Category: Press Releases

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 15 July 2003.

The Government today published the review by Mr Justice Butterfield into HM Customs and Excise investigations and prosecutions, and the Government response to the review in the form of a written ministerial statement (attached in full). Both John Healey, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, and Attorney General Lord Goldsmith, QC found the report thorough, detailed and thoughtful.

John Healey, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, said: “The Government welcomes this report.

“The Butterfield report lays bare the major failings in the LCB investigations but it also confirms the far-reaching changes made in Customs since then, which mean that the same problems should not happen again.

“The report warns against complacency, and makes recommendations for reinforcing the changes in Customs still further, which I accept in full and Customs will implement.

“Mr Justice Butterfield encourages Customs to put the events of LCB behind them. His report allows Customs to draw a line under what happened in the 1990’s and continue to rebuild its reputation as an effective law enforcement agency in bringing some of the most serious smugglers and other criminals to justice.”

The Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith QC, said:

“We asked Justice Butterfield to carry out this review because we wanted to understand what went wrong with the LCB cases, and ensure the arrangements for bringing drug dealers and other criminals to justiceare the best they can be.

“This report makes a range of important proposals for further improving the way Customs investigates and prosecutes crime, and for enhancing the effectiveness of the criminal justice process.

“A key recommendation is that the Prosecutions Group should become a separate prosecuting authority, accountable to the Attorney General. The Government strongly agrees that the independence of prosecutors must be
protected. Independent prosecutorial decision-making is a key constitutional safeguard. We will be considering how the independence of Customs prosecutors can be further enhanced, and responding in the autumn.”

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 15 July 2003.

The Treasury today published “PFI: Meeting the Investment Challenge” on the evolving role of PFI in delivering cost effective investment in public services.

The document sets out the Government’s approach to PFI, provides detailed analysis of the performance of the PFI programme to date and outlines a number of proposals that, as PFI evolves, will ensure the public sector effectively captures the value for money benefits that PFI can deliver, including:

• reforms to improve the assessment of value for money appraisal by the public sector, to continue to ensure there is no bias in favour of any one procurement option and the decisions are made on the basis of best value for money. These include reforms to the Public Sector Comparator to ensure consistency with the reforms made at last year’s revision of the ‘Green Book’ (the Treasury’s guidance to departments on project appraisal). These changes mean that a value for money assessment of both PFI and conventional procurement options are fully taken into account prior to the procurement of a project, and that there is greater clarity on transferring soft services staff to ensure that application of value for money does not come at the expense of employee terms and conditions;
• measures to improve the efficiency of the procurement process, including more rigorous enforcement of standardisation, the accreditation of advisors, new models of procurement and greater transparency;
• proposals to revise the scope of PFI and focus its use on where it works best  – exploring new applications for PFI where existing evidence suggests it could deliver benefits – as foreshadowed in the Chancellor’s Social Market Foundation speech earlier this year – in social housing, urban regeneration and waste, but using conventional procurement methods in areas such as IT and small value projects where experience suggests that, conventional methods are  the best approach for driving more efficient procurement.
• investigating the potential for new methods of financing projects, for example, through “framework funding” for small PFI schemes bundled together and by piloting the potential for using credit guarantees as an additional means of funding PFI projects.

Paul Boateng, Chief Secretary to the Treasury said:

“The Government’s objective is deliver world class public services.  To achieve this, sustained increased in investment and matching reforms are needed to deliver efficient and responsive public services.  PFI has an important role to play in delivering this investment.

“The benefits of good procurement are not confined to those sectors where PFI is already well-established, and new applications for PFI will be explored where existing evidence suggests it could deliver benefits – in social housing, urban regeneration and waste.”

Total investment will rise to more than £47 billion by 2005/6. PFI has accounted for between 10 and 14 per cent of total annual investment in public services since 1997. This year investment through PFI is expected to be around £4.6 billion.  Almost 60 per cent of PFI projects are on-balance sheet, i.e. classified to the public sector.

The document sets out details of research conducted by the Government, which confirms a largely positive impact of PFI to date, with 89 per cent of projects delivered on time or early and with the costs of signed deals only changing where the public sector’s requirements changed.

To date, the Government has closed 563 PFI deals with a total value of over £35 billion. Recent years have seen the steady growth of the market in PFI with projects in a wide range of sectors such as health, education, defence and housing, including 34 hospitals and 239 new or refurbished schools that are already up and running.

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 18 July 2003.

The Government today published a consultation document on implementing the EU Distance Marketing of Financial Services Directive (DMD).

The Directive sets common standards for the information that must be supplied to consumers of financial services prior to a contract being concluded at a distance, such as by telephone, internet, fax or mail.

