Speeches made during Parliamentary debates are recorded in Hansard. For ease of browsing we have grouped debates into individual, departmental and legislative categories.
These initiatives were driven by Lord Sharkey, and are more likely to reflect personal policy preferences.
A bill to require the Financial Conduct Authority to make rules for authorised persons to owe a duty of care to consumers in their regulated activities
A Bill to make provision for non-interest-bearing student finance facilities.
To give a statutory pardon to Alan Mathison Turing for offences under section 11of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885 of which he was convicted on 31 March 1952.
Lord Sharkey has not co-sponsored any Bills in the current parliamentary sitting
The Strategic Review report, which is now available on the Restoration and Renewal Programme website, includes a detailed summary of the submissions made by Members of both Houses and by others.
The National Semiconductor Strategy sets out the government’s plan to build on the UK’s strengths to grow our sector, increase our resilience and protect our security.
We will announce plans in the autumn to further support the competitiveness of the semiconductor manufacturing sector that is critical to the UK tech ecosystem or our national security.
The Government’s new Semiconductor Advisory Panel met on 14 September and informed the Government’s approach. The panel is representative of the UK’s semiconductor industry, and the ecosystem that supports it. In an independent capacity, experts from British titans such as ARM, IQE and PragmatIC sit on the panel, as well as representation from venture capital, academia and the RaspberryPi Foundation.
In line with Cabinet Office guidance, ministers within the department aim to respond to hon. and right hon. Members of the House of Lords within 18 working days to a piece of written correspondence, written parliamentary questions within 14 days of receipt, and commitments in the House to write to hon. and right hon. Members within 10 working days or as soon as possible.
As you will understand, the department has been dealing with unprecedented volumes of correspondence due to the impact of COVID-19. The department ensures that urgent cases raised by hon. and right hon. Members are prioritised wherever possible and is taking steps to provide substantive responses in as short a time as possible.
The information requested on mean and maximum waiting times is not held. In February 2020, the estimated median waiting time for admitted treatment was 14.6 weeks, with 10,272 patients having waited more than 18 weeks for treatment. The estimated median waiting time for non-admitted treatment was 9.4 weeks, with 18,018 patients having waited more than 18 weeks for treatment.
In January 2022, the estimated median waiting time for admitted treatment was 13.7 weeks, with 7,705 patients having waited more than 18 weeks for treatment. The estimated median waiting time for non-admitted treatment was 10.7 weeks, with 21,868 patients having waited more than 18 weeks for treatment.
This data includes those patients referred to services directly commissioned by NHS England.
The data is not available in the format requested. Patients are coded as receiving a specialised service after their treatment has taken place, therefore the number of patients waiting for specialised services is not available.
It is too soon to comment on the potential outcomes of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) methods review and any changes to that may be proposed, but issues around the use of modifiers are being explored.
NICE expects to consult on the case for change later this year, and there will be a second consultation in 2021 on the updated methods manual.
The Medicines and Medical Devices Bill 2020 will provide the mechanism to allow the United Kingdom to decide any aspects of the forthcoming European Union Clinical Trial Regulation (EU CTR) it would want to implement through national legislation.
The CTR is largely based on internationally recognised requirements to conduct a clinical trial and national UK legislation already implements many aspects of these international requirements.
Future changes made to the UK legislation will be done on the basis of what is in the best interests of the UK with the focus on remaining a leading global player, promoting patient safety; attracting more research to the UK; and enabling the UK to keep up with emerging technologies and maintain an internationally competitive clinical trials infrastructure.
The Government is committed to a world-leading regulatory system for clinical trials that allows us to collaborate effectively globally, ensuring the United Kingdom remains one of the best places in the world for science and innovation. At the end of the transition period, clinical trials will continue to be approved at a national level, working to international standards as they are now. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), along with partners across the UK healthcare ecosystem, has taken steps to ensure that all trials including multinational trials can continue seamlessly.
The MHRA, Health Research Authority, ethics services, National Institute for Health Research, National Health Service and devolved administrations have been preparing to implement the forthcoming European Union Clinical Trials Regulation since it was agreed in 2014. The UK will implement those aspects of the regulation which are in the best interests of UK patients, industry, non-commercial researchers and hospitals when it comes into force and this is currently expected during 2022.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has adapted its priorities to support the National Health Service, local authorities and the wider health and social care sector to tackle COVID-19.
NICE’s immediate priorities include frontline staff being released from committee meetings and panels to minimise the disruption to critical care for those affected by COVID-19 and minimising the publication of outputs that might be a distraction during this critical time. NICE will only publish guidance, including technology appraisal guidance that is therapeutically critical or focused on COVID-19-related issues, and will continue with, but not publish other work, as staffing and other resources allow, including the review of its methods and processes. Information about the NICE methods review will be available shortly.
These priorities will be reviewed in six to eight weeks.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is continuing to work through the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on its work programmes. NICE anticipates that further information on the timing of the consultation on changes to the routing criteria for the appraisal of medicines through its highly specialised technologies programme should be available within the next few weeks.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has had a specific workstream focussing on patient involvement aspects of both its methods and processes. NICE held a workshop with 22 patient groups, used the findings to develop an in-depth questionnaire and received responses from 52 patient groups. The findings and proposals of this are informing the other workstreams.
Further key aspects include having three patient group representatives on the Methods Review Working Group; having patient representatives on task and finish groups undertaking the detailed methods work; convening a Stakeholder Insight Group to inform process developments, which has numerous patient group representatives; and outreach talks at various key patient group meetings.
