Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool, Walton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what reason the UK Permanent Representative at the United Nations voted against the resolution proposed by the Africa Group entitled Promotion of inclusive and effective international cooperation on tax matters at the United Nations; and whether the Government plans to support the development of a new UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation following the adoption of that resolution.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The UK strongly supports developing countries’ efforts to scale-up domestic resource mobilisation to finance sustainable development.
The International Development White Paper published on Monday 20th November commits to building a stronger and fairer international tax system for all.
However, the UK, alongside many other countries, is concerned that proceeding with a UN convention on international tax at this time would not be the most effective way to achieve these goals. An Explanation of vote was published on GOV.UK on 22 November: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-uk-is-committed-to-building-a-fairer-international-tax-system-for-all-uk-statement-at-the-un-second-committee.
Asked by: Lord Naseby (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what (1) economic, (2) logistical and (3) technological support they are providing to ensure that sea-level rise does not endanger the continued existence of Small Island States.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Building resilience to the impacts of climate change, economic shocks and natural disasters is at the heart of the UK vision for Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Our £11.6 billion commitment for climate finance and our role as a major contributor to global climate funds has enabled the UK to support SIDS resilience. We will provide $2 billion to the Green Climate Fund's (GCF) second replenishment (2024-27). This equates to £1.623 billion and is the biggest single funding commitment the UK has made to help the world tackle climate change. We provide approximately £200 million of aid annually to SIDS, including:
• the £36 million Sustainable Blue Economies (SBE) programme supporting development of prosperous ocean-based economies while protecting nature and increasing climate resilience.
• £40 million 'Small Island Developing State Capacity and Resilience' (SIDAR) programme, supporting better access to funding and building state resilience.
• The UK's £350 million Caribbean Infrastructure Fund supports resilient infrastructure for states acutely vulnerable to natural disasters as does our £10 million contribution to the Infrastructure for Resilient Island States (IRIS) facility (announced at COP26 by PM Modi and PM Johnson). We are also providing further support to SIDS through other global Blue Planet Fund programmes, including being part of Defra's Ocean Country Partnership Programme (£65 million), the Global Fund for Coral Reefs (£33 million), and Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance (£13.9 million).
Asked by: Robert Buckland (Conservative - South Swindon)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps she is taking to support sustainable investment in Southern Africa; and if she will publish a sustainable investment plan for Southern Africa.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The UK’s Economic Partnership Agreements with southern African countries and the UK Developing Countries Trading Scheme enable trade and promote development. UK Export Finance supports the region with billions of pounds of finance or insurance cover available for projects involving UK suppliers. The Prime Minister has announced that he will host the second UK-African Investment Summit in 2024, which will help UK businesses secure sustainable investment into the region and maintain the UK’s position as the leading investor in Africa.
The Government’s plans for sustainable investment in developing economies is set out in the International Development Strategy.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to support Central Bedfordshire Council with SEND provision.
Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department has appointed a specialist Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) adviser to work alongside an NHS England SEND adviser to advise, support and challenge the Central Bedfordshire local partnership to rapidly improve its SEND provision.
Central Bedfordshire is also part of the Delivering Better Value in SEND programme, which aims to support local authorities to improve SEND services for children and young people while ensuring services are sustainable. This programme provides dedicated support and funding by the department, in collaboration with the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy.
On 2 March 2023, the department published the SEND and Alternative Provision (AP) Improvement Plan which set out what the department will do to make sure more children and young people with SEND or in AP get the support they need.
The department is testing key reforms through the nine Change Programme Partnerships (CPPs) announced as part of the £70 million Change Programme. Central Bedfordshire is one of those CPPs, working with Bedford and Luton. Each CPP is being supported with funding of approximately £6.3 million between now and March 2025.
Asked by: Steve Reed (Labour (Co-op) - Croydon North)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he plans to take steps with Cabinet colleagues to provide support to smallholder farmers in developing countries to meet the legal requirement to not contribute to deforestation under the Environment Act 2021.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK plays a leading role in supporting global efforts to protect and restore forest landscapes, driving international action to tackle deforestation and ensure forests are sustainably managed. This effort is underpinned by a commitment of £1.5 billion to international forests between 2021 and 2026.