The DMD will:

• Bring substantial benefits to both consumers and business.  Many financial services transactions like banking, credit, insurance, personal pension, investment or payment nature are likely to be conducted by electronic means across borders between Member States.
• Allow businesses to offer consumers a wider choice of methods by which contracts can be concluded.  It will mean that businesses would be able to operate on a level playing field and be more proactive in conducting business cross border.
• Benefit consumers through increased cancellation rights, more flexibility of choice and improved benefits in respect of the additional information that will be available to them.
• Bring greater competition among suppliers, with potentially beneficial effect on prices for the consumer.
• Enhance the working of a single market by giving consumers the confidence to buy products on a cross border basis, with providers being governed by a common set of core standards across the European Union.

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 21 July 2003.

Damian McBride, currently Head of VAT Strategy at Customs and Excise, has been appointed as Head of Communications and Strategy at HM Treasury. He will take up post in September 2003.

Damian McBride has previously held posts at HM Treasury and Customs and Excise. He replaces Michael Ellam who took up post in July 2000.

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 22 July 2003.

Speaking to the US Council of Foreign Relations Transatlantic Taskforce in New York, the Chancellor said:

“The transatlantic relationship now accounts for up to $2.5 trillion of commercial transactions every year, including $500 billion of foreign trade, and provides employment to over 12 million people. One fifth of total US merchandise exports and one third of total US services exports now go to the EU. In the 1990s, US firms ploughed nearly twice as much capital into the Netherlands than into Mexico.  Corporate America’s foreign assets located in Germany alone are now greater than total US assets in the whole of South America.

“And at the same time, direct European investment in the USA has increased  more than ten fold in one decade – to over $200 billion a year – with more European capital now invested annually in America than US capital invested annually in Europe.  During the 1990s as a whole, nearly three quarters of all foreign investment in the US came from Europe and there is now more European investment in Texas than all US investment in Japan.

“This means that both Europe and America have a vital interest in each other’s economic prosperity. So this is the right time for a new era of engagement between America and Europe.  Instead of seeing globalisation as inviting a weakening of transatlantic ties, we must strengthen them to create a new transatlantic alliance for prosperity that is in both our interests.

“Last month a new joint British-Dutch study that we submitted to the European Commission reported that if we broke down the tariff barriers and the barriers to trade in services between Europe and the United States, employment in Europe could increase by one million, growth in Europe could rise by up to two per cent and in America by up to one per cent.

“Today I want to make some practical proposals about the way forward. As a first step, building on the work already done, I believe the US administration and the EU Commission should work with the UK and other Member States to produce a more detailed analysis of precisely where the barriers to trade across the Atlantic lie, and quantify the benefits of greater trade and investment liberalisation.

“Second, we must take a more pro-active approach to removing non-tariff barriers.  In particular, we should set an example to the world with new levels of bilateral regulatory co-operation, assessing the impact on trade and investment before legislation is introduced.

“Third, we need to involve business more in driving forward this agenda. So I have called upon the EU and US to re-launch and reinvigorate the transatlantic business dialogue.

“Fourth, because we know that, in today’s world, prosperity and security go hand in hand, I believe that transatlantic bilateral co-operation should not be at the expense of an ambitious multilateral agenda. Europe and America must work together in the World Trade Organisation. It is estimated that if we were to halve protectionism in agriculture and in industrial goods and services we would increase the world’s yearly income by nearly $400 billion dollars: a boost to growth of 1.4 per cent. Developing countries would gain the most in terms of GDP growth – $150 billion a year – but all countries and regions, including ourselves, stand to benefit. So in the next few months running up to Cancun we must pursue a common agenda to break the deadlock in world trade. Europe and America must take the lead in the trade talks and work together if they are to succeed – standing firm and resisting political pressures for protectionism.

And in relation to Iraq, the Chancellor said:

“Britain and the US were right to take military action against Saddam Hussein. We should not forget that Saddam had used weapons of mass destruction against his own people, and that resolution 1441 – which listed the weapons of mass destruction believed to be in Iraq, as agreed unanimously by the UN Security Council – made clear that compliance this time had to be full, unconditional and immediate.”

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 25 July 2003.

The Treasury and Department for Education and Skills today published a consultation document on proposals for how to use the £25 million Parenting Fund, which was announced as part of the 2002 Spending Review.

The Parenting Fund will assist voluntary and community organisations in the delivery of Parenting Support.

