Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of developing an investment programme in cryptocurrency.
Answered by Tulip Siddiq - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The UK’s foreign currency assets are held in the Exchange Equalisation Account. These assets are managed in line with the following investment principles:
More detail on how the official reserves are managed can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/management-of-the-official-reserves--2
Given this, HM Treasury has no plans to adopt an investment programme in crypto assets.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of changing the terms of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme to (a) protect savers when (i) banks and (ii) building societies merge and (b) increase the level of protection for accounts that originated under separate banking licences.
Answered by Bim Afolami
The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) carries out its deposit protection function within rules set by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA). Under PRA rules, customer deposits held by authorised banks, building societies and credit unions in UK establishments are protected by the FSCS up to £85,000 per person, per banking licence. Under PRA rules, if there is a merger, the relevant firm must normally inform depositors at least one month before it takes effect. They must then give depositors three months to withdraw or transfer any deposit balances above the FSCS compensation limit without incurring penalties.
The PRA is required to review the deposit protection limit every five years, with the next review due to occur by 2025.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the waiting time for HMRC complaints.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
HMRC is committed to delivering performance improvements to complaints handling and response times for its customers. The number of new complaints awaiting response is at its lowest level since May 2021. Average response times remain higher than HMRC would like, but long-term measures are being put in place to address this.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department plans to reform the funding of the free-to-use ATM network..
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
The government recognises that while the transition towards digital payments brings many opportunities, cash continues to be used by many people across the UK, including those who may be in vulnerable groups.
The government is currently legislating to protect access to cash across the UK as part of the Financial Services and Markets Bill 2022. The Bill establishes the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as the lead regulator for access to cash with responsibility and powers to seek to ensure reasonable provision of withdrawal and deposit facilities. As amended, the Bill requires the FCA to seek to ensure that there is reasonable provision of free withdrawal and deposit facilities for personal current accounts with relevant providers.
ATMs play an important role in the availability of cash withdrawal facilities. Decisions regarding the operation and funding arrangements of an ATM network are taken by the parties involved. LINK (the scheme that runs the UK's largest ATM network) has made commitments to protect the broad geographic spread of free-to-use ATMs and is held to account against these commitments by the Payment Systems Regulator. LINK publishes information on the number of protected ATMs monthly, and ATMs can be suggested for protected status via LINK’s website: https://www.link.co.uk/consumers/request-access-to-cash/suggest-an-atm-for-protected-status/
According to LINK data for March 2023, there were around 39,000 free-to-use ATMs across the UK, including 87 free-to-use ATMs in the constituency of Bedford. Further information is available at: https://www.link.co.uk/initiatives/financial-inclusion-monthly-report/
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the level of interchange fee required to sustain the free-to-use ATM network.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
The government recognises that while the transition towards digital payments brings many opportunities, cash continues to be used by many people across the UK, including those who may be in vulnerable groups.
The government is currently legislating to protect access to cash across the UK as part of the Financial Services and Markets Bill 2022. The Bill establishes the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as the lead regulator for access to cash with responsibility and powers to seek to ensure reasonable provision of withdrawal and deposit facilities. As amended, the Bill requires the FCA to seek to ensure that there is reasonable provision of free withdrawal and deposit facilities for personal current accounts with relevant providers.
ATMs play an important role in the availability of cash withdrawal facilities. Decisions regarding the operation and funding arrangements of an ATM network are taken by the parties involved. LINK (the scheme that runs the UK's largest ATM network) has made commitments to protect the broad geographic spread of free-to-use ATMs and is held to account against these commitments by the Payment Systems Regulator. LINK publishes information on the number of protected ATMs monthly, and ATMs can be suggested for protected status via LINK’s website: https://www.link.co.uk/consumers/request-access-to-cash/suggest-an-atm-for-protected-status/
According to LINK data for March 2023, there were around 39,000 free-to-use ATMs across the UK, including 87 free-to-use ATMs in the constituency of Bedford. Further information is available at: https://www.link.co.uk/initiatives/financial-inclusion-monthly-report/
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Financial Services and Markets Bill, whether his Department plans to make an assessment of the adequacy of the number of protected free ATMs..
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
The government recognises that while the transition towards digital payments brings many opportunities, cash continues to be used by many people across the UK, including those who may be in vulnerable groups.
