Asked by: Lord True (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have received any indication from the government of France that it would unilaterally abrogate the Treaty of Le Touquet were the people of the UK to vote to leave the European Union.
Answered by Lord Bates
Juxtaposed Controls were introduced for short sea crossings by the “Treaty Between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the French Republic Concerning the Implementation of Frontier Controls at the Sea ports of Both Countries on the Channel and North Sea”, signed at Le Touquet on 4 February 2003.
This bilateral agreement between the UK and France provides for immigration controls to be conducted by the country of arrival in designated control zones in the country of departure at both French and UK sea ports on the Channel and North Sea, including Calais and Dunkirk in France, and Dover in the UK.
The Le Touquet Treaty is an agreement concluded between the UK and France under international law. The UK and France have an excellent relationship and work closely together to secure the UK/France border, including at sea ports on the Channel and the North Sea.
The Le Touquet Treaty has resulted in a reduced number of asylum claims and continues to be a valuable part of our border security.
Asked by: Lord True (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government which parts of the Treaty of Le Touquet between the United Kingdom and France are dependent on the existence of the Treaties of the European Union, or incorporated within them.
Answered by Lord Bates
Juxtaposed Controls were introduced for short sea crossings by the “Treaty Between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the French Republic Concerning the Implementation of Frontier Controls at the Sea ports of Both Countries on the Channel and North Sea”, signed at Le Touquet on 4 February 2003.
This bilateral agreement between the UK and France provides for immigration controls to be conducted by the country of arrival in designated control zones in the country of departure at both French and UK sea ports on the Channel and North Sea, including Calais and Dunkirk in France, and Dover in the UK.
The Le Touquet Treaty is an agreement concluded between the UK and France under international law. The UK and France have an excellent relationship and work closely together to secure the UK/France border, including at sea ports on the Channel and the North Sea.
The Le Touquet Treaty has resulted in a reduced number of asylum claims and continues to be a valuable part of our border security.
Asked by: Lord True (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, for each financial year from 2015–16 to 2020–21, what are the estimated annual costs of (1) child benefit, (2) child tax credits, (3) free school meals for Year 1 and Year 2 children, (4) Universal Credit First Child Premium, (5) Working Tax Credit Childcare element, (6) working tax credit lone parent element, (7) housing benefit family premium, (8) child care grant, and (9) healthy start.
Answered by Lord O'Neill of Gatley
(1, 2, 5, 6)
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has published expenditure forecasts for tax credits and Child Benefit as part of their recently published Economic and Fiscal Outlook document. The relevant information relating to personal tax credits and child benefit is reproduced below. Expenditure forecasts are not produced for individual elements of tax credits.
£ billion | |||||||
Estimate | Forecast | ||||||
Welfare cap period | |||||||
2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | |
Personal tax credits | 29.7 | 29.5 | 25.3 | 26.3 | 27.3 | 27.5 | 28.2 |
Child benefit | 11.6 | 11.5 | 11.4 | 11.4 | 11.3 | 11.3 | 11.4 |
(3)
The Government is providing over £1 billion of funding in 2014-15 and 2015-16 to meet the costs of universal free school meals for children in reception, year 1 and year 2. Funding for later years will be considered as part of the forthcoming Spending Review.
Schools also provide free school meals for children up to the age of 18, based on their parents’ eligibility for certain benefits. This will include children in years 1 and 2. This is funded separately from within the Dedicated Schools Grant allocated to schools. It is up to schools to decide how to use their budgets and the Government does not measure spend on free school meals for this cohort.
(4)
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has published expenditure forecasts for Universal Credit as part of their recently published Economic and Fiscal Outlook document. The relevant information is reproduced below.