The proposals for consultation are the result of a close working relationship between representatives from the voluntary and community sector and Government.  The consultation document proposes that the Parenting Fund be used to achieve four key objectives:

• Contributing to an expansion in support available to all parents – for example, increasing the availability of help-lines.
• Increasing support services for groups who currently receive little access – for example, assisting voluntary and community organisations who provide services to black and minority ethnic families, fathers or parents of adolescents.
• Spreading parenting support services to wider geographical areas.
• Increasing the capacity of the whole parenting support sector to grow – for example, by increasing workforce skills and developing infrastructure.

Paul Boateng, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said:

“The Government is committed to enabling parents and families to access the support, help and advice that they need.  The Parenting Fund is a significant investment of resources to support voluntary and community organisations in the important work they do to deliver parenting support.  The manner in which the proposals have been drawn up is another example of an innovative and constructive working collaboration between government and the voluntary and community sector, which I am truly proud of.”

Margaret Hodge, Minister of State for Children, said:

“Being a parent is one of the hardest jobs most of us have to do.  All parents at some point need help on how to do it.  Not all have help readily at hand from their families and friends.  I am delighted that we have the extra resources of the Parenting Fund.  I look forward to hearing views from outside government on the best ways of targeting the fund to help families get the support they need.”

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 1 August 2003.

The Government today published a consultation document on economic instruments to improve household energy efficiency.

As announced in the Budget, following the initial consultation last year the Government is consulting in more detail on specific economic instruments to encourage greater energy efficiency by households.

The initial consultation sought views on the ways in which economic instruments could be used to overcome market failures which prevent improvements in household energy efficiency. Given the generally positive response to the consultation, supporting action in this area, and following the publication of the Energy White Paper  and its focus on energy efficiency, the Government has decided to consult further.

This consultation is launched with the aim of gathering further information on the likely impacts and effectiveness of the identified measures and responses will help to inform the Government’s policy development in this area.

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 6 August 2003.

HM Treasury, the Financial Services Authority and the Bank of England today jointly published a guide to the EU Financial Services Action Plan (FSAP). The FSAP consists of a set of measures intended to achieve a Single Market in financial services across the EU by 2005.

John Healey, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, commented:

“With the Financial Services Action Plan nearing completion, it is essential that all stakeholders should be consulted on, and fully understand, the measures. Together with the Financial Services Authority and the Bank of England, we have prepared this guide so that all those involved are aware of the impact of new measures and the competitive opportunities of further EU financial integration .”

The guide is intended for financial institutions, companies and consumer groups in the UK that are not yet sufficiently familiar with the FSAP’s potential impact.

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 12 August 2003.

New proposals to take forward the Government’s reform of corporation tax aimed at supporting business competitiveness, productivity and growth, while ensuring fairness for all, were launched today.

Announcing the consultation, Corporation tax reform, Paymaster General Dawn Primarolo said:

“Sustainable growth and economic stability are built on the platform of a thriving business sector. For that we need a tax system that underpins business competitiveness, and ensures fairness across all sectors of the UK economy. Today’s consultation document marks the next stage in the Government’s strategy to achieve that objective through the reform of corporation tax. ”

”In 2002 the UK accounted for almost 30% of total EU inward investment. Today’s publication builds on the UK’s enviable position as an attractive location in which and from which to do business and further develops the wide-ranging proposals discussed in the August 2002 consultation document. I would urge businesses and all those with an interest in corporate tax to read and respond to the consultation.”

The consultation seeks views on proposals for taking forward reform in the three main areas set out in the August 2002 consultation document:

• Rationalisation of the way in which the schedular system taxes different types of corporate income to provide more flexibility in the way in which losses from one activity can be set off against profits arising from another;
• Changes to the tax treatment of trading and investment companies to remove outdated restrictions and facilitate group restructuring; and
• Changes to the tax treatment of capital assets to reduce distortions in the tax system.

It also addresses the reform of corporation tax in its wider international context, recognising the influences of a competitive business environment, of international agreements and of legal developments.

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 4 September 2003.

New figures published today show that take-up of the new tax credits has been a huge success with 5.8 million families benefiting after just four months, a massive 95 per cent of those expected to receive tax credits in the first year, said Paymaster General Dawn Primarolo today.

Speaking to the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) in London, Ms Primarolo said:

“New tax credits are the biggest step forward in tackling child poverty, making work pay, supporting hard working families, and getting more financial support to families ever introduced by this or any other Government.

“I can announce today that already, 5.8 million families are benefiting. We had expected that by next April, after a full year, six million families would be benefiting. So, after just four months, we have reached 95 per cent of those we expected to reach over a year– a massive success by anyone’s standards.

“Tax credits play a crucial role in support for mums who want to go back to work; help for families coping with the costs of a new baby; help for hard working families.”