Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they will decide on (1) Sheffield City Region’s borrowing plans announced in March, and (2) a debt cap agreed by the Treasury and Sheffield City Region.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
HM Treasury will engage with the Sheffield City Region Combined Authority regarding with the proposed borrowing plans and the agreement of a debt cap. The time it will take to agree the debt cap and assess the borrowing plans will depend on the information provided to HM Treasury and the outcome of negotiations between the department and Sheffield City Region.Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have received a request from the Mayor of the Sheffield City Region (1) to increase the borrowing requirement of that Region, and (2) to use future share gain as a way of paying back debt; and what assessment they have made of any such request.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Sheffield City Region Combined Authority is currently able to borrow in relation to its functions as a transport authority. The ability to borrow in relation to all functions is subject to the agreement of a debt cap with HM Treasury, which Sheffield City Region have requested following the full implementation of their devolution deal. These borrowing capabilities are consistent with those available to other Combined Authorities.
HM Treasury will make an assessment of Sheffield City Region’s borrowing plans to inform discussions on any debt cap.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much has been paid in payments under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme in each parliamentary constituency in South Yorkshire to date.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The value of claims split by Parliamentary Constituency is not available. The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme provides funds to PAYE schemes to support employers to pay a proportion of the wages of furloughed staff. The registered address for PAYE schemes can be in a different area to that where their employees live and work. In addition, for PAYE schemes claiming for between one and 99 employments there was no requirement to specify the amount claimed for each employment. As a consequence, it is not possible to provide reliable figures for the monetary value of the support provided by geographical area.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the compliance of the HMRC’s Voice ID system with the General Data Protection Regulation; and whether HMRC obtain sufficient consent before using voice recording to identify a person.
Answered by Lord Bates
HMRC carried out a Privacy Impact Assessment of its Voice ID system when it went live in January 2017. The system relied on the implied consent of the customer, which was compliant with the data protection legislation in effect at the time.
Now that new data protection legislation has come into effect, HMRC has reviewed the Voice ID system and made some immediate changes to ensure customers are better informed about how their data is collected and used, how to provide or withhold consent and how to withdraw consent at a later stage.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with (1) The Financial Ombudsman Service, and (2) the Information Commissioner, regarding the recent loss of service and data issues to TSB customers resulting from the transfer of IT systems by TSB.
Answered by Lord Bates
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is coordinating the Financial Authorities’ incident response, as the Authority responsible for consumer protection. The FCA and Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) have discussed the ongoing incident at TSB.
The FCA has not yet had any formal discussion with the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) regarding the TSB incident, as customers are expected to raise their concerns with the FOS directly. However, the FCA has a dedicated team who liaise with the FOS and engagement on this issue will be directed through them.
HM Treasury works closely with the other Financial Authorities to improve the resilience of the finance sector to operational risks and to respond to any disruption.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they will take to ensure that other local areas can receive the same control over their health budgets as the Greater Manchester area.
Answered by Lord Deighton
The NHS and local government in Greater Manchester brought forward their own proposals for joining up health and social care services. This is a genuine and historic partnership between local organisations which will improve services for people living in the area.
In the first instance Greater Manchester and NHS England will be using existing powers to devolve budgets and establish joint governance arrangements. The powers are available to do the same in other parts of England. Success relies on strong local leadership and the right approach will be different in other areas.
The Government supports proposals that seek to improve care by joining up services, but it is for local areas to bring forward proposals and not for central government to impose any arrangements.