Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of staff on the payroll of his Department who work in Westminster are (a) British nationals and (b) nationals of another country.
Answered by Simon Kirby
All Government Departments are bound by legal requirements concerning the right to work in the UK and, in addition, the Civil Service Nationality Rules. Evidence of nationality is checked at the point of recruitment into the Civil Service as part of wider pre-employment checks, but there is no requirement on departments to retain this information beyond the point at which it has served its purpose. More broadly, the Government will be consulting in due course on how we work with business to ensure that workers in this country have the skills that they need to get a job. But there are no proposals to publish lists of the number or proportion of foreign workers.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, approximately how many (a) British and (b) non-British nationals are employed cleaning the Westminster estate of his Department.
Answered by Simon Kirby
The cleaning service at HM Treasury is provided through a service contract, let by the landlord for 1 Horse Guards Road (Exchequer Partnership). HM Treasury does not directly employ cleaners.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Government plans to increase the compensation available to Equitable Life pensioners.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
There are no plans to review the payments made by the Equitable Life Payment Scheme. The Scheme closed to new claims on 31st December 2015. However, the annual payments to With-Profits annuitants will continue unaffected for the duration of their annuity.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 24 November 2015, whether the £30 million allocated to the City regions take the form of a cash grant from HM Treasury.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Investment fund allocations agreed as part of devolution deals will be paid out annually by the Department for Communities and Local Government as a cash grant, via Section 31 of the Local Government Act 2003.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the cost is to the Exchequer of the City Deals in each city region to date.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government has agreed mayoral devolution agreements worth £30m a year for 30 years with combined authorities in Greater Manchester, Sheffield City Region, The North East, and Liverpool City Region. The Government has also agreed a mayoral devolution agreement worth £15m a year for 30 years with Tees Valley and an agreement worth £36.5m a year in the West Midlands. These are all subject to 5-yearly gateway assessments to confirm the investment has contributed to growth.
These agreements are another significant step in the Government’s ambition for the Northern Powerhouse and Midlands Engine respectively.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the cost to the Exchequer is of the City Deals in each city region to date.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government has agreed mayoral devolution agreements worth £30m a year for 30 years with combined authorities in Greater Manchester, Sheffield City Region, The North East, and Liverpool City Region. The Government has also agreed a mayoral devolution agreement worth £15m a year for 30 years with Tees Valley and an agreement worth £36.5m a year in the West Midlands. These are all subject to 5-yearly gateway assessments to confirm the investment has contributed to growth.
These agreements are another significant step in the Government’s ambition for the Northern Powerhouse and Midlands Engine respectively.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will take steps to increase compensation to Equitable Life pensioners beyond the level previously agreed.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin
The Government has no plans to change the funding available to the Equitable Life Payment Scheme.
To date the Scheme has paid out over £1 billion to around 900,000 policyholders.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what per capita revenue contribution is made to (a) Scotland and (b) each region of England for the running of public services.
Answered by David Gauke
The Country and Regional Analysis (CRA) published in November 2014, provides country and regional level splits of identifiable public expenditure over a five-year outturn period from 2009-10 to 2013-14 and is available using the link below.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/country-and-regional-analysis-2014
Table A.2 supplies information on ‘total identifiable expenditure on services’ on a per head basis. This table includes figures for Scotland and each region of England.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the Exchequer's per annum and per capita revenue contribution, excluding welfare payments, to Greater Manchester City Region (a) was in each of the last three years and (b) will be in each of the three years following implementation of the agreement between that city region and the Government.
Answered by David Gauke
With regard to contributions over the last three years, the annual determination of funding to local government is set out in the local government finance settlement which is laid before the house and published on GOV.UK each year.
The final settlement for 2015/16, including the settlement for each local authority, can be found online: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/final-local-government-finance-settlement-england-2015-to-2016.
Determinations for future years will be set as part of the spending review process.
Population estimates for Greater Manchester are provided by the ONS which can be found at the following website: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/taxonomy/index.html?nscl=Population+Estimates.
With regards to future years, on 3 November 2014, the Government signed an historic deal with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, whereby Greater Manchester will create the first directly elected metro-wide Mayor outside of London with control of a reformed earn back deal totalling £900 million over 30 years and control of a £300 million housing investment fund.
Greater Manchester Combined Authority will also be given new powers to support business growth, skills and employment, transport, and planning. In February, GM and NHS England also agreed to arrangements which will bring together £6bn of NHS and social care budgets so that joint planning of these services can deliver better care for patients.
The government also announced at Budget 2015 that it will, subject to the formal approval of GMCA, pilot a scheme in Greater Manchester and Cheshire East to enable the retention of 100% of any additional business rate growth, starting in April 2015.