Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of planning permission requirements for Houses in Multiple Occupation.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
National permitted development rights allow a C3 dwellinghouse to change use to a C4 House in Multiple Occupation for up to six people sharing facilities without the need for a planning application. Larger Houses in Multiple Occupation require a planning application which the local authority will determine in accordance with the local development plan and following public consultation.
Local authorities can remove the permitted development right to protect local amenity or wellbeing of the area by introducing an ‘Article 4’ direction.
The Department do not hold data on how many Houses in Multiple Occupation have been created through permitted development rights.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many Houses in Multiple Occupation have been developed without requiring planning permission in Bolton West constituency in the last 12 months.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
National permitted development rights allow a C3 dwellinghouse to change use to a C4 House in Multiple Occupation for up to six people sharing facilities without the need for a planning application. Larger Houses in Multiple Occupation require a planning application which the local authority will determine in accordance with the local development plan and following public consultation.
Local authorities can remove the permitted development right to protect local amenity or wellbeing of the area by introducing an ‘Article 4’ direction.
The Department do not hold data on how many Houses in Multiple Occupation have been created through permitted development rights.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much HM Revenue and Customs staff time and resource was dedicated to recovering funds from covid-19 (a) business relief and (b) procurement-related fraud in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC remain committed to COVID-19 scheme compliance activity and will continue to prioritise and pursue the most serious cases of abuse.
Part (a):
The main COVID-19 business support schemes that were administered by HMRC were the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), Self Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) and Eat Out to Help Out (EOHO). We have interpreted your request for details relating to business relief to relate to these grant schemes.
From tax year 2020/21 to date, HMRC estimate that c.3,500 staff have been deployed to recover overpayments on the COVID-19 business support schemes administered by HMRC (where one staff member is the equivalent of one full time staff member for one year).
Part (b):
HMRC has no functions in relation to the procurement processes and contracts awarded in relation to key healthcare related equipment and supplies. As such, HMRC would not generally investigate whether fraud has been committed in relation to the actual procurement or execution of such contracts, except where there was an ongoing investigation undertaken by other Law Enforcement Agencies concerning offences relating to one or more of HMRC’s functions, such as tax offences.
HMRC’s only involvement in stand-alone fraud investigations that might arise from procurement would be if there were issues in relation to one or more of HMRC’s functions, such as tax offences.
HMRC conducts thousands of civil and criminal compliance actions each year. A number of these relate to tax offences suspected of having been committed by those seeking and fulfilling government contracts relating to the procurement and onward supply of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and similar products during the COVID-19 pandemic. This work is undertaken across various teams within HMRC’s Customer Compliance Group.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether her Department holds a demographic breakdown of people (a) sent to prison and (b) given suspended committal orders for non-payment of council tax in each year between 2019 and 2024.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Non-payment of council tax is not a criminal offence and cannot attract a custodial sentence. However, under the committal to prison process, a court order can provide for someone to be jailed for failing to pay a debt.
Committal to prison can only ever be the last resort for non-payment of council tax. Before a magistrates’ court commits someone to prison for failure to pay their council tax, it must have issued a “liability order” and the local authority must have (at least) tried and failed to take control of the debtor’s goods and sell them to recover the debt. Councils have additional powers of enforcement under a liability order, including deduction from earnings, deduction from benefit, charging orders on the property, and bankruptcy. If a council applies for committal to prison, the court must inquire into the debtor’s means, and the council must satisfy the court that there is no other effective method of collection and that failure to pay is due to wilful refusal or culpable neglect. This is to prevent persons who are genuinely unable to pay their council tax from being committed to prison. Where that is the case courts have the power to remit the debt.
Individuals in cases where there has been a committal to prison will not necessarily go to prison where payment is made. No individual has been admitted to prison for non-payment of council tax between 2019 and 2023. This can be viewed in Table 2.A.16: at the following link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/662909f33b0122a378a7e602/Prison-receptions-2023.ods.