Expenditure forecasts are not produced by individual Universal Credit elements and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
£ billion | |||||||
Welfare cap period | |||||||
2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | |
Universal credit* | 0.1 | 0.5 | -0.2 | -0.9 | -1.7 | -2.7 | -3.1 |
*Universal credit actual spending for 2014-15 and 2015-16. Spending from 2016-17 onwards represents universal credit additional costs not already included against other benefits (i.e. UC payments that do not exist under current benefit structure). | |||||||
(7)
The information relating to housing benefit is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
(8)
Forecasts are not available for child care grants, for which the rate is set annually. £74 million of awards were made in the 2013/14 academic year. Information relating to student support grant for childcare for 2016/17 was published in a written statement by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills on 21 July 2015. It confirmed that the maximum childcare grant payable in 2016-17, which covers 85 per cent of actual childcare costs, will be £155.24 per week for one child only and £266.15 per week for two or more children. Student support grants for childcare form just one component of the overall student grant budget.
(9)
The estimated annual costs for the Healthy start scheme for 2015/16 are £81.6 million, net of devolved administration receipts.
Asked by: Lord True (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, for each financial year from 2015–16 to 2020–21, what are the estimated annual costs of providing tax relief for (1) tax-free child credit, and (2) child trust funds.
Answered by Lord O'Neill of Gatley
Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) will be launched in early 2017, and will give up to 1.8m families 20 per cent support towards their childcare costs, up to a maximum government contribution of £2,000 per child, per year (£4,000 per child, per year, for disabled children).
The estimated total costs of TFC in each year are:
2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | |
Cost of TFC (£m) | 0 | 75 | 570 | 650 | 700 | 770 |
These costs are expected to rise to around £1 billion per year in steady state.
Child Trust Funds (CTF) are long-term tax-free savings accounts for children. Since 2011, children without a CTF can open a Junior ISA instead. Existing CTF accounts can still receive contributions. The contribution limit per CTF for the 2015-16 tax year is £4,080.
The cost to the government of exempting CTF account savings from income tax is set out in HM Revenue and Customs’ “Estimated cost of minor tax allowances and reliefs” and is negligible in 2013-14 and 2014-15. The cost is also expected to be negligible in 2015‑16 to 2020–21.
Asked by: Lord True (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations, if any, they have received from the government of Qatar or Qatari state agencies about the potential expansion of Heathrow Airport.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Airport expansion in the South East of England has been discussed by British and Qatari officials as part of wider exchanges on investment in the UK in the normal course of business. We have not had any formal representations from the State of Qatar on this issue.
Asked by: Lord True (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what representations, if any, they have received from the government of China or Chinese state agencies about the potential expansion of Heathrow Airport.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
To ensure our long term connectivity needs can be met, the previous Government established the independent Airports Commission to identify and recommend to Government options for maintaining this country’s status as an international hub for aviation. Three options for expansion were shortlisted by the Commission for further examination.
I am not aware of Her Majesty’s Government receiving any representations from the government of China or Chinese state agencies about the potential expansion of Heathrow Airport.
Asked by: Lord True (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have discussed the possible expansion of Heathrow with representatives of the government of China or Chinese state agencies in preparing for the state visit of the President of China in October.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
To ensure our long term connectivity needs can be met, the previous Government established the independent Airports Commission to identify and recommend to Government options for maintaining this country’s status as an international hub for aviation. Three options for expansion were shortlisted by the Commission for further examination.
I am not aware of Her Majesty’s Government receiving any representations from the government of China or Chinese state agencies about the potential expansion of Heathrow Airport.
Asked by: Lord True (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, for each financial year from 2015–16 to 2020—21, what are the estimated annual costs of providing (1) free childcare for two year-olds, (2) 15 hours of free childcare per week for three and four year-olds, and (3) 30 hours of free childcare per week for three and four year-olds of working parents.
Answered by Lord Nash
Allocations made to local authorities for 15 hours of free childcare per week for three- and four- year-olds totalled £2.2 billion in 2015-16. Allocations in 2015-16 for 15 hours of free childcare per week for disadvantaged two year-olds will be announced shortly.
The government is committed to raise the average hourly rate providers receive from the introduction of the new entitlement from 2017-18. The government is undertaking a review of childcare costs in order to set a new average hourly rate that is fair for providers and delivers value for money for the taxpayer.
Until this review is complete, it is not possible to estimate annual costs of providing free childcare for two year-olds, or 15 hours of free childcare per week for three-and four-year-olds after 2016.