Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what information her Department holds on how many and what proportion of complaints to the Property Ombudsman have been outstanding for three months or more.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
While the Property Ombudsman (TPO) is independent of Government, we are committed to ensuring that the agent redress schemes work well for consumers. My department receives regular data from TPO and meets with them regularly to discuss policy and performance. These arrangements provide an opportunity for discussion of emerging concerns and measures TPO are taking - and plan to take - to improve their service. From the point at which a complaint has been accepted for review and allocated, it can take between 16-18 weeks for a review to be completed. The time taken to reach a decision is generally dependent on the complexity of the complaint.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will hold discussions with the Property Ombudsman on potential measures to enable the Ombudsman to respond more quickly to complaints.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
While the Property Ombudsman (TPO) is independent of Government, we are committed to ensuring that the agent redress schemes work well for consumers. My department receives regular data from TPO and meets with them regularly to discuss policy and performance. These arrangements provide an opportunity for discussion of emerging concerns and measures TPO are taking - and plan to take - to improve their service. From the point at which a complaint has been accepted for review and allocated, it can take between 16-18 weeks for a review to be completed. The time taken to reach a decision is generally dependent on the complexity of the complaint.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what information her Department holds on the average time taken by the Property Ombudsman to reach a decision on complaints.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
While the Property Ombudsman (TPO) is independent of Government, we are committed to ensuring that the agent redress schemes work well for consumers. My department receives regular data from TPO and meets with them regularly to discuss policy and performance. These arrangements provide an opportunity for discussion of emerging concerns and measures TPO are taking - and plan to take - to improve their service. From the point at which a complaint has been accepted for review and allocated, it can take between 16-18 weeks for a review to be completed. The time taken to reach a decision is generally dependent on the complexity of the complaint.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether the effective use of data to drive productivity will be included in the proposed industrial strategy council's remit.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Industrial Strategy Council (ISC) will be responsible for informing and monitoring the development and delivery of the long-term industrial strategy, ensuring that policy interventions are based on a high-quality evidence base. The ISC will recommend actions, focusing on growth-driving sectors and the pro-business environment. It will also evaluate impacts. Use of effective data is central to the ISC’s role.
The government will legislate to establish this statutory body in due course. Ahead of legislation, we are introducing an interim Industrial Strategy Advisory Council to ensure the Industrial Strategy is developed with independent expert advice.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to encourage businesses to use data more effectively to increase productivity.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Invest 2035: Industrial Strategy Green Paper sets out our vision for a credible, 10-year plan to deliver the certainty and stability businesses need to invest in the high-growth sectors that will drive our growth mission.
The Industrial Strategy Green Paper demonstrates our ambition to support businesses in using data more effectively, including exploring interventions that will: improve the use of public sector data (as a driver of growth); better empower individuals and businesses with their data through the development of Smart Data schemes; and help improve data maturity in businesses. The consultation is open until 24 November 2024.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact on small and medium-sized wine traders of the introduction of a tax-by-strength alcohol excise duty regime within one year.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
In August 2023 the Government introduced reforms to alcohol duty so that products are taxed in proportion to their alcoholic strength, not volume.
To help the wine industry adapt to the new duty system, the temporary duty easement was introduced as a transitional measure, which was intended to allow time for wine producers to adapt to calculating duty based on alcohol by volume.
Whilst the new system of wine labelling allows product labelling to 0.1 per cent ABV, this is optional, and wine can still be labelled to the nearest 0.5 per cent ABV.
By the planned end-date of 31 January 2025, the wine industry will have had over two years to adapt to the new strength-based system.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if her Department will make an estimate of the administrative cost to wine sellers of the an alcohol excise duty regime based on taxing wine by strength.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
In August 2023 the Government introduced reforms to alcohol duty so that products are taxed in proportion to their alcoholic strength, not volume.
To help the wine industry adapt to the new duty system, the temporary duty easement was introduced as a transitional measure, which was intended to allow time for wine producers to adapt to calculating duty based on alcohol by volume.
Whilst the new system of wine labelling allows product labelling to 0.1 per cent ABV, this is optional, and wine can still be labelled to the nearest 0.5 per cent ABV.
By the planned end-date of 31 January 2025, the wine industry will have had over two years to adapt to the new strength-based system.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of a separate duty charge for wine for each 0.1% of ABV.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
In August 2023 the Government introduced reforms to alcohol duty so that products are taxed in proportion to their alcoholic strength, not volume.
To help the wine industry adapt to the new duty system, the temporary duty easement was introduced as a transitional measure, which was intended to allow time for wine producers to adapt to calculating duty based on alcohol by volume.
Whilst the new system of wine labelling allows product labelling to 0.1 per cent ABV, this is optional, and wine can still be labelled to the nearest 0.5 per cent ABV.
By the planned end-date of 31 January 2025, the wine industry will have had over two years to adapt to the new strength-based system.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she is taking steps to (a) simplify the process and (b) reduce the costs of extending the lease period for existing leaseholders.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government intends to act quickly to provide homeowners with greater rights, powers, and protections over their homes by implementing the provisions of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024. The Act will introduce an amended valuation scheme that leaseholders must follow to calculate how much they should pay to enfranchise. The method set by the Act for the valuation process removes the requirement for marriage value to be paid, caps the treatment of ground rents in the valuation calculation at 0.1% of the freehold value and allows Government to prescribe the rates used to calculate the enfranchisement premium. Rates will be set by the Secretary of State in secondary legislation.
The Act also includes a new statutory right to a 990-year lease extension for leaseholders of both houses and flats and makes extending a lease cheaper for leaseholders by requiring each side to pay their own process costs, such as valuation and solicitor's fees.
The implementation of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 will require an extensive programme of secondary legislation and we will set out the details in due course.
Asked by: Ben Coleman (Labour - Chelsea and Fulham)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he would make an assessment of the potential impact of removing social care charging on working-aged disabled adults.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are committed to building consensus on the long-term reform needed to create a National Care Service that tackles the challenges working age disabled adults currently face, and that is shaped for those who will have support needs in the future. The Government will set out next steps for a process that engages with adult social care stakeholders, including people with lived experience, in due course.