The Government works with both businesses and smallholder farmers to improve sustainable practices and encourage forest-friendly business. The Investments in Forests and Sustainable Land Use programme (2015-2024) supports the development of new business models which provide jobs and livelihoods while protecting and restoring forests. The programme is implemented through a set of complementary interventions including Partnerships for Forests (P4F) (£120 million), which provides grant funding and technical assistance to catalyse investment into sustainable agriculture and forest management. To date, P4F has mobilised £1.25 billion in private investment into forests, brought 4.5 million hectares of land under sustainable management and directly benefitted over 250,000 people.
The UK’s Mobilising Finance for Forests programme is working to increase private investment in activities that create value from standing forests and/or incorporate forest protection and restoration into sustainable agricultural commodity production. This programme is complementary to P4F, targeting larger and more mature opportunities that will mobilise investment into sustainable land-use at scale.
The UK also supports companies in their transition to sustainable supply chains. The UK is a co-funder of the Tropical Forest Alliance, a public-private initiative hosted by the World Economic Forum which mobilises over 170 companies, governments and NGOs to tackle commodity-driven deforestation.
We also continue to work with consumer and producer country partners in forums such as the Forest, Agriculture, and Commodity and Trade (FACT) Dialogue, which the UK and Indonesia launched together as co-chairs in 2021. The FACT Dialogue convenes 28 major producers and consumers of internationally traded agricultural commodities to agree principles for collaboration and developed a Roadmap of actions which was launched at COP26, to protect forests and other ecosystems while promoting sustainable trade and development, in a way that respects all countries’ interests.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent assessment he has made with Cabinet colleagues of the level of poverty among veterans.
Answered by Johnny Mercer - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Minister for Veterans' Affairs)
This Government is committed to supporting all households, including veterans, with the cost of living.
Veterans who are particularly vulnerable to increased living costs are likely to be eligible for targeted cost of living support payments, including the £150 disability cost of living payment, in addition to accessing targeted welfare and cost of living support, including the Energy Price Guarantee.
For the first time, a veteran marker has been included in the national Census which will transform our understanding of employment, finance, housing and other related priorities among veterans and their families.
We are also taking action to further support veterans, their families and communities across the UK. This includes Op FORTITUDE, the dedicated referral scheme for veterans facing homelessness and rough sleeping, which is part of a broader £8.55 million of funding for specialist help and wrap-around support for veterans in more than 900 supported housing units; the £20 million Veterans Capital Housing Fund, supporting projects which contribute towards extra housing for veterans through new builds and refurbishment of existing social and charitable housing; the £700,000 Veterans Career Development Fund, supporting projects which enable access for veterans and their families to qualifications and training to secure, sustainable, valuable employment; and an Independent Review of HMG Welfare Services for Veterans.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to take steps to adjust maintenance fees for students in line with inflation.
Answered by Robert Halfon
We have frozen maximum tuition fees for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years to deliver better value for students and to keep the cost of higher education (HE) under control. By 2024/25, maximum fees will have been frozen for seven years.
The government is considering options for maximum loans and grants for living and other costs for the 2024/25 academic year and will be making an announcement in due course.
Decisions on student finance have been taken alongside other spending priorities to ensure the system remains financially sustainable and the costs of HE is shared fairly between students and taxpayers, not all of whom have benefited from going to university.
The government recognises the additional cost of living pressures that have arisen this year and that are impacting students. For the 2023/24 academic year we have made £276 million of student premium and mental health funding available to support successful outcomes for students including disadvantaged students. This funding will complement the help universities are providing through their own bursary, scholarship and hardship support schemes.
Asked by: Charlotte Nichols (Labour - Warrington North)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of how many and what proportion of graduates in each plan will repay their (a) undergraduate and (b) post graduate loans.