The UK has engaged with all parties referenced about recent events in the UN Buffer Zone to encourage de-escalation and support a diplomatic resolution. This included Ministerial-level engagement with counterparts in the Republic of Cyprus, Greece and Turkey. On 21 August, the UN Security Council issued a Press Statement that condemned the assaults on UN Peacekeepers, expressed concern at the unauthorised construction of the road and reiterated Council support for the United Nations' Peacekeeping mandate. The UK, US and French Embassies in Nicosia issued a similar statement. We have welcomed the subsequent de-escalation, but note that the injuries sustained by three British UN peacekeepers undermines the UN's ability to fulfil its peacekeeping mandate. It is also a reminder that our armed forces regularly put themselves in harm's way to support peace and stability across the globe.
The Treasury has statutory powers to issue directions to the Bank of England, which can only be used under specific conditions or circumstances. None of the powers outlined below have ever been used.
The Bank of England also has powers to direct the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Payment Systems Regulator (PSR).
The Treasury has statutory powers to issue directions to the Bank of England, which can only be used under specific conditions or circumstances. None of the powers outlined below have ever been used.
The Bank of England also has powers to direct the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Payment Systems Regulator (PSR).
The Treasury has a limited number of powers to direct the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA).
It has a power to direct the regulators to take an action if doing so is necessary to fulfil international obligations, or to refrain from action which appears incompatible with international obligations.
The Treasury also has powers of direction which are designed to promote the accountability and transparency of the FCA and PRA. These include the power to direct the regulators to:
These powers have not been used.
The Treasury has a power to direct the FCA and PRA to undertake an investigation of relevant events, where it is in the public interest, in certain circumstances. This power has been used twice: in 2018, to direct the PRA to review the events relating to the supervision of the Co-operative Bank, and in 2019, to direct the FCA to review the events relating to the failure of London Capital and Finance.
The Treasury does not have direction-making powers in relation to the FCA or the PRA regarding the content of their rules, or their approach to supervision and enforcement.
The Mansion House Compact is a voluntary and industry-led agreement that has been led by the Lord Mayor and the City of London Corporation. Updates on the Compact and signatories are provided by The City of London Corporation on their website (https://www.theglobalcity.uk/insights/mansion-house-compact). There are currently 9 signatories to the Compact.
The Government announced in April 2022 that the Royal Mint intended to create and issue a non-fungible token. The Royal Mint operates as a commercial business and the cost of designing and offering an NFT would be met entirely out of its own revenues. An update on this work will be provided in due course.
The Edinburgh Reforms, launched by the Chancellor on 9 December, take forward the government’s ambition for the UK to be the world’s most innovative and competitive global financial centre. We are committed to an open, sustainable, and technologically advanced financial services sector that is globally competitive and acts in the interests of communities and citizens across all four nations of the UK.
As part of the Edinburgh Reforms package, several consultations were either launched or trailed. It would not be appropriate to pre-judge the outcome of these consultations, nor how any measures may be implemented when final government policy has yet to be agreed. The outcomes of these consultations will be taken forward in the usual manner and peers will be able to engage in the normal ways depending on the precise form of implementation.
As set out in the Chancellor's written statement, a number of reforms will require secondary legislation. These are:
Additionally, the government will add transactions in certain cryptoassets to the Investment Management Exemption list for tax purposes. The existing list of investment transactions is set out in the Investment Manager (Investment Transactions) Regulations 2014. HMRC is able to make this change using existing powers contained in sections 827(2) and 835S(4) ITA07 and section 1150 CTA10.
Several of the Edinburgh Reforms are also being taken forward as primary legislation through the Financial Services and Markets Bill (FSM). These are the implementation of a Financial Market Infrastructure Sandbox in 2023, the establishment of a safe regulatory environment for stablecoins and the repeal of retained EU law in financial services. The FSM Bill contains provisions that will enable the government to commence the repeal of retained EU law in financial services and implement its replacement, a smarter regulatory framework specifically tailored to the UK, using secondary legislation following the passage of the Bill. The government will also legislate in the Finance Bill to amend the tax rules for Real Estate Investment Trusts.
Further to the answer of 25 November 2021 by Viscount Younger of Leckie, from April 2018, the Financial Ombudsman has had jurisdiction to consider complaints from Politically Exposed Persons about their treatment by banks, and since 2018, have received fewer than 10 complaints in this area.
Where the Financial Ombudsman find that a bank has not followed regulations, best practice or acted in a fair and reasonable manner, the Financial Ombudsman will tell the bank to put the consumer in the position they would have been in had the bank’s error or wrongdoing not occurred. The Financial Ombudsman also has the power to order banks to pay for financial loss, distress or inconvenience depending on the experience of the consumer.
However, the Financial Ombudsman does not apply sanctions or penalties on banks. The Financial Conduct Authority, as anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing supervisor for financial services firms in the UK, has the power to impose civil penalties (fines and censure statements) and prohibitions on management.
The government is not considering creating a new tax-advantaged share scheme for self-employed contractors.
The purpose of all the existing schemes is to encourage employee share ownership and support employers' efforts to foster a more enterprising and productive relationship with their employees.
Where companies employ staff directly, they may offer tax-advantaged options to their employees through one of the existing schemes.
There have been 41 Ministerial Direction published since April 2011. There was no general requirement to publish Ministerial Directions prior to this date.
Thirty -eight of these direction were requested by Permanent Secretaries or Acting Permanent Secretaries. One of those (from the Permanent Secretary at the Department of Health and Social Care) was jointly requested by the Chief Executive of the NHS. Of the remainder, two were requested by the Chief Executive of UK Export Finance and one by the Chief Executive of the NHS.
Details of all published Ministerial Directions can be found on the gov.uk website.[1].
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ministerial-directions
There are currently no outstanding issues reported in honoring the occupational pension entitlements of Turkish Cypriot former employees of the Sovereign Base Areas in Cyprus, or the widows of those employees, now living in the north of Cyprus.