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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cathy Jamieson on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, which Scottish airports will benefit from the Regional Air Connectivity Fund.

Mr Robert Goodwill

The Government announced on 6 June that a Public Service Obligation will be established on the air route between Dundee Airport and London Stansted Airport from 1 July 2014 for a two-year period, with support from the Regional Air Connectivity Fund announced in last year’s Spending Round.

The Scottish devolved administration or regional body may apply for access to this fund to maintain an air link from other Scottish airports to London, where there is a risk that an existing link may be lost, and where the case for a Public Service Obligation has been made.

The Chancellor announced in this year’s Budget that the funding would be doubled to £20 million per year, and also extended to allow for the support for start-up aid for new air routes from UK regional airports. European Union aviation State aid guidelines allow for provision of start-up aid to facilitate start-up of new routes from airports which handle fewer than five million passengers per annum. This will therefore cover all Scotland’s airports apart from Glasgow and Edinburgh.

The Department for Transport is working with the Treasury to develop guidance that will clarify how the Government will ordinarily expect to interpret the European Union guidelines, and explain how the funding process will work.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cathy Jamieson on 2014-06-04.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the amount of revenue accruing to the Exchequer from air passenger duty in respect of (a) domestic and (b) international flights from each airport in Scotland in 2013-14.

Nicky Morgan

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) does not collect information on the contribution to air passenger duty (APD) revenues made from flights to or from specific airports or countries.

HMRC has published a set of statistics presenting estimates of the disaggregation of tax receipts between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/disaggregation-of-hmrc-tax-receipts

The estimate for the total amount of APD revenues attributable to Scotland in 2012/13 was £227 million. This estimate is not broken down by revenues from domestic and international flights.

Information on APD revenues and passenger numbers by band is available at:

https://www.uktradeinfo.com/Statistics/Pages/TaxAndDutyBulletins.aspx

Information on the number of passengers flying to and from UK airports is available at:

http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=80&pagetype=88&pageid=3&sglid=3#Data

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cathy Jamieson on 2014-06-04.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he expects the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority to publish their review on removing barriers to entry and expansion in retail banking.

Andrea Leadsom

Budget 2014 detailed that the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority will publish a review of their work on removing barriers to entry and expansion in retail banking later this year.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cathy Jamieson on 2014-06-04.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions he has had with the Payments System Regulator on its market study into the ownership of payments systems by the largest banks.

Andrea Leadsom

At Budget 2014, the Chancellor announced that the competition powers of the Payment Systems Regulator would be switched on with immediate effect. This enables the Regulator to conduct a market study on ownership of the payment systems and, depending on the outcome, to refer the question of ownership to the Competition and Markets Authority. The decision about whether to commence a market study is one for the Regulator.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cathy Jamieson on 2014-06-04.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, when the Prudential Regulatory Authority will report on details of new bank authorisations.

Andrea Leadsom

The Prudential Regulation Authority will report on details of new bank authorisations as part of the Annual Report and Accounts.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cathy Jamieson on 2014-06-04.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will commission an assessment of the amount of investment in small and medium-sized enterprises from peer-to-peer lending and crowdfunding platforms.

Andrea Leadsom

Crowdfunding and peer to peer lending are innovative new forms of finance that support competition in the business lending sector. The Government has taken a number of steps to support their growth.

The Government has no current plans to commission an assessment of the amount of investment in small and medium-sized enterprises from peer to peer lending and crowdfunding platforms.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cathy Jamieson on 2014-06-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the cost of administering the Potholes Challenge Fund.

Mr Robert Goodwill

In the 2014 Budget, the Government announced a £200 million pothole fund for the financial year 2014-15. Some £168 million is being made available to councils in England, including up to £10 million for London. This is enough to fix over 3 million potholes on the local road network.

The administering of the Fund falls under the current operating costs of the Department for Transport and so no additional costs have been incurred.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Cathy Jamieson on 2014-06-04.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions he has had on the development of guidance on the use of social media for promotion of financial services.

Andrea Leadsom

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is responsible for conduct supervision of regulated financial firms, including their responsible promotion of products and services.

In 2010 the then Financial Services Authority issued some high-level guidelines on use of ‘new media’ – including social media – for such promotions. Since April 2013 the FCA has been engaging with industry, looking further at how social media interacts with FCA rules, and has committed to issue further guidelines later this summer.