The government is currently legislating to protect access to cash across the UK as part of the Financial Services and Markets Bill 2022. The Bill establishes the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as the lead regulator for access to cash with responsibility and powers to seek to ensure reasonable provision of withdrawal and deposit facilities. As amended, the Bill requires the FCA to seek to ensure that there is reasonable provision of free withdrawal and deposit facilities for personal current accounts with relevant providers.
ATMs play an important role in the availability of cash withdrawal facilities. Decisions regarding the operation and funding arrangements of an ATM network are taken by the parties involved. LINK (the scheme that runs the UK's largest ATM network) has made commitments to protect the broad geographic spread of free-to-use ATMs and is held to account against these commitments by the Payment Systems Regulator. LINK publishes information on the number of protected ATMs monthly, and ATMs can be suggested for protected status via LINK’s website: https://www.link.co.uk/consumers/request-access-to-cash/suggest-an-atm-for-protected-status/
According to LINK data for March 2023, there were around 39,000 free-to-use ATMs across the UK, including 87 free-to-use ATMs in the constituency of Bedford. Further information is available at: https://www.link.co.uk/initiatives/financial-inclusion-monthly-report/
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential benefits of greater flexibility in the Help to Buy ISA scheme outside London to take account of regional house price variations.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
While the Government keeps all aspects of savings policy under review, first-time buyers tend to buy smaller lower priced first properties. The Help to Buy: ISA’s property price cap of £250,000 for properties outside London (£450,000 within London) therefore allows the Government to target support more precisely at the people the scheme is intended to help. Since its launch in 2015, the scheme has supported 531,507 property completions across the UK, with a mean property value of £176,828 compared with an average first-time buyer house price of £245,350.
Further information on the Government’s home purchase support schemes can be found at: https://www.ownyourhome.gov.uk
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the London Capital & Finance (LCF) Compensation Scheme, who the LCF scheme operator is; and for what reason the LCF Scheme Operator deducts 20 per cent from the amount determined under Step Two.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
The government had established a compensation scheme for investors in the failed minibond issuer, London Capital & Finance plc (LCF). The Scheme launched on 3 November 2021 and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) administered the Scheme on behalf of the government. Almost all eligible bondholders have now received compensation and a total of £115m has been paid out by the scheme.
The Scheme paid 80% of bondholders’ principal investment in eligible bonds, up to a maximum of £68,000. Where bondholders had received interest on their bonds, distributions from the insolvency administrators, or compensation from the FSCS for LCF bonds, this reduced the amount of compensation payable under the Scheme. This appropriately balanced the interests of both bondholders and the taxpayer and ensured that all LCF bondholders receive a fair level of compensation in respect of the financial loss they have suffered.
Further detail about the scheme can be found online at: www.gov.uk/lcf-compensation-scheme
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the study by Walsh et al on Bearing the burden of austerity: how do changing mortality rates in the UK compare between men and women?, published on 5 October 2022 in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, which found that there were 334,327 excess deaths beyond the expected number in England, Wales and Scotland between 2012-2019 as a result of Government policies over that period; and if he will make statement.
Answered by John Glen
The government is committed to supporting individuals to live healthier lives, and at the heart of this is improving access to and levelling up health and care across the country. As such, the government has reconfirmed its levelling up mission to narrow the gap in Healthy Life Expectancy by 2030 and increase Healthy Life Expectancy by 5 years by 2035.
We recognise this study raises a serious and important issue. The government's approach will focus on supporting people to live healthier lives, helping the NHS and social care to provide the best treatment and care for patients and tackling health disparities through national and system interventions such as the NHS’s Core20PLUS5 programme.
The NHS is a key priority for this government, and so is continuing to invest in health and social care which is set to reach £188bn in 2024-25.
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the size of the increase in the level of card only transactions during the covid-19 outbreak; and what assessment he has made of the impact of that increase on vulnerable groups of people.
Answered by John Glen
All businesses and individuals are encouraged to follow the latest Government advice to help control the virus. In order to work safely, retailers have been recommended to minimise contact around transactions, for example, by considering offering contactless payments where possible. Ultimately, it remains the individual retailer’s choice whether to accept or decline any form of payment, including cash or card.
In recent years, the ongoing trend in UK payments has been away from cash and towards card payments and other digital payment methods. This transition brings opportunities, including the potential for faster and safer payments. Nonetheless, the Government recognises that access to cash remains important to millions of people across the UK, particularly some vulnerable groups. As such, the Government has committed to legislating to protect access to cash, and to ensure that the UK’s cash infrastructure is sustainable in the longer term.