Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the average daily savings in pension contributions employers have made on days lost to strike action in the public sector, including strike action in the rail and postal sectors.
Answered by Baroness Penn
For members of public service pension schemes, strike days count as unpaid leave, and employer and member contributions are based on actual pay. Part of the reduction in paybill caused by industrial action in the public sector, as well as rail and postal sectors, will thus be due to reductions in employer pension contributions. The Government has not made a central assessment of this figure, which will depend on a number of factors such as the exact number of staff within a given workforce who are on strike on a given day and the typical amount of pensionable earnings foregone.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL).
Answered by Baroness Penn
The Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL) has been successful at encouraging the reformulation of soft drinks, with over half of all drinks that would have otherwise been in scope reducing their sugar content.
The Government will continue to monitor the impact of the SDIL in line with public health objectives, such as tackling obesity.
As with all taxes, the Government keeps SDIL under constant review and welcomes representations from stakeholders to inform policy development.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they plan to announce the Comprehensive Spending Review; and what plans they have to put in place a programme of support to mitigate financial pressures on local authorities while that Review is undertaken.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The Chancellor launched the Comprehensive Spending Review in July and it will be published this autumn. To date, the Government has provided a comprehensive package of support for Councils to help them respond to financial pressures resulting from Covid-19. This includes over £3.7bn in additional grant funding to be used across all services. The Government continues to engage with Councils to understand the pressures that they are facing and assess the need for further support.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that future lending terms for the Public Works Loan Board do not restrict councils' access to borrowing, in particular for projects to support economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic in areas such as (1) housing, (2) infrastructure, and (3) regeneration.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Local government invests billions of pounds every year to advance local priorities including economic recovery, housing, infrastructure and regeneration. The Government supports this local investment, in part by offering low cost loans to local authorities through the Public Works Loan Board (PWLB).
Local government borrowing has grown substantially in recent years, led by a minority of local authorities borrowing from the PWLB to buy investment assets primarily for yield. The Government is clear that this is not an appropriate use of PWLB loans.
The Government is therefore consulting on a limited intervention to stop this activity, while preserving the ongoing availability of PWLB loans to support economic recovery and other core local priorities such as housing, infrastructure and regeneration. The Government hopes to receive responses to this consultation from across the sector.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to tackle the sale of illegal cigarettes and to address the estimated cost to the UK economy of more than £2 billion a year in unpaid tobacco duty.
Answered by Lord Bates
The joint HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC)/Border Force anti-illicit tobacco strategy (‘Tackling Illicit Tobacco: From leaf to light’, published on 24 March 2015) reinforced the government’s commitment to tackling illicit tobacco throughout the supply chain to prevent its sale in the UK. At Summer Budget 2015 and Budget 2016, the government announced increased investment to fight this fraud.
This commitment was further demonstrated at Budget 2018 when the government announced its support for creation of a UK-wide Anti-Illicit Trade Group as recommended in an All Party Parliamentary Group report.
Effective action requires collaboration across government and HMRC and Border Force work closely with other enforcement agencies, including Trading Standards and the police, to target those involved and maximise the use of sanctions available. In the last two years alone, over 2.8 billion illicit cigarettes and nearly 640 tonnes of hand-rolling tobacco have been seized resulting in over 700 prosecutions.
HMRC continues to introduce policies to address new threats. In 2017 it introduced the Raw Tobacco Approval Scheme and, in 2018, the Tobacco Products Manufacturing Machinery Licensing Scheme to help tackle illegal manufacturing of tobacco products in the UK. This year, HMRC will implement a new tobacco track and trace system, making it easier to identify where genuine product has been diverted into the illicit market and harder for illicit goods to enter the legitimate market.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the recommendations in the Local Government Association’s submission to the Autumn Budget.
Answered by Lord Bates
Ahead of the Budget, HM Treasury received submissions from a range of stakeholders. We welcome all Budget submissions, particularly from organisations like the LGA who have unique insight and challenges and opportunities for local government. While it would not be appropriate to respond in detail to individual proposals, the government did carefully consider all submissions.
Asked by: Lord Porter of Spalding (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the Local Government Association’s submission to the Autumn Statement 2016.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
Ahead of the Autumn Statement, HM Treasury received submissions from a range of stakeholders. While it would not be appropriate to respond in detail to each individual proposals, the government did carefully consider all submissions.
In particular the Treasury responded to calls for more to be done on housing. The Chancellor announced at the Autumn Statement that government would invest an additional £5.3bn in housing. This includes a £2.3bn Housing Infrastructure Fund to deliver infrastructure to unlock 100,000 homes and £1.4bn to deliver 40,000 new affordable homes. Government also announced that it would relax restrictions on existing affordable housing funding to deliver a wider variety of affordable housing tenures to help people at different stages in their lives.
Further reforms to increase housing supply will be brought forward through the Department for Communities and Local Government’s Housing White Paper, which will be published in due course.