Tag: Chuka Umunna

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chuka Umunna on 2014-07-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what information his Department holds on the current ownership of shares in Royal Mail.

Matthew Hancock

Maintaining and updating the Royal Mail shareholder register is the responsibility of the company.

A number of financial market Information providers publish information about company shareholders including Royal Mail.

The Government does not hold any information that cannot be obtained from these sources.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chuka Umunna on 2014-07-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assurances were sought from priority investors ahead of the privatisation of Royal Mail on long-term holding of shares by (a) Ministers in his Department (b) Officials in his Department (c) the Financial Adviser to the Government and (d) the banking syndicate working on the privatisation.

Matthew Hancock

No assurances were sought from the priority investors ahead of the sale of shares in Royal Mail.

Any mechanism which requires a buyer to give up the rights normally associated with shares, such as a restriction on the right to sell those shares for a period of time, would be reflected in the price investors would be prepared to pay for those shares.

These investors gave the Government confidence to take forward the IPO which raised nearly £2bn for the tax payer and reduced the risk that the tax payer to support the universal postal service.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chuka Umunna on 2014-07-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what agreement was sought from priority investors on the long-term holding of shares in Royal Mail.

Matthew Hancock

No agreement was sought from the priority investors ahead of the sale of shares in Royal Mail on the long term holding of shares.

Any mechanism which requires a buyer to give up the rights normally associated with shares, such as a restriction on the right to sell those shares for a period of time, would be reflected in the price investors would be prepared to pay for those shares.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chuka Umunna on 2014-07-15.

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, when (a) due diligence will be completed and (b) funds will be drawn down by winning bidders under the Local Growth Fund.

Greg Clark

Growth Deals were announced with all 39 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) on 7 July. This followed a highly competitive process in which the Government assessed LEP Strategic Economic Plans against the published assessment criteria including value for money and deliverability. The funding for these deals will be in place for all LEPs by April 2015.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chuka Umunna on 2014-07-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, on how many occasions the Future High Streets Forum has met this year; and who has attended each such meeting.

Penny Mordaunt

The Future High Streets Forum has met three times this year, on 21 January, 29 April and 8 July. Attendee details can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/future-high-streets-forum

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chuka Umunna on 2014-07-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 9 April 2014, Official Report, column 292W, on Royal Mail, from which directorate each member of staff working on the privatisation of Royal Mail was drawn.

Matthew Hancock

The core team of 17 people working on the sale of Royal Mail shares comprised staff from the Shareholder Executive. Staff in other BIS Directorates contributed to the work – primarily from Legal Directorate, Finance Directorate, Press Office and Economics and Markets Directorate.

The project received scrutiny outside BIS from the Cabinet Office’s Major Projects Authority and a Treasury Approval Point panel.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chuka Umunna on 2014-07-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 9 April 2014, Official Report, column 292W, on Royal Mail, how many staff of the Shareholder Executive worked on the privatisation of Royal Mail.

Matthew Hancock

The 17 core staff referred to in the Answer of 9 April 2014, Official Report, column 292W, were all from the Shareholder Executive working on the Royal Mail Initial Public Offering.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chuka Umunna on 2015-01-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 1 October 2014 to Question 206270, what (a) inquiries have been made and (b) investigations have been carried out by (i) Ministers in his Department, (ii) officials in his Department and (iii) Business Bank staff into allegations of misselling relating to the Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme since 2012.

Matthew Hancock

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has been pro-active in its engagement with Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG) lenders, with regular audits of the use of the scheme since its launch. In February 2014 BIS wrote to all lenders participating in the EFG scheme reiterating their operational responsibilities, including the way in which it is presented to their front line staff and customers. Following evidence of concerns of lending by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) in August 2014, BIS officials asked RBS to instigate an internal review into this issue.

My Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills has met with RBS to discuss these findings, and I have asked the British Business Bank – which now administers the programme on behalf of the Department – to continue to closely monitor the action being taken by RBS to address these issues. I have been given assurance from RBS that they will put right any cases where they are at fault to ensure that no detriment is suffered by either the borrower or the taxpayer.

The Enterprise Finance Guarantee remains a valuable programme which helps viable businesses gain access to finance where they have insufficient security or an inadequate track record to access finance.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chuka Umunna on 2014-07-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions took place between (a) Ministers in his Department, (b) officials, (c) the Financial Adviser to HM Government and (d) the banking syndicate working on the privatisation of Royal Mail with priority investors on the length of time shares in the privatised business would continue to be held.

Matthew Hancock

We did not seek assurances from priority investors on the length of time that they would hold the Royal Mail shares that they bought.

Our intention was to ensure that RM started out with a core of long-term, stable investors who understood the business, along with some hedge fund participation to ensure liquidity in the aftermarket. We achieved that.

We did not expect the shareholder register to remain static. Some investors have sold their shares, presumably because the share price reached their target price. Others have bought shares. There is still a wide range of views on the value of this company.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chuka Umunna on 2015-01-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, pursuant to the Answer of 1 October 2014 to Question 206270, what discussions and meetings (a) Ministers in his Department, (b) officials in his Department and (c) Business Bank staff have had with (i) participating lenders and (ii) business organisations where allegations of misselling relating to the Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme were discussed since 2012.

Matthew Hancock

The British Business Bank maintains regular contact with all of the main lenders participating in the Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme. Quarterly meetings are held at a senior level and the allegations of mis-selling have been on the agenda of those meetings since early in 2014. In addition, operational meetings take place on a regular basis. From August 2014 onwards more frequent senior level meetings have taken place with the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). At a meeting in August 2014 RBS agreed to our request that they should undertake to conduct an internal review. The findings of that review and a proposed course of action were presented at a meeting with the British Business Bank in December 2014, and senior executives from RBS met the Secretary of State on 14 January 2015. The British Business Bank has also discussed the ‘mis-selling’ allegations with the British Bankers’ Association and the Lending Standards Board, each on one occasion.