Asked by: Alister Jack (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to update the guidance on the 2017 money laundering regulations for estate agents.
Answered by John Glen
HMRC, as the anti-money laundering supervisor for estate agents, drafts the guidance on how to apply the Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017. The estate agency guidance was updated after the 2017 regulations came into force and is available in draft.
Both HM Treasury and HMRC are working closely with industry representatives to ensure that the guidance is finalised as soon as possible and that it is effective and fit for purpose.
Asked by: Alister Jack (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what steps the Government is taking to enforce sanctions for companies that fail to report their gender pay gap.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Regulations introduced in 2017 require employers with 250 or more employees to report specific data about their gender pay gap.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission has the power to take enforcement action against employers that breach the regulations. Failure to comply with the regulations could ultimately lead to an unlimited fine decided by the courts
The Equality and Human Rights Commission have published their enforcement policy, which is available online:
www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/publication-download/closing-gap-enforcing-gender-pay-gap-regulations
Asked by: Alister Jack (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the effect on parental (a) employment and (b) productivity of the (i) Tax-Free childcare and (ii) 30-hours free childcare scheme.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
The government is keeping Tax-Free Childcare and 30 hours free childcare under review and will continue to evaluate the effects.
We are conducting a programme of research and analysis to help us to evaluate the schemes, which we will publish once it is complete.
The independent evaluation of 30 hours’ early implementation and early rollout areas found that 23% of mothers and 9% of fathers had increased their working hours after receiving support through 30 hours. The full report was published in July 2017 and can be found at
Over 2 million parents have visited the Childcare Choices website since it was launched in March 2017. Through the site, parents can find out what government help is available and information on how to apply for each offer.
They can also use the childcare calculator to understand what offers might be best for them, and scenario play to see how that might change if they increase their hours or their circumstances. The calculator has been used over 1.6 million times since it was launched.
Asked by: Alister Jack (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of the introduction of the Childcare Choices website has had on trends in the level of parents accessing available childcare options.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
The government is keeping Tax-Free Childcare and 30 hours free childcare under review and will continue to evaluate the effects.
We are conducting a programme of research and analysis to help us to evaluate the schemes, which we will publish once it is complete.
The independent evaluation of 30 hours’ early implementation and early rollout areas found that 23% of mothers and 9% of fathers had increased their working hours after receiving support through 30 hours. The full report was published in July 2017 and can be found at
Over 2 million parents have visited the Childcare Choices website since it was launched in March 2017. Through the site, parents can find out what government help is available and information on how to apply for each offer.
They can also use the childcare calculator to understand what offers might be best for them, and scenario play to see how that might change if they increase their hours or their circumstances. The calculator has been used over 1.6 million times since it was launched.
Asked by: Alister Jack (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will publish a breakdown of what the money spent pursuant to the the target of 2 per cent of GDP to be spent on defence has been spent on in the last five years; and how much and what proportion of that money was spent on pensions.
Answered by Gavin Williamson
The 2015 Spending Review continued the commitment to meet the NATO investment pledge to spend 2% of GDP on Defence for the rest of this decade. This is evaluated using the NATO definitions of Defence spending which the UK complies with fully. Details and figures on NATO Defence expenditures can be found at the following link:
https://www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/pdf_2018_07/20180709_180710-pr2018-91-en.pdf
The amount and proportion spent on pensions, by financial year (FY), is as follows:
Currency Unit: £million
Category | FY2013-14 | FY2014-15 | FY2015-16 | FY2016-17 | FY2017-18 |
Pensions | 3,532.172 | 3,615.597 | 2,617.655 | 2,515.559 | 2,517.501 |
Proportion of Total | 8.87% | 9.06% | 6.72% | 5.96% | 5.85% |
The UK complies with NATO’s definitions on defence spending.
Asked by: Alister Jack (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress the Cryptoassets Taskforce is making on its work programme.
Answered by John Glen
The first meeting of the Taskforce was held on May 21st, and attended by senior leaders from government and the financial regulators, including the Director General of Financial Services at HM Treasury, the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, and the Chief Executive of the Financial Conduct Authority.[1]
Officials from across all three organisations continue to meet on a regular basis and are working closely together. Officials are also engaging with industry stakeholders and international counterparts, and held an industry roundtable on 23 July. The Taskforce will publish a report in Q3 2018.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cryptoassets-taskforce-meets-for-the-first-time
Asked by: Alister Jack (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to extend the provisions of the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 to include the conduct of letting agencies.
Answered by John Glen
The EU’s Fifth Anti-Money Laundering Directive (5AMLD) requires EU Member States to extend the scope of their anti-money laundering (AML) regimes to estate agents that are letting property for a rent of over €10,000 per month.
The transposition deadline for 5AMLD is January 2020. As this falls within the Implementation Period, the UK will transpose this Directive.
Asked by: Alister Jack (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has plans to bring forward legislative proposals for the regulation of (a) unprofessional, (b) unqualified and (c) unethical agents in the property market to tackle money laundering in the property sector.
Answered by John Glen
The Government is committed to ensuring that the UK property market is hostile to illicit finance whilst ensuring burdens on legitimate businesses are minimised. Estate agents are covered by the UK’s Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Transfer of Funds (Information on the Payer) Regulations 2017 (“the regulations”). Under the regulations, estate agents must conduct customer due diligence checks, including identifying and verifying their clients (which includes both buyers and sellers) and conducting ongoing monitoring. HMRC, as the supervisor of estate agents, is also required to carry out criminality checks on their supervised population to ensure that individuals with a relevant criminal conviction cannot be the beneficial owner, officer, manager or sole practitioner of a relevant estate agency firm.
The regulations were comprehensively updated in 2017 and we’ll continue to keep them under review.
Asked by: Alister Jack (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on improving levels of compliance with and supervision of the 2017 Money Laundering Regulations of changing HMRC’s policy of not making public the fines incurred from lack of compliance with those regulations of 2017; and if he will take step so to change that policy.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
HMRC has a duty under Regulation 85 of the 2017 regulations to publish details of businesses that do not comply with those regulations. They will start to publish these details later this year.
HMRC considers cases individually to decide whether to publish details in full, anonymously, or not at all. Where a decision is made to publish in full, the following information will be published:
As set out in the Regulations, HMRC will publish anonymously if it considers that the effect of publishing details about an individual or business would be disproportionate. In addition, it will not publish details at all if it decides that a penalty under these regulations is minor or may affect financial markets significantly.
The details will be published regularly on GOV.UK and available to view for at least 5 years. Only breaches under the 2017 regulations will be published and these will include:
HMRC will also publish the total number and value of penalties issued under the 2007 regulations for the period.
Asked by: Alister Jack (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what quantifiable contribution the monies generated by Air Passenger Duty have made to improving the UK’s environmental commitments.
Answered by Robert Jenrick - Shadow Secretary of State for Justice
Air Passenger Duty (APD) is forecast to raise £3.4 billion in 2017-18. APD receipts are not hypothecated, and therefore contribute to funding for our vital public services and other Government expenditure.
The Government takes its environmental responsibilities very seriously and uses a range of levers at its disposal, including spending, taxation and regulatory policy, to meet its climate and environmental objectives.