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  • Nicholas Soames – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Nicholas Soames – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2014-04-28.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many months of imports the UK’s reserves can cover; and if he will make a statement.

    Nicky Morgan

    The UK has not operated an exchange rate targeting monetary policy regime since 1992. Rather, foreign exchange reserves are currently held on a precautionary basis, to be used in the event of unexpected shocks.

    Latest data shows that the value of the reserves is $110.9bn, up from $71.2bn in June 2010. UK imports averaged £44.4bn per month over 2013.

  • Nicholas Soames – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Nicholas Soames – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2014-04-28.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the value of guarantee was of his Department’s largest 200 infrastructure projects in (a) 2010-11 and (b) 2013-14.

    Danny Alexander

    The UK Guarantees scheme did not exist in 2010-11. Following its introduction in 2012, Drax Power, the Northern Line Extension and Mersey Gateway Bridge are the projects in the National Infrastructure Plan that have benefited from the scheme. The total value of those three guarantees is £1,082,000,000

    The infrastructure pipeline published alongside the National Infrastructure Plan 2013 provides a forward looking, bottom-up assessment of overall planned and potential infrastructure investment in the UK to 2020 and beyond, and includes details of the projected value of individual investments. It includes large public and private infrastructure projects and capital programmes (generally worth £50 million or over) and can be found here:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-infrastructure-plan-2013

    The pipeline has been published annually since it was first published in 2011.

  • Nicholas Soames – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Nicholas Soames – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2014-04-28.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the total value is of guarantees made under the UK Guarantees Scheme to date.

    Danny Alexander

    Three guarantees and one Stand-by Facility have been signed under the UK Guarantees Scheme with a total value of £1,090,800,000.

    Any guarantees signed are reported to Parliament as required by the legislation, Infrastructure (Financial Assistance) Act 2012, underpinning the Scheme and can also be found on the gov.uk website.

  • Nicholas Soames – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Nicholas Soames – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2014-04-28.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an estimate of the value of backlog maintenance of central Government-owned assets.

    Danny Alexander

    This data is not available as backlog maintenance is for individual departments to manage and consequently the Treasury does not ask for the information. The Whole of Government Accounts (WGA) does include current valuations for assets across government, which takes into account the condition of the assets.

  • Jeremy Browne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Jeremy Browne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeremy Browne on 2014-04-28.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, on what occasions he has met representatives of the Crown Estate since May 2010.

    Nicky Morgan

    Treasury Ministers meet the Crown Estate Board and staff several times a year.

  • Nicholas Soames – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Nicholas Soames – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2014-04-28.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make it his policy to consolidate departmental funding streams into a single national infrastructure fund; and if he will make a statement.

    Danny Alexander

    The Government believes that there is a powerful case for giving local business and political leaders the levers they need to create jobs and drive growth. In ‘Investing in Britain’s Future’, the Government accepted Lord Heseltine’s recommendations to devolve economic power to Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) through the creation of the Local Growth Fund (LGF) with over £2 billion of budgets from skills, housing and transport for 2015-16. An area’s allocation from the LGF will be available to be spent on the priorities LEPs and their partners have determined in their strategic economic plans.

    The Government allocated capital funds between programmes at Spending Review 2010 and Spending Round 2013 on the basis of a zero-based review of the economic returns of every central government capital programme, with investment being targeted increasingly at economic infrastructure. Once allocated between programmes, funds were moved into the appropriate departmental budgets to allow departments to deliver those programmes.

  • Nicholas Soames – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Nicholas Soames – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2014-04-28.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the next 40 infrastructure projects are that the Government plans to undertake; and in what order the Government plans to undertake those projects.

    Danny Alexander

    The Government published its top 40 priority infrastructure investments in its National Infrastructure Plan (December 2013). This included projected construction start and finish dates. The relevant information is contained in Annex A of the Plan, accessible here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-infrastructure-plan-2013

  • Pamela Nash – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Pamela Nash – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Pamela Nash on 2014-04-28.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people in HM Revenue and Customs’ National Minimum Wage team were monitoring Scotland in each year from 2010 to 2014.

    Mr David Gauke

    The Government takes the enforcement of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) very seriously. HMRC review every complaint that is referred to them by the Pay and Work Rights Helpline. In addition, by collating and analysing data received from various sources, HMRC ensure targeted enforcement through robust risk assessment processes to identify employers across the United Kingdom who are more likely to be not paying NMW.

    HMRC deploys resources to risk, so work relating to a specific geographical area is not always undertaken by the NMW team based in that area. In addition, the NMW Dynamic Response Team (DRT) provides a multi-agency response to emerging risks, high profile casework and compliance initiatives across the UK.

    Staff across HMRC contribute to enforcing the NMW, including people who work in legal advice, debt management, technical support and criminal investigation, but HMRC does not record the specific numbers of those staff involved, beyond those identified above.

  • Jeremy Browne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Jeremy Browne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeremy Browne on 2014-04-28.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many houses the Crown Estate is proposing to sell in Taunton Deane.

    Nicky Morgan

    The Crown Estate operates commercially at arm’s length from the Treasury. The Crown Estate makes commercial decisions in line with the Crown Estate Act 1961 and does not normally discuss them in detail with the Treasury.

  • Jeremy Browne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Jeremy Browne – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jeremy Browne on 2014-04-28.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions his Department has had with the Crown Estate on selling houses.

    Nicky Morgan

    The Crown Estate operates commercially at arm’s length from the Treasury. The Crown Estate makes commercial decisions in line with the Crown Estate Act 1961 and does not normally discuss them in detail with the Treasury.