Oral Answers to Questions

Dan Jarvis Excerpts

Tuesday 6th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

The announcement was very welcome. I commend my hon. Friend for taking an enlightened attitude to development in her constituency, which is not always the case. When it comes to tourism, we have authorised a big increase in the advertising campaign that is currently going around the world to sell the UK in this very special year when we have the Olympics and the jubilee. We want a permanent increase in tourism as a result of those events.

[Dan Jarvis (Barnsley Central) (Lab)]

12. What assessment he has made of the performance of the Money Advice Service.

[The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr Mark Hoban)]

The Money Advice Service is an independent body and the Financial Services Authority approves its business plan and budget. The service’s online health check was launched in June last year and received nearly half a million visits. More than half of those visits resulted in a personal action plan, providing thousands of visitors with a direct route to taking control of their finances.

[Dan Jarvis]

The Minister will know that low-paid workers in my constituency are currently missing out on the discounts that utility providers offer to customers when they pay their bills by direct debit. What work is he doing with the Money Advice Service to increase the number of low-paid workers who pay their bills by direct debit?

[Mr Hoban]

It is important that people take as much advantage as they can of the discounts on offer. The Money Advice Service is there to provide advice to people at all levels of income. Encouraging more people to open bank accounts and to take advice on direct debit services is a key part of its role.

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[Mr Osborne]

I am very aware of what an important industry that is for the UK and how important it is to extract what remains of the oil and gas in the North sea—of course there is still an enormous amount of oil and gas in the North sea—and to have an industry in Aberdeen and other places that continues long after the oil runs out. We are specifically engaging with the industry on decommissioning relief in order to give certainty to the industry about the years ahead, and on specific field allowances, which might aid new exploration.

[Dan Jarvis (Barnsley Central) (Lab)]

T8. Given that schoolchildren and students are the future bill payers of this country, can the Chancellor explain why, two years after the Conservatives blocked plans to include financial education in the national curriculum, no progress has been made in ensuring that our young people have the tools to make informed decisions about their finances?