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  • Lord Beecham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Beecham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2014-04-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many VAT inspectors, tax inspectors and senior tax inspectors were employed by HM Revenue and Customs in the financial year 2009–10; and how many will be employed in 2014–15.

    Lord Newby

    HM Revenue & Customs was formed by the merger of Inland Revenue and HM Customs & Excise in 2005 and the VAT Inspector and Tax Inspector are no longer roles in the organisation. There are some 17,000 tax professionals in HM Revenue & Customs carrying out a range of duties from tackling non-compliance with tax obligations to advising Ministers on changes in legislation.

    Whilst the overall numbers of tax professionals has largely been maintained from 2009/10 to the present day, and will be into 2014/15, the way in which those tax professionals have been deployed has changed to address priority areas of tax risk. This is reflected in the compliance yield, which almost doubled between 2005 and 2011 to £13.9 billion, and increased again to reach £20.7 billion in 2012/13 as key risks were addressed.

    HM Revenue & Customs continues to recruit substantial numbers of graduates and suitable internal candidates to develop as senior tax professionals, around 600 in the period 2012/13 to 2014/15, to maintain numbers and enhance capability.

  • Lord Beecham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    Lord Beecham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Cabinet Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2014-04-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of the workforce deemed to be in employment is estimated to be on (1) full-time, (2) part-time, and (3) zero-hours, contracts.

    Lord Wallace of Saltaire

    The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

  • Lord Myners – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Myners – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2014-04-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the external law firm appointed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to review its handling of its announcement on closed life funds is independent of the FCA and the firms covered by the FCA investigation.

    Lord Deighton

    The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have announced that the FCA Non-Executive Directors have appointed Simon Davis, a senior commercial litigation partner at Clifford Chance, to conduct an independent inquiry into the handling of the FCA’s announcement of proposed supervisory work on the fair treatment of long standing customers in life insurance.

  • Lord Myners – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Lord Myners – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2014-04-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have commissioned any investigation into, or received any report about, possible manipulation of auctions conducted by the Debt Management Office on behalf of HM Treasury or of purchases of securities under the Asset Purchase Scheme.

    Lord Newby

    Any evidence relating to the potential manipulation of financial markets received by a public or private body or member of the public should be passed to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which has a statutory responsibility for regulating conduct in financial markets.

    Any investigation into the potential manipulation of financial markets would be a matter for the FCA. As a matter of policy the FCA does not normally provide any comment about potential or actual investigations or potential enforcement so as to avoid prejudicing cases.

    The FCA announced on 20 March 2014 that it had taken enforcement action against an individual for the manipulation of a government bond in the run up to a Bank of England operation on 10 October 2011. The FCA’s investigation found this was the action of one trader on one day, and there was no evidence of collusion with traders in other banks.

  • Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2014-04-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the statement on 19 March by the President of Turkey that the internal peace process should be completed, by giving democratic rights and equal citizenship to the Kurdish people together with freedom for the press and other media.

    Baroness Warsi

    We welcome the comments made by President Gül regarding the Kurdish population in Turkey, which we assess as an important reaffirmation of the Turkish government’s commitment to finding a sustainable solution to the Kurdish issue.

    We have been encouraged by the efforts on both sides to reach a solution and welcome the continuing ceasefire, as well as the President Gül’s approval of the democratisation package in March.

  • Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    Lord Hylton – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Hylton on 2014-04-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will adopt measures similar to those recently taken by the United States Food and Drugs Administration to curb the routine use of antibiotics in the food of healthy animals.

    Lord De Mauley

    Any routine use of antibiotics in the food of healthy animals as growth promoters has been banned in the EU since 2006.

  • Lord Wills – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Lord Wills – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Wills on 2014-04-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, in calculating the non-ring-fenced funding provided to local authorities to deliver statutory obligations, they make any assumptions about the proportions of that funding likely to be used in fulfilling each of those obligations; and if so, what assumptions they have made of the likely expenditure on electoral registration.

    Baroness Stowell of Beeston

    The total amount of funding provided through the local government finance settlement in England is set at the time of the appropriate Spending Review. In setting this amount the Government considers the likely pressures and efficiency savings that can be made on a range of services, together with the overall fiscal environment, including the need to tackle the deficit left by the last Administration. This amount may be subsequently amended either through Budgets or Autumn Statements.

    It is up to local authorities to decide how to set their budgets, taking into account local spending priorities.

  • Lord Wills – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Lord Wills – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Wills on 2014-04-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they calculate the local government finance settlement.

    Baroness Stowell of Beeston

    The method of calculating the local government finance settlement is set out in the Local Government Finance Report (England) for each year. The report for 2014/15 was approved by Parliament on 12 February. A copy of this report can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-government-finance-report-2014-to-2015

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  • Lord Rooker – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    Lord Rooker – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Rooker on 2014-04-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government when they plan to implement the changes set out in sections 45 and 46 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010.

    Lord Faulks

    Implementation is already well underway. The point at which historic central government records are transferred to The National Archives is being reduced from 30 years to 20 years. This change is being implemented in a phased way over a ten period starting from 1 January 2013, with two years worth of records being transferred every year until transition is complete. This was implemented by The Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 (Commencement No 7) Order 2012 (SI 2012 No. 3001) and The Public Records (Transfer to the Public Record Office) (Transitional and Saving Provisions) Order 2012 (SI 2012 No. 3028).

    The Government intends to begin, from 2015, a similar ten-year transitional period for records transferred to 116 local places of deposit, subject to the outcome of further detailed work on costs and the impact to the local authority archive sector.

  • Lord Rooker – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    Lord Rooker – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Rooker on 2014-04-01.

    To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Taylor of Holbeach on 26 March (WA 122), what are the relevant trigger dates for consideration of any documents they may hold relating to Hilda Murrell.

    Lord Taylor of Holbeach

    The relevant trigger date for the one file that the HO holds relating to Hilda Murrell is July 2014 when Home Office will make an application to that month’s Lord Chancellor’s Advisory Council to allow this file to be transferred to The National Archives. Providing this application is approved, this file will be available for perusal by members of the public by 31 December 2014.