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Written Question
Foreign Exchange
Thursday 14th March 2024

Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has plans to remove the corporate opt-out for cross-border payments pricing disclosures.

Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

The UK’s legislative framework for payment services, including cross-border payments, places various disclosure requirements on payment firms. This includes the ability to opt out of disclosures for certain corporates, where both parties agree.

This legislation derives from EU law, which will be replaced under the government’s Smarter Regulatory Framework programme. Under this, it is intended that government legislation will set the framework within which the regulators will operate. In general, firm-facing requirements, such as these cross-border disclosures, will be determined by the relevant regulator (in this case, the FCA).


Written Question
Household Support Fund
Monday 19th February 2024

Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he (a) is taking and (b) plans to take steps to assess the potential merits of extending the Household Support Fund into the next financial year.

Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

The Government continues to keep all of its existing policies and programmes under review in the usual way.


Written Question
Lloyds of London and Prudential Regulation Authority: Climate Change
Wednesday 31st January 2024

Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will take steps to amend the cooperation agreement between the Society of Lloyds and the Prudential Regulation Authority to place obligations on Lloyds of London to help meet the UK's climate targets.

Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

The financial regulators’ primary focus must be to ensure the safety, soundness and integrity of the markets they regulate. While the government expects that the regulators will play a crucial role in supporting the achievement of the government’s net zero target, it is not their primary responsibility given many of the levers for change sit outside of financial services regulation.

However, the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 introduced a new regulatory principle for the Financial Conduct Authority, Bank of England and Payment Systems Regulator to consider in their work. To further strengthen the UK’s regulatory regime relating to climate and the environment, the government has embedded the consideration of the UK’s climate and environmental targets across the full breadth of the regulators’ general functions on a statutory basis.

This regulatory principle seeks to cement the government’s long-term commitment to transform the economy in line with its target to reach net zero by 2050, and to make progress towards the government’s long-term environmental goals, by ensuring the regulators must have regard to the government’s commitment to achieve these targets when discharging their functions.

This principle does not create any specific requirements on firms. Rather, they are expected to inform the future work of the regulators.


Written Question
Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority: Climate Change
Wednesday 31st January 2024

Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of placing statutory duties on the (a) Financial Conduct Authority and (b) Prudential Regulation Authority to help meet the UK's climate targets.

Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

The financial regulators’ primary focus must be to ensure the safety, soundness and integrity of the markets they regulate. While the government expects that the regulators will play a crucial role in supporting the achievement of the government’s net zero target, it is not their primary responsibility given many of the levers for change sit outside of financial services regulation.

However, the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 introduced a new regulatory principle for the Financial Conduct Authority, Bank of England and Payment Systems Regulator to consider in their work. To further strengthen the UK’s regulatory regime relating to climate and the environment, the government has embedded the consideration of the UK’s climate and environmental targets across the full breadth of the regulators’ general functions on a statutory basis.

This regulatory principle seeks to cement the government’s long-term commitment to transform the economy in line with its target to reach net zero by 2050, and to make progress towards the government’s long-term environmental goals, by ensuring the regulators must have regard to the government’s commitment to achieve these targets when discharging their functions.

This principle does not create any specific requirements on firms. Rather, they are expected to inform the future work of the regulators.


Written Question
Insurance Companies: Carbon Emissions
Wednesday 31st January 2024

Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will issue guidance to insurance companies on reducing emissions from installations financed by those companies.

Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

Insurance companies make commercial decisions about the investments they make and the coverage they provide. The Government does not intervene in these commercial decisions as it could damage market competition.

However, the Government recognises the important role insurers play as investors in supporting the transition to net zero and has introduced a framework for Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR) to help provide the market, including insurance companies, with information to inform their decision making and allocation of capital.


Written Question
Rent a Room Scheme
Tuesday 9th January 2024

Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment his Department has made of the impact of the rent a room relief scheme on the supply of rooms for rent.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

Rent a room relief provides an effective incentive for people to make spare rooms available for rent. It aligns with the Government’s objectives of supporting living standards, increasing the availability of low-cost housing, giving more choice to tenants, and making it easier for people to move around the country for work.

The relief also reduces and simplifies the tax and administration burden for those affected and has taken some taxpayers out of self-assessment entirely.

Landlords with income up to the threshold of £7,500 from renting rooms in their own homes (or £3,750 if let jointly) and who have no other property rental income are exempt from Income Tax on this income and do not need to declare it to HMRC.

Landlords with rent a room income above the threshold will declare the amount of income and pay tax on any income above the threshold. In these cases, rent a room income is amalgamated on the tax return with other property rental income in a landlord’s self-assessment return.