Answered by Robert Halfon
Information on the proportion of graduates in each plan that will repay their (a) undergraduate and (b) post graduate loans, can be found in the ‘Student loan forecasts for England’ annual statistics publication here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/92168d82-7f22-4d01-d6a4-08dbca2fee12.
The system for setting interest rates on student loans is set out in the Education (Student Loans) (Repayment) Regulations 2009, as amended. Interest rates are applied in relation to the Retail Price Index (RPI). The RPI is determined by the RPI figure for the March prior to the applicable period for new interest rates. In addition, the government, by law, must cap maximum student loan rates to ensure the interest rate charged on the loan is in line with market rates for comparable unsecured personal loans. From 1 September 2023 to 30 November 2023, the maximum interest rate has been set at 7.3% for Plan 2 and Plan 5 undergraduate student loans, and postgraduate student loans, to take into account recent increases in the prevailing market rate. From the 2023/24 academic year, student loan borrowers starting new courses will benefit from interest rates of RPI only. This change ensures that, under the new Plan 5 loan terms, new borrowers will not repay more than they originally borrowed, when adjusted for inflation.
Student loans have very different terms and conditions to commercial loans set with reference to the Bank of England base rate. Unlike commercial unsecured personal loans, student loans are available to all eligible students regardless of their background or financial history. The loans carry significant protections for borrowers. Monthly repayments are based on earnings above the relevant threshold, not on interest rate or amount borrowed. If a borrower’s income drops, so does the amount they repay. If income is below the relevant repayment threshold, or a borrower is not earning, then they do not have to make repayments at all. Any outstanding debt, including interest accrued, is written off after the loan term ends (or in case of death or disability) at no detriment to the borrower. The government is not aware of any commercial loans that offer such protections.
The student finance and funding system must provide value for money for all of society at a time of rising costs. It is important that we have a sustainable student finance system, that is fair to students and fair to taxpayers. The department will continue to keep the terms of the student finance system under review to ensure that they keep delivering value for money for both students and taxpayers.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the impact assessment for the Government’s reforms to loan repayments, published in February 2022 and the House of Commons Library briefing entitled The Post-18 Education and Funding Review: Government conclusion, section 4.1, what assessment her Department has made of the implications for its policies of disparities in student loan repayments of the (a) average total loan charge and (b) time spent repaying loans between male and female borrowers.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department has carefully assessed the impact of changes and published a full and comprehensive analysis in the HE Reform and Consultation Document Equality Impact Assessment, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-reform-equality-impact-assessment.
The student loan repayment system under Plan 5 is progressive, with repayments being positively correlated with lifetime earnings. The highest earners make the largest individual contributions to the system overall, and the lowest earners are required to contribute the least.
Lower earners, whether male or female, are protected. If a borrower’s income is below the repayment threshold, they will not be required to make any repayments at all. At the end of the loan term, any outstanding loan debt, including interest accrued, will be written off at no detriment to the borrower. No commercial loans offer this level of protection.
The department will continue to keep the student finance system, including repayment terms, under review to ensure that it remains sustainable and delivers value for money for students and the taxpayer.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to page 66 of the Higher education policy statement & reform consultation Equality analysis published in February 2022, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of that report’s findings on the disparity in percentage increases in loan repayments between female borrowers and male borrowers.
Answered by Robert Halfon
The department has carefully assessed the impact of changes and published a full and comprehensive analysis in the HE Reform and Consultation Document Equality Impact Assessment, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/higher-education-reform-equality-impact-assessment.
The student loan repayment system under Plan 5 is progressive, with repayments being positively correlated with lifetime earnings. The highest earners make the largest individual contributions to the system overall, and the lowest earners are required to contribute the least.
Lower earners, whether male or female, are protected. If a borrower’s income is below the repayment threshold, they will not be required to make any repayments at all. At the end of the loan term, any outstanding loan debt, including interest accrued, will be written off at no detriment to the borrower. No commercial loans offer this level of protection.
The department will continue to keep the student finance system, including repayment terms, under review to ensure that it remains sustainable and delivers value for money for students and the taxpayer.