Tag: Speeches

Leo Docherty – 2022 Statement of Contingent Liability Notification – Ukraine Guarantees

The statement made by Leo Docherty, the Minister of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in the House of Commons on 12 October 2022.

Today, I have laid a departmental minute that describes two liabilities that the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office is undertaking to support the economic stability of Ukraine following Russia’s invasion in February 2022.

It is normal practice, when a Government Department proposes to undertake a contingent liability in excess of £300,000 for which there is no specific statutory authority, for the Minister concerned to present a departmental minute to Parliament giving particulars of the liability created and explaining the circumstances; and to refrain from incurring the liability until 14 parliamentary sitting days after the issue of the statement, except in cases of special urgency.

This departmental minute sets out details of two new liabilities undertaken by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. The first is a guarantee to support lending by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to Ukrenergo, Ukraine’s state-owned and sole electricity transmission system operator. This guarantee has an expected maximum exposure of €54 million— £47 million. The second is a guarantee to support lending by the World Bank to the Government of Ukraine directly. This guarantee has an expected maximum exposure of €527 million—£460 million. The guarantees will be denominated in the currency Ukraine decides to borrow in. Due to the urgency of the situation in Ukraine and unexpected disruption to Parliament’s schedule in September, we notified the Public Accounts Committee instead of Parliament before signing the first of these two guarantees. We are now presenting a written ministerial statement and departmental minute to the House for information.

The FCDO is guaranteeing both principal and interest repayments on the EBRD and World Bank loans. A UK pay-out would be triggered if either Ukrenergo or the Government of Ukraine miss a repayment by 180 days.

The World Bank and EBRD are both well respected multilateral development banks that benefit from preferred creditor status. The UK is an active shareholder at both institutions.

The exact length of the liabilities is linked to the terms of the agreed financing between the World Bank, EBRD and the Government of Ukraine. The EBRD guarantee has a maturity of five years. The World Bank guarantee has a maturity of 18 years.

HM Treasury approved both of these guarantees and the expedited notification process. Chairs of the relevant parliamentary Committees did not raise any objections. If any Member of the House has questions, do get in touch.

A copy of the departmental minute has been placed in the Library.

14/10/2022
Kwasi Kwarteng – 2022 Statement on Recent Bank of England Asset Purchases

The statement made by Kwasi Kwarteng, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the House of Commons on 12 October 2022.

The Bank of England decided to carry out temporary purchases of long-dated UK Government bonds (gilts) from 28 September through the asset purchase facility (APF) on whatever scale is necessary to restore orderly conditions. These interventions will be strictly time limited, with auctions taking place until 14 October.

I have therefore authorised an increase in the total size of the APF by £100 billion. This will bring the maximum total size of the APF from £866 to £966 billion.

On 11 October, the Bank decided that that it will widen the scope of its daily gilt purchase operations to also include purchases of index-linked gilts. This was designed to act as a further backstop to restore orderly market conditions by temporarily absorbing selling of index-linked gilts in excess of market intermediation capacity, the purchasing of index-linked gilts was already covered by the existing indemnity for the APF.

The amendments to the APF that could affect the allocation of credit and pose risks to the Exchequer have been discussed with Treasury officials. The risk control framework for the APF previously agreed with the Treasury will remain in place, and HM Treasury will keep monitoring risks to public funds from the facility through regular risk oversight meetings and enhanced information sharing with the Bank.

The Government will continue to indemnify the Bank and the APF from any losses arising out of, or in connection with, the facility. If the liability is realised, provision for any payment will be sought through the normal supply procedure.

A full departmental minute has been laid in the House of Commons providing more detail on this contingent liability.

14/10/2022
Dean Russell – 2022 Statement on the Post Office Horizon IT Scandal

The statement made by Dean Russell, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, in the House of Commons on 12 October 2022.

The Post Office Horizon IT scandal, which began over 20 years ago, has had a devastating impact on the lives of many postmasters. Starting in the late 1990s, the Post Office began installing Horizon accounting software, but faults in the software led to shortfalls in branches’ accounts. The Post Office demanded sub-