Data on the number of committals to prison and suspended committals to prison for council tax non-payment since 2019 can be found in the table below:
National | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | Jan - Sept 2024 * |
Number cases of Committals to Prison for non-payment of council tax | 11 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
Number Cases of Suspended Committal Orders for non-payment of council tax | 395 | 66 | 15 | 24 | 19 | 13 |
Source: HMCTS management information Libra MIS |
The count is based upon a case completion date falling between the reporting period 1st January 2019 and the 30th September 2024 where the offence codes CT92501 "Complaint for council tax liability order"; CT92502 "Complaints for Council Tax Liability Order (Multiple Cases)"; CT92511 "Complaint for Council Tax Committal Application" and result codes CDIMPS "Suspended Committal Order"; CDIMPSF "Suspended Committal order further suspended"; CDLTI "Civil Debt etc Committal to Prison, Imprisonment (Effective Sentence)"; CW "UPD - Imprisonment in Default Subsequent to Imposition"; IMP "Imprisonment Effective"; and SC "UPD - Suspended imprisonment to enforce money owed" were applied. The data supplied is a count of cases. Libra is a case centric management system and as such the count is not a count of the number of defendants. |
* Data for 2024 in line with the official statistics. |
Although care is taken when processing and analysing the data, the details are subject to inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale case management system and is the best data that is available. |
Data are management information and are not subject to the same level of checks as official statistics. |
Data are taken from a live management information system and can change over time and for that reason might differ slightly from any previously published information. |
Data has not been cross referenced with case files. |
In 2018, the High Court issued a judgment in a case relating to imprisonment for non-payment of council tax. Following that judgment there has been a significant reduction in the number of committals and the number of suspended committals since 2019.
Wales abolished power to commit to prison on 1 April 2019, subject to some transitional provisions.
In the data held centrally, we do not have data on the demographics of the people who are the subject of these cases.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people have (a) been committed to prison and (b) been given suspended committal orders for non-payment of council tax in each year since 2019.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Non-payment of council tax is not a criminal offence and cannot attract a custodial sentence. However, under the committal to prison process, a court order can provide for someone to be jailed for failing to pay a debt.
Committal to prison can only ever be the last resort for non-payment of council tax. Before a magistrates’ court commits someone to prison for failure to pay their council tax, it must have issued a “liability order” and the local authority must have (at least) tried and failed to take control of the debtor’s goods and sell them to recover the debt. Councils have additional powers of enforcement under a liability order, including deduction from earnings, deduction from benefit, charging orders on the property, and bankruptcy. If a council applies for committal to prison, the court must inquire into the debtor’s means, and the council must satisfy the court that there is no other effective method of collection and that failure to pay is due to wilful refusal or culpable neglect. This is to prevent persons who are genuinely unable to pay their council tax from being committed to prison. Where that is the case courts have the power to remit the debt.
Individuals in cases where there has been a committal to prison will not necessarily go to prison where payment is made. No individual has been admitted to prison for non-payment of council tax between 2019 and 2023. This can be viewed in Table 2.A.16: at the following link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/662909f33b0122a378a7e602/Prison-receptions-2023.ods.
Data on the number of committals to prison and suspended committals to prison for council tax non-payment since 2019 can be found in the table below:
National | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | Jan - Sept 2024 * |
Number cases of Committals to Prison for non-payment of council tax | 11 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
Number Cases of Suspended Committal Orders for non-payment of council tax | 395 | 66 | 15 | 24 | 19 | 13 |
Source: HMCTS management information Libra MIS |
The count is based upon a case completion date falling between the reporting period 1st January 2019 and the 30th September 2024 where the offence codes CT92501 "Complaint for council tax liability order"; CT92502 "Complaints for Council Tax Liability Order (Multiple Cases)"; CT92511 "Complaint for Council Tax Committal Application" and result codes CDIMPS "Suspended Committal Order"; CDIMPSF "Suspended Committal order further suspended"; CDLTI "Civil Debt etc Committal to Prison, Imprisonment (Effective Sentence)"; CW "UPD - Imprisonment in Default Subsequent to Imposition"; IMP "Imprisonment Effective"; and SC "UPD - Suspended imprisonment to enforce money owed" were applied. The data supplied is a count of cases. Libra is a case centric management system and as such the count is not a count of the number of defendants. |
* Data for 2024 in line with the official statistics. |
Although care is taken when processing and analysing the data, the details are subject to inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale case management system and is the best data that is available. |
Data are management information and are not subject to the same level of checks as official statistics. |
Data are taken from a live management information system and can change over time and for that reason might differ slightly from any previously published information. |
Data has not been cross referenced with case files. |
In 2018, the High Court issued a judgment in a case relating to imprisonment for non-payment of council tax. Following that judgment there has been a significant reduction in the number of committals and the number of suspended committals since 2019.
Wales abolished power to commit to prison on 1 April 2019, subject to some transitional provisions.
In the data held centrally, we do not have data on the demographics of the people who are the subject of these cases.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of levels of flood preparedness in communities along the (a) Middle Brook, (b) Bessy Brook and (c) Douglas rivers in Bolton West constituency.
