Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many children under the age of 11 are currently being provided with help with their mental health.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
At the end of February 2024, there were 222,448 people aged under 11 years old who had an open referral, of which: 93,385 have had at least one direct care contact, with a direct contact being defined as a contact recorded in the MHS201 Care Contact table of the Mental Health Services Dataset (MHSDS); 90,942 have had at least one attended direct care contact, with an attended direct contact being defined as a contact recorded in the MHS201 Care Contact table of the MHSDS, where the person was either recorded as attending on time and being seen, or attending late but still being seen.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to oral evidence by officials on the work of HMRC given to the Treasury Select Committee on 24 April, how many HMRC employees on 1 January had earnings at or below the national minimum wage.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC complies with the statutory requirement and all colleagues are paid the National Living Wage rate or above.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many liquidations began (1) five, (2) 10, and (3) 15, years ago but are still not finalised.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Time Period (years) | Number of Companies in Liquidation |
0 - 5 | 56,363 |
5 - 10 | 10,042 |
10 - 15 | 8,189 |
15 + | 20,822 |
The figures show when the most recent liquidation process began for distinct entities. These figures include liquidations notified to the Registrar of Companies up to 31 December 2023.
These figures are being provided as management information and are unaudited and are subject to change. They should only be used for indicative purposes.
Further information about companies in liquidation is available in the statistical tables published by Companies House on a quarterly basis.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the Financial Reporting Council in relation to external audits of the Post Office.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry continues to gather evidence about the Horizon scandal. The Government will consider any lessons learned in respect of audit and other matters once the Inquiry has reported.
We have regular discussions with the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) regarding its regulation of statutory audit, while recognising its role as an independent regulator. The FRC is monitoring developments in relation to the Post Office.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what (1) financial, and (2) legal, support they will provide to sub-postmasters to bring private prosecutions against past directors of the Post Office for concealing faults in the Horizon IT system and falsely prosecuting them.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry continues to gather evidence about the Horizon scandal. The Metropolitan Police are a core participant in the Inquiry; it will be for them and the Crown Prosecution Service to consider any prosecutions. The Government does not fund private prosecutions.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government why OFWAT calculate gearing levels of water companies by using a debt-to-assets ratio as opposed to a debt-to-equity ratio.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
It is standard practice for regulated sectors to calculate gearing by reference to Regulator Capital Value (RCV). This is because there exists an RCV which represents costs incurred to date which can be recovered from customers in the future. This approach to calculating Regulatory Gearing is used by Ofgem and the Civil Aviation Authority and is recognised by the Rating Agencies.
As the RCV represents the net stock of investment that has been contributed by debt and investors over time, it grows with net levels of investment. This provides the capacity against which companies may raise debt and equity to finance investment programmes.
There is no equivalent to an RCV for companies operating in a competitive market. Gearing measured by reference to RCV is a more useful metric than standard accounting measure of gearing in a utility sector because future revenue streams are more certain than they would be for companies operating in a competitive market.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many advance transfer pricing agreements have been signed by HM Revenue and Customs in each of the past five years.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
HM Revenue and Customs has entered into the following number of advance pricing agreements in the past five tax years:
This information is included in the Transfer Pricing and Diverted Profits Tax Statistics 2022 to 2023 which are publicly available and published on gov.uk[1].
[1] Transfer Pricing and Diverted Profits Tax statistics 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many UK-based companies produce batteries for electric vehicles; and what is their collective capacity.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
AESC currently has a 1.9GWh facility operational in Sunderland. The UK has a further 52GWh per annum battery capacity committed – 12GWh from the AESC Gigafactory under construction in Sunderland and a further 40GWh from the planned Agratas Gigafactory. This is over half the capacity needed to meet industry demand forecasts of around 90GWh by 2030.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the (1) highest, and (3) lowest, amount of compensation requested by sub-postmasters following the Post Office Horizon scandal; and what proportion of the requested amounts have been paid.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Compensation offers depend on the compensation claim submitted. The total so far paid to the 102 postmasters whose convictions have been overturned is over £38 million, and £34 million has been paid out to 477 GLO claimants. This covers both interim payments and full and final settlements. Postmasters who claimed through the original Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS) have now all had offers and 242 offers have been made to late applicants. To date, £107 million has been paid out to all HSS claimants. We publish monthly data on claims received. The most recent monthly data can be found here:
The amounts awarded to individuals are not revealed out of respect for individuals’ privacy.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of reports that Royal Mail is not currently meeting its first-class and second-class letter delivery targets; and what remedial action they intend to take in response.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
It is for Ofcom, as the independent regulator of postal services, to set and monitor Royal Mail's service standards and decide how to use its powers to investigate and take enforcement action should Royal Mail fail to achieve its obligations without good justification.
In its investigation into quality of service performance for 2022-23, Ofcom found Royal Mail had contravened its service conditions and therefore imposed a £5.6 million fine on the business. Ofcom has committed to closely monitoring Royal Mail's performance and the steps it is taking to return delivery offices to pre-pandemic practices.