Tag: Lord Stoddart of Swindon

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2014-06-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have made any estimate of the likely financial consequences for taxpayers over the official retirement age of any merger of income tax and national insurance contributions into a single tax; and, if so, what was that estimate.

Lord Deighton

As set out by the Chancellor at Autumn Statement 2012, the Government will wait for further progress on planned operational changes to the tax system before formally consulting on the operational integration of income tax and National Insurance contributions (NICs).

The scope for the consultation was originally set out by the Chancellor at Budget 2011, and made it clear that the Government will not extend NICs to individuals above State Pension Age nor to other forms of income such as pensions, savings and dividends.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2014-06-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the event that Scottish voters opt for an independent Scotland, what plans they have in relation to the status of Scottish constituencies at the 2015 general election.

Lord Wallace of Saltaire

If the people of Scotland vote to leave the UK, the UK would continue in its current form and with its existing Parliament, laws, institutions and responsibilities for governing Scotland up to the point that independence were given legal effect, unless the UK Parliament were to pass legislation to change existing arrangements. It would be for the UK Parliament to determine, in the event of a ‘yes’ vote, what, if any changes should be made to existing arrangements.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2014-06-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Wallace of Saltaire on 13 May (WA 467), whether the annual gross income of charities included contributions from central government; and, if so, what was their total contribution.

Lord Wallace of Saltaire

Central government does contribute to the total income of registered charities, but the Charity Commission does not keep figures on this. According to the 2014 UK Voluntary Sector Almanac, published by the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, in 2011/12 voluntary sector organisations received over £5.9 billion of central government and NHS funding.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2014-06-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to bring their proposals to give HM Revenue and Customs power to remove money from bank accounts without prior judicial process for consideration or agreement by the House of Lords; and, if so, how.

Lord Deighton

The Government is consulting on the Direct Recovery of Debts until 29th July. This policy will modernise and strengthen HMRC’s ability to recover tax and tax credit debts from those who are refusing to pay what they owe but have sufficient funds in their accounts.

The Government intends to publish a response document and draft legislation later this year. This draft legislation will be consulted on before it is included in next year’s Finance Bill, where it will be subject to the usual Parliamentary scrutiny.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2014-06-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Newby on 6 May (WA 314), what is their estimate of the average additional weekly cost of food to United Kingdom families arising from membership of the Common Agricultural Policy.

Lord De Mauley

As stated in the previous response to WA 314, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) calculates the annual monetary value of gross transfers from EU consumers arising from policies underpinning the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

The OECD estimates that EU consumers faced higher food prices equivalent to approximately €16 billion in 2012. This equates to 4% of consumption expenditure on agricultural commodities (at farm gate prices), and compares to an average 71% in the late 1980s.

Agricultural commodity prices are a key factor in determining food retail prices but other factors are also important, such as energy prices and exchange rates. Therefore the impact of CAP on consumers’ weekly cost of food will be less than the 4% figure reported above.

There is no agreed OECD methodology to disaggregate estimates to individual EU member states, so these figures are not available at the UK level.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2014-06-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Prime Minister’s comments in Brussels on 27 May that Brussels was too big and too busy” indicate that they intend to oppose any further expansion of the European Union.”

Baroness Warsi

The Prime Minister, my Rt. Hon Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron)’s comment was that Brussels is “too big and too bossy”. He was referring to the need for the EU to reform to become less interfering and more competitive, flexible and democratically accountable. He was not pronouncing on the EU’s territorial size.

The UK continues to be a strong supporter of enlargement based on firm but fair conditionality, focussing on key concerns shared by many Member States, particularly around the rule of law. Enlargement has proved a huge driver of peace, prosperity and progress across our continent.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2014-06-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what rules currently govern the disclosure of European Union information; and whether any past or present rule, or any proposed rule, bans disclosure of information disadvantageous to the European Union.

Lord Faulks

Access to documents held by the European Union (EU) is governed by Regulation 1049/2001 regarding public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents (the Regulation), which provides a public right of access to documents held by these three institutions. The Regulation has also been extended to further EU institutions through other instruments. Information relating to the EU may also be requested from UK public authorities under domestic information rights legislation, including the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Neither the Regulation nor domestic legislation contain provisions which prohibit the disclosure of information simply because its release would be disadvantageous to the EU, and there are no plans to introduce such a measure. However, both the Regulation and domestic legislation provide a range of exemptions, often subject to a public interest test, which permit bodies subject to them to withhold genuinely sensitive information from disclosure where release would undermine legitimate interests specified in that legislation. These include, for example, exemptions which may be relied upon to protect international relations, commercial interests or the decision-making processes for making EU legislation.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2014-06-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, following the dismissal of the United Kingdom’s challenge to the proposed financial transaction tax at the European Court of Justice, whether they have any plans to re-examine the extent of European Union competence in respect of United Kingdom taxation; and whether they consider that the application of such a tax would trigger a referendum under the terms of the European Union Act 2011.

Lord Deighton

The Court of Justice of the European Union ruling on 30 April deemed the UK challenge to the FTT was premature, but confirmed that the Government could challenge a future FTT Implementing Directive.

The introduction of the FTT under the Enhanced Cooperation Procedure would not be a relevant transfer of sovereignty or power for the purpose of the “referendum lock” in the UK’s EU Referendum Act.

The extent of European Union competence in respect of United Kingdom taxation was set out in the Balance of Competences Review, published 22 July 2013, and available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/taxation-report-review-of-the-balance-of-competences.

“

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Stoddart of Swindon on 2014-06-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they consider that the European Union Fourth Railway Package is likely to preclude nationalisation or re-nationalisation of national railways as a whole or in part.

Baroness Kramer

The proposals published by the European Commission on 30 January 2013 would, if adopted, strengthen requirements for the formal separation of infrastructure manager and train operator responsibilities. The proposals make no assumption about the status of the infrastructure manager. They do, however, require the competitive tendering of rail public service contracts in most circumstances.

There is no particular bar on public companies competing for such tenders, and exemptions to tendering are proposed for small networks and in emergency situations.

The Italian Council Presidency (Jul-Dec 2014) intends to start Member State level Working Groups about the market opening proposals in July. As these proposals are still under discussion it is too early to say what we think the effect is likely to be.