Answered by Emma Hardy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Flood Alerts and Flood Warnings are issued by the Environment Agency (EA) to warn residents that flood is possible, and then expected, to ensure that communities are prepared take action to reduce impacts to homes and properties. 315 properties are registered to receive the Flood Warnings in the stated areas.
For the Bessy Brook area, flood Alerts and one Flood Warning were issued during the heavy rainfall over New Year. The Flood warning warned 34 properties.
The EA and Bolton Council engage with communities at risk, including a resident’s group at Bessy Brook, to raise awareness of flood risk and support their preparedness, signposting The Flood Hub website for information.
Operational teams from the EA and Bolton council attend areas before rain is expected to clear debris from screens and grids, which minimises flooding impacts to over 220 properties.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to assist the Central Bank of Bangladesh in repatriating UK-based assets diverted illegally from that country.
Answered by Catherine West - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is committed to assisting investigative, prosecuting and judicial authorities in combating international crime. We have robust illicit finance legislation and instruments which can be used to support asset recovery requests. We would not comment on any individual Asset Recovery cases but we are in discussions with the International Anti-Corruption Coordination Centre hosted by the UK's National Crime Agency and the International Centre for Asset Recovery on how to support the Interim Government of Bangladesh. In October 2024, the UK National Crime Agency visited Dhaka as part of the UK's effort to support Bangladesh in this area, as well as wider engagement on law enforcement issues. We will continue to support these recoveries to the extent that we can.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will take steps to use UK-based assets that were expropriated by the Assad regime for (a) aid and (b) re-development projects to help the Syrian people.
Answered by Hamish Falconer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
UK-based assets expropriated by the Assad regime remain frozen. As with all our sanctions, we keep our approach under review.
We do not comment on future designations as to do so lessens their potential impact.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she plans to take to ensure UK law enforcement authorities use criminal measures against professional enablers of economic crime who have exploited Crown Dependencies.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office)
Professional enablers are a critical facilitator of serious and organised crime.
As part of the Economic Crime Plan 2, the National Economic Crime Centre launched a cross-system strategy to tackle the threat posed by professional enablers to the UK earlier this year.
This sets out a series of actions for the public and private sectors including commitments to enhance collective understanding, improve information sharing, make better use of powers and intervention tools, and develop joint disruption strategies to tackle the threat. One of the key objectives is for law enforcement and supervisory bodies to deliver impactful disruptions and use the full range of intervention opportunities, including criminal justice outcomes, to achieve this. We expect the strategy to start delivering results in 2025.
The Crown Dependencies are separate, self-governing jurisdictions responsible for their own domestic affairs and whose law enforcement agencies are responsible for tackling criminality that occurs in their jurisdictions. The Home Office works closely with the Crown Dependencies to strengthen their transparency requirements to reduce the threat of professional enablers and companies laundering money in the Crown Dependencies.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that Crown Dependencies are not used to launder the proceeds of corruption.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Crown Dependencies are separate, self-governing jurisdictions responsible for their own domestic affairs, including financial services regulation. The Ministry of Justice is responsible for managing the UK’s constitutional relationship with the Crown Dependencies but all UK Government departments are responsible for their respective policy areas towards the Crown Dependencies and engage directly with them. The Home Office leads on illicit finance liaison with the Crown Dependencies for the UK Government.
Corruption and illicit finance threaten global security, harm democracy, hamper economic growth and prosperity, slow development, and harm victims. The UK Government is committed to working together with international financial centres, including the Crown Dependencies and the Overseas Territories, to help tackle corruption and money laundering.
The Crown Dependencies (the Bailiwick of Jersey, the Bailiwick of Guernsey including Alderney, and the Isle of Man) have company beneficial ownership registers and they share data from these with UK law enforcement via the Exchange of Notes arrangements.
Publicly accessible company beneficial ownership registers are a critical tool for tackling illicit finance, making it more challenging for illicit actors to hide funds and launder the proceeds of corruption. The Home Office continues to work with the Crown Dependencies to help improve their beneficial ownership transparency and welcomes the commitments the Crown Dependencies have made for greater corporate transparency; the Crown Dependencies are working towards implementing legitimate interest access to their registers, including access for media and civil society.
However, this Government is committed to tackling illicit finance and expects this to be an interim step to public registers. I look forward to meeting with the Crown Dependencies in 2025 to discuss this ongoing agenda.