Tag: Seema Malhotra

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Seema Malhotra on 2015-12-10.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his Oral statement of 25 November 2015, Official Report, column 1369, on the Spending Review and Autumn Statement, what the evidential basis is for his statement that inequality is down.

Damian Hinds

Household income inequality statistics are produced as part of the Office for National Statistics publication “The Effects of Taxes and Benefits on Household Income”, which can be found here:

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/household-income/the-effects-of-taxes-and-benefits-on-household-income/2013-2014/index.html

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Seema Malhotra on 2016-01-06.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will take steps in the business rates review to make specific provision for energy intensive industries.

Mr David Gauke

The Government is considering the impact of business rates on all business sectors including energy intensive industries, manufacturing industries and the retail industry as part of the business rates review. The review will be fiscally neutral and will report at Budget 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Seema Malhotra on 2016-01-26.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what modelling his Department undertakes on the effect on changes to pension contributions of changes to (a) annual allowance and (b) lifetime allowance; and what sources his Department uses for such modelling.

Harriett Baldwin

The Government does not hold its own records on total accumulated pension wealth, only on pension contributions. For the purposes of the Lifetime Allowance, officials have used data from the ONS Wealth and Assets Survey, which includes estimates of pension wealth.

The Government assessed the effects of changes to the Annual Allowance and Lifetime Allowance by considering how many people would have to reduce their saving in response to these reductions. This methodology was agreed with the OBR.

The reduction in the Lifetime Allowance will affect only 4% of savers currently approaching retirement. The Lifetime Allowance will be reduced to £1 million from April, but the average pension savings of someone approaching retirement is only £85,000.

Just 1% of savers make contributions of £40,000 per year, the level of the Annual Allowance since April 2014. The average saver contributes £6,000 per year.

The introduction of the Tapered Annual Allowance for individuals who earn over £150,000 in April 2016 will impact less than 2% of people saving into a pension.

The Government laid out its modelling on the effect of changes to the Annual and Lifetime Allowances on pension contributions in its policy costings documents at the March and Summer Budgets 2015.

For changes to the Lifetime Allowance, the Wealth and Assets Survey was used to estimate pension wealth, and this was projected forward using assumed pension contributions and estimates of the real rate of return on pensions savings taken from the OECD and the Government Actuary’s Department.

For the Tapered Annual Allowance, modelling used estimates from the Survey of Personal Incomes, HMRC operational data on personal pension contributions, the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, and the Occupational Pension Scheme Survey.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Seema Malhotra on 2016-03-23.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 2.228 of Budget 2016, on what date he plans to close the Money Advice Service.

Harriett Baldwin

At Budget 2016, the government published its response to the Public Financial Guidance Review and launched a consultation seeking views on the government’s plans to restructure the statutory financial guidance providers – the Money Advice Service, The Pensions Advisory Service and Pension Wise. This paper, which closes on 8 June 2016, sets out a new delivery model for public financial guidance and seeks views on how, within this model, the proposed services could best be offered. The new delivery model is designed to better complement the financial guidance provided by the third sector and the industry and provide more targeted support for consumers.

The government will consider the responses to this consultation over the summer, and in parallel, work closely with the affected organisations to finalise the delivery structure. A detailed timetable will be set out with the final response, which will be published in the autumn. The government has been clear that the three affected organisations will continue to provide guidance to consumers until at least 2018.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Seema Malhotra on 2016-10-11.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent meetings he has had with representatives of the European Investment Bank.

Mr David Gauke

While the UK remains a full member of the European Union it retains all of the rights, obligations and benefits that membership brings. The long-term relationship between the UK and the EIB will need to be resolved as part of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the UK Governor of the European Investment Bank and continues to fulfil his governance duties. The Chancellor continues to meet his European counterparts on a regular basis to discuss a range of issues.

The EIB publish all loans made to UK borrowers as well as details on all future projects yet to be financed. Between 2013 and 2015, the UK received €20.7bn in EIB financing. The link below provides full details on EIB lending to the UK.

http://www.eib.org/projects/regions/european-union/united-kingdom/index.htm

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Seema Malhotra on 2015-10-28.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she has taken to secure continued funding for the Short Breaks pathfinder initiative.

Edward Timpson

The Short Breaks pathfinder initiative was part of Aiming High for Disabled Children and ran in 21 local authorities from 2008. Since the pathfinder initiative, funding has been provided to support short breaks provision in all English local authorities. For example, between 2011-12 and 2014-15, short breaks were supported by £800m in the Early Intervention Grant. In 2011-12, and again in 2012-13, local authorities benefitted from an additional £40m per annum of capital funding for short break services.

Since 2011, local authorities have also been under a duty to provide a range of short breaks services and to publish a local Short Breaks Duty Statement showing what services are available; how they are responding to the needs of local parent carers; and how short breaks can be accessed, including any eligibility criteria. Local authorities are responsible for funding this short breaks provision.

This year, the Department for Education has awarded £250,555 to the Short Breaks Partnership (a consortium made up of Contact a Family, the Council for Disabled Children, Action for Children and KIDS) to provide information and advice to those involved in designing, commissioning, providing and taking up short breaks for disabled children.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Seema Malhotra on 2015-11-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what plans the Government has to move away from the funding per qualification model for adult learners as set out in the HM Treasury report, Fixing the foundations: Creating a more prosperous nation, published in July 2015; and if he will make a statement.

Nick Boles

Over time the further education funding system has become complicated, with a lengthy set of rules about who and what can be funded. We plan to significantly simplify this funding system and at the same time increase local influence over the skills system so funding can be used to best meet local economic need. A key part of this simplification is to decouple funding and qualifications, freeing up providers and in time local commissioners to deliver the learning required to meet the skill needs of local economies and to maximise the benefit to local communities. We will include more detail on this in the Skills Funding Letter for 2016-17.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Seema Malhotra on 2015-12-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the publication, Towards a one nation economy: A 10-point plan for boosting rural productivity, published in August 2015, when he plans that the fast-track planning certificate process will be available.

Brandon Lewis

Our intention is to deliver an application route for permission in principle as soon as possible after receiving Royal Assent to the enabling powers in the Housing and Planning Bill and laying the associated secondary legislation on the detailed procedures.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Seema Malhotra on 2015-12-10.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 4.2 of the Government response to the 49th Report from the Committee of Public Accounts, Session 2014-15, for the effective management of tax reliefs, if he will (a) list and (b) place in the Library the external research reports commissioned by his Department which covers the use of tax reliefs.

Mr David Gauke

A full list of external research reports commissioned by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), with links to the full reports, is published on the HMRC website here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hm-revenue-and-customs-research-report-collection

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Seema Malhotra on 2016-01-06.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will take steps in the business rates review to make specific provision for manufacturing industries.

Mr David Gauke

The Government is considering the impact of business rates on all business sectors including energy intensive industries, manufacturing industries and the retail industry as part of the business rates review. The review will be fiscally neutral and will report at Budget 2016.