Landlords with rent a room income below the threshold who also have other property income to declare do not have to declare how much rental income they have that falls under the scheme. Instead, they simply tick a box to indicate that they are using the scheme.

HMRC publishes the estimated cost of the relief as part of its non-structural tax reliefs statistics (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/main-tax-expenditures-and-structural-reliefs).


Written Question
Rent a Room Scheme
Tuesday 9th January 2024

Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the median rental income of landlords using the rent a room relief scheme was in the last financial year.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

Rent a room relief provides an effective incentive for people to make spare rooms available for rent. It aligns with the Government’s objectives of supporting living standards, increasing the availability of low-cost housing, giving more choice to tenants, and making it easier for people to move around the country for work.

The relief also reduces and simplifies the tax and administration burden for those affected and has taken some taxpayers out of self-assessment entirely.

Landlords with income up to the threshold of £7,500 from renting rooms in their own homes (or £3,750 if let jointly) and who have no other property rental income are exempt from Income Tax on this income and do not need to declare it to HMRC.

Landlords with rent a room income above the threshold will declare the amount of income and pay tax on any income above the threshold. In these cases, rent a room income is amalgamated on the tax return with other property rental income in a landlord’s self-assessment return.

Landlords with rent a room income below the threshold who also have other property income to declare do not have to declare how much rental income they have that falls under the scheme. Instead, they simply tick a box to indicate that they are using the scheme.

HMRC publishes the estimated cost of the relief as part of its non-structural tax reliefs statistics (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/main-tax-expenditures-and-structural-reliefs).


Written Question
Rent a Room Scheme
Tuesday 9th January 2024

Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many landlords have used the rent a room relief scheme in the last financial year.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

Rent a room relief provides an effective incentive for people to make spare rooms available for rent. It aligns with the Government’s objectives of supporting living standards, increasing the availability of low-cost housing, giving more choice to tenants, and making it easier for people to move around the country for work.

The relief also reduces and simplifies the tax and administration burden for those affected and has taken some taxpayers out of self-assessment entirely.

Landlords with income up to the threshold of £7,500 from renting rooms in their own homes (or £3,750 if let jointly) and who have no other property rental income are exempt from Income Tax on this income and do not need to declare it to HMRC.

Landlords with rent a room income above the threshold will declare the amount of income and pay tax on any income above the threshold. In these cases, rent a room income is amalgamated on the tax return with other property rental income in a landlord’s self-assessment return.

Landlords with rent a room income below the threshold who also have other property income to declare do not have to declare how much rental income they have that falls under the scheme. Instead, they simply tick a box to indicate that they are using the scheme.

HMRC publishes the estimated cost of the relief as part of its non-structural tax reliefs statistics (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/main-tax-expenditures-and-structural-reliefs).


Written Question
Government Securities
Thursday 26th October 2023

Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions he has had with industry stakeholders on the issuing of a digital gilt.

Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The government has spoken to numerous industry participants who have supported the development of the government’s practical understanding of the potential advantages of digital ledger technology (DLT) to financial markets, the design choices around the technology’s implementation, and the legal considerations associated with digital securities.

We are not actively pursuing an issuance of a DLT sovereign debt instrument at this time. We will continue to monitor market developments relating to the use of DLT within capital markets, including how these may impact the government as a market participant in future.


Written Question
Financial Services: Standards
Thursday 26th October 2023

Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions his Department has had with counterparts in (a) Canada, (b) the European Union and (c) other jurisdictions on alignment of the (i) definition and (ii) interpretation of fiduciary duty.

Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Fiduciary duty – and the role it plays in ensuring that those managing money do so in the best interest of their beneficiaries – is an important part of any successful financial system.

The government recognises that investors and pension trustees would like further information and clarity on how best to fulfil their fiduciary duty, particularly in the context of the transition to net zero and investment in productive finance.

That is why the government is supporting further consideration of these issues.

The government published a call for evidence on Pension Trustee Skills, Capability and Culture on 11 July which sought to understand whether fiduciary duty contributes to risk avoidance in the investment supply chain, to the detriment of pension savers. We will be publishing our response later this year.

In addition, to support investors, DWP committed in the revised Green Finance Strategy to examining how closely their Stewardship Guidance is being followed, including whether incorrect interpretations of fiduciary duties are playing a role in limiting investor’s decision making.

Moreover, the Financial Markets and Law Committee – which includes DWP and HMT representatives – is currently considering issues around fiduciary duties and sustainability, and whether further action or clarity from the government or regulators is needed.

The government would expect questions around international comparators to be raised as part of these discussions, where those comparisons are relevant. Any additional action or clarity on the definition or interpretation of fiduciary duty will be made in line with UK legislation.