body Timcon and the EU WPM industry body FEFPEB have released no deal statements to help their members and businesses which use WPM to prepare in the event of a no deal exit. Further, the WPM industry bodies are improving ISPM15 processes and increasing their supply of ISPM15 certified WPM in preparation for EU exit.
Asked by: Lord Macpherson of Earl's Court (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the amount of revenue that may be lost as a result of the implementation of the UK proposals for a new Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland, published on 2 October.
Answered by Earl of Courtown - Opposition Deputy Chief Whip (Lords)
On 17 October the Government agreed a revised Northern Ireland protocol with the EU Commission. No estimate has been made of the impact on revenue of that protocol, or of the UK proposals published on 2 October.
Asked by: Lord Macpherson of Earl's Court (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord O'Shaughnessy on 13 June 2018 (HL8293) and Baroness Manzoor on 29 January (HL12896), whether they have published a response to the consultation Promoting professionalism, reforming regulation.
Answered by Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford
The United Kingdom Government, along with the Governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, consulted on high-level proposals to reform professional regulation of healthcare professions in the UK. Promoting professionalism, reforming regulation ran from 31 October 2017 to 23 January 2018.
A response will be published shortly.
Asked by: Lord Macpherson of Earl's Court (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Sugg on 14 March (HL14167), whether the Accounting Officer issued an Accounting Officer Statement on no-deal ferry contracts in line with Cabinet Office-Treasury guidance; and, if so, whether they will publish it.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
An accounting officer assessment was completed in relation to the Department’s no-deal contingency planning for additional maritime freight capacity. The assessment concluded that the contracts met the requirements of Managing Public Money.
Asked by: Lord Macpherson of Earl's Court (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many ministerial directions the Secretary of State for Transport has given his Accounting Officer since July 2016; and on which issues.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
Bernadette Kelly, the accounting officer for the Department for Transport, sought a written ministerial direction on 7 February 2018 for expenditure on EU Exit preparations. This covered activity related to the Haulage Permits and Trailer Registration Bill in advance of the relevant supporting legislation receiving Royal Assent. The Bill subsequently received Royal Assent on 19 July 2018 and is now an Act of Parliament.
No other ministerial directions have been sought.
Asked by: Lord Macpherson of Earl's Court (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have evaluated the impact on revenues of the stamp duty reforms announced in the 2014 Autumn Statement.
Answered by Lord Bates
At Autumn Statement 2014 the government published costings of the reforms to Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) which highlighted the anticipated revenue implications of the reform across the forecast period. HMRC also publish quarterly and annual statistics on SDLT revenue and transactions.
Residential SDLT receipts were just under £1.8bn higher in 2017-18 than they were in 2014-15, the last financial year before the Autumn Statement 2014 reforms.
Asked by: Lord Macpherson of Earl's Court (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask Her Majesty's Government what expenditure, if any, they have incurred on developing potential technological solutions to issues relating to the Irish border after Brexit.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Consideration of policy options for the UK’s orderly withdrawal from the European Union have been resourced from Departmental budgets and no figures are available as to the cost of consideration of specific options.
The EU and the UK have agreed in the Political Declaration to work together to exchange information on facilitative arrangements and technologies. The Prime Minister is seeking legally binding changes to the Withdrawal Agreement that deal with concerns on the backstop, while guaranteeing no return to a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.
There are a number of ways to secure a backstop that Parliament can support. We are engaging constructively with the details of proposals.
Asked by: Lord Macpherson of Earl's Court (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the speech by the Prime Minister on 20 July 2018 in Belfast, what assessment they have made of whether there may be technological solutions to issues relating to the Irish border after Brexit.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Prime Minister in her 5 February speech in Belfast reaffirmed the UK Government commitment to delivering a Brexit that ensures no return to a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, including any physical infrastructure. While technology could play a part in this, and alternative arrangements are being looked at, these must be ones that can be made to work for the particular circumstances of Northern Ireland.