Tag: Lord Myners

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-06-08.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have asked the Serious Fraud Office to investigate matters related to the sale and purchase of BHS.

Lord Keen of Elie

In all cases decisions to investigate are made by the Director of the Serious Fraud Office, who acts independently. In respect of BHS, the SFO has confirmed that it is reviewing material in its possession. If the Director considers there are reasonable grounds to suspect serious or complex fraud which meets his Statement of Principle, he will open a formal criminal investigation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-10-03.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to restrict the advertising and promotion of primary option trading and investment to retail investors in the UK by firms based in Cyprus and Malta.

Lord Young of Cookham

The government takes this issue very seriously.

The government will introduce measures to strengthen investor protection when it transposes the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID II).

This will include powers for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to prohibit or restrict the marketing, distribution or sale of financial instruments, including relevant binary options where there are significant investor protection concerns.

These powers will apply from 3 January 2018.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-03-21.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether central clearing houses in financial markets are required to prepare living wills; and what measures have been put in place to manage a capital failure.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

UK legislation requires central counterparties (CCPs) to develop recovery plans and to have ‘loss allocation’ rules, in order to allocate any losses sustained by the CCP either following the default of a clearing member or due to certain non-default events, so that the CCP can continue to provide its critical functions.

The Government has also broadened the scope of the UK’s Special Resolution Regime to cover CCPs. When certain conditions are met, this allows the Bank of England to intervene by transferring all or some of the business of a CCP to either a private sector purchaser or to a bridge CCP owned by the Bank of England, or to transfer ownership of the CCP to any person.

Qualifying changes of control of CCPs are assessed by the Bank of England and I refer the noble Lord to my written answer HL7153 of 1 April 2016.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-04-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government to what extent their fiscal strategy is influenced by Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) was established to introduce independence, greater transparency and credibility to the economic and fiscal forecasts on which the government’s fiscal policy is based. Since 2010, the government has used the OBR’s economic and fiscal forecasts as the official forecasts. The government sets its fiscal strategy independently of the OBR but the forecasts are used to inform decisions on fiscal policy.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-04-21.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government which regulator will be responsible for overseeing the correlation algorithms used in cross margining positions held with LCH Clearnet and Euronext.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

I refer the noble Lord to my written answer of 26 April (HL7583, HL7584, HL7585, and HL7586).

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-05-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they, the Pensions Regulator, or the Pension Protection Fund have in the last three years had discussions with BHS, Lady Green or Sir Philip Green concerning the deficit in the BHS pension fund and a scheme to reduce that deficit.

Baroness Altmann

The Pensions Regulator and the Pension Protection Fund are independent bodies and in carrying out their functions they may meet individuals involved with pension schemes.

Ministers have engaged with a range of sponsoring employers of Defined Benefit pensions schemes as a matter of routine, including Sir Philip Green, as part of their normal considerations of the pensions landscape but oversight of the scheme funding regime for Defined Benefit schemes is a matter for the Pensions Regulator. It would not be appropriate for Ministers to intervene in individual cases or to discuss with the Regulator, the Pension Protection Fund or the scheme sponsor how a particular scheme’s pension deficit should be mitigated.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-06-08.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to publish the savings in public sector procurement as a result of following the advice of Sir Philip Green; and whether they will consider inviting Sir Philip to review the adequacy and effectiveness of implementation.

Baroness Evans of Bowes Park

I refer the noble Lord to the answers I gave him on 11 April 2016 to Question HL7227 and on 9 May to Question HL7900.

We have published details of savings made through efficiency and reform each year since 2010-11. The most recent report can be found on www.gov.uk.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-10-18.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they (1) have confidence in the economic forecasting capability of HM Treasury, (2) have evaluated the performance of HM Treasury forecasters, and (3) have considered the case for outsourcing some or all of HM Treasury’s forecasting functions to another organisation.

Lord Young of Cookham

The independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is responsible for producing forecasts for the UK economy and public finances. It publishes regular Forecast Evaluation Reports (FERs) in which it compares its forecasts to subsequent outturns and explains any forecast errors.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-03-21.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of any increase to the economic risk supervised by the Prudential Regulatory Authority of the proposed merger of the London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Börse; whether obligations of the combined group will fall to the UK taxpayer; and whether there have been any discussions about risk sharing with the government of Germany.

Lord O’Neill of Gatley

UK legislation requires central counterparties (CCPs) to develop recovery plans and to have ‘loss allocation’ rules, in order to allocate any losses sustained by the CCP either following the default of a clearing member or due to certain non-default events, so that the CCP can continue to provide its critical functions.

The Government has also broadened the scope of the UK’s Special Resolution Regime to cover CCPs. When certain conditions are met, this allows the Bank of England to intervene by transferring all or some of the business of a CCP to either a private sector purchaser or to a bridge CCP owned by the Bank of England, or to transfer ownership of the CCP to any person.

Qualifying changes of control of CCPs are assessed by the Bank of England and I refer the noble Lord to my written answer HL7153 of 1 April 2016.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Myners on 2016-04-13.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether any enquiries have been launched into the involvement of UK financial institutions in the matter of the Malaysian state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad.

Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon

The Government is committed to ensuring that the UK has a robust but proportionate anti-money laundering regime. The UK’s first National Risk Assessment of money laundering was published on 15 October 2015. It identified the threats and vulnerabilities faced in this area, and an Action Plan will be published shortly, clearly setting out the steps that will be taken to address them.

The Prime Minister made clear in his Singapore speech on corruption last year that the Government is determined to make sure the UK does not become a safe haven for corrupt money. The Prime Minister’s Anti-Corruption Summit in May will also consider what more the UK and our international partners can do to tackle flows of illicit finance at home and abroad.

Any investigation is an operational matter for the police and the prosecution authorities. The decision on whether to investigate a case, and then take forward a prosecution, will depend on the evidence available.