Asked by: Nia Griffith (Labour - Llanelli)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to Spending Review 2020, for how many years the £4 billion Levelling Up Fund will run; and what the projected average spend is per annum.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The government is launching a new Levelling Up Fund worth £4bn for England, that will attract up to £800m for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in the usual way. The Levelling Up Fund will invest in local infrastructure that has a visible impact on people and their communities and will support economic recovery. The SR makes available up to £600m in 2021-22. Further funding will be spread over subsequent years up to 24/25.
Asked by: Nia Griffith (Labour - Llanelli)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many customs agents have been recruited to manage the Trader Support Service.
Answered by Jesse Norman
On Friday 18 September 2020, the Government confirmed that a Fujitsu led consortium had been appointed to deliver the Trader Support Service (TSS). The consortium has expertise across the range of services needed to make the TSS effective, including the Institute of Export & International Trade, an existing provider of customs education, and the Customs Clearance Consortium, an established customs intermediary.
Asked by: Nia Griffith (Labour - Llanelli)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, on what date the Trader Support Service will be fully operational.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Trader Support Service (TSS) was launched on 28 September and will be making declarations on behalf of traders from 1 January. The Trader Support Service will be able to help all traders, regardless of size and at no additional cost, to get their businesses ready for changes to trade due to the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Asked by: Nia Griffith (Labour - Llanelli)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans he has to publish a letter from the Chief Secretary to the Treasury to the Armed Forces Pay Review Body Chair providing information about Government policy on public sector pay for the forthcoming pay round.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
The Defence Secretary wrote to the Chair of the Armed Forces Pay Review Body in November 2018, setting out their remit for the 2019/20 pay round.
This year’s pay round is currently in progress, and the Government will respond to the recommendations of the Pay Review Bodies in due course.
The pay round for 2020/21 has not begun yet and will commence as usual in the Autumn.
Last year, members of the Armed Forces received a well-above inflation increase of 2.9%, worth £680 in pay, plus a one-off payment of £300, to an average soldier.
Asked by: Nia Griffith (Labour - Llanelli)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 6 December 2018 to Question 198212 on Global Navigation Satellite Systems: Costs, which Departmental budget will provide the cost of the proposed Global Navigation Satellite System.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
In August, following the European Commission’s decision to exclude the UK from the development of Galileo’s encrypted system, the Prime Minister committed £92 million to establish a taskforce of Government specialists and industry to develop alternative options that will provide both civilian and encrypted signals. This engineering study is due to report in 2019-20 and will inform the decision of whether the UK pursues a sovereign Global Navigation Satellite System. Funding for new major programmes will be a matter for the forthcoming Spending Review.
Asked by: Nia Griffith (Labour - Llanelli)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to make additional funding available to Wales after the UK's exit from the European Union.
Answered by David Gauke
The people of the UK have voted to leave the EU. It would not be appropriate to commit, without due consideration, to continuing to spend money over a long period as if we had not voted to leave the EU. But the Government remains committed to encouraging economic growth across the regions and nations of the UK. The Government is therefore carefully considering the use of these funds and will make an announcement on EU funding in due course.
Asked by: Nia Griffith (Labour - Llanelli)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to make additional funding available to the Welsh Health Service as a result of the decision to offer increased annual payments to victims of contaminated blood.
Answered by David Gauke
Health functions have been devolved to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. This means responsibility for the infected blood payment schemes is a matter for those devolved administrations. The proposals for reform, set out in the government’s consultation response document published July 13, are for England only.
Asked by: Nia Griffith (Labour - Llanelli)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he expects the Government's review of English regional airports potentially affected by the devolution of Air Passenger Duty to be completed.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
At Summer Budget 2015, HM Treasury published a discussion paper exploring three options to support English regional airports from the potential impacts of APD devolution. We are carefully considering the responses received to the discussion paper and will respond in due course.
Any final announcements will be informed by the decision on APD devolution to Wales and the decisions of the Scottish Government on the implementation of an APD replacement.
Asked by: Nia Griffith (Labour - Llanelli)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 24 July 2015 to Question 7618, what was factored into the budget of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills in the 2015 Spending Review as a result of the decision to end student maintenance grants in England.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Replacing maintenance grants with higher maintenance loans is putting additional cash in the hands of students to enable them to go to university. Building up from 2017-18, this is estimated to save £2.5bn a year from public sector net borrowing in steady state given expected student number growth. This change was accounted for in the Spending Review settlement for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. The Barnett formula was applied in the usual way.
Asked by: Nia Griffith (Labour - Llanelli)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the revenue that is likely to accrue from Welsh employers as a result of the apprenticeship levy in each of the next five years.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The apprenticeship levy will apply across the UK and will be collected from employers on a UK wide basis. An allowance of £15,000 means only those with a paybill exceeding £3million will have to pay it.
We are already working with the Welsh Government and the other devolved administrations to ensure they can get their fair share of the revenue and, as far as possible, to develop a system for administering the levy which complements the skills and apprenticeship policies of each of the devolved administrations.
We are committed to doing all we can to make the system work for employers wherever they are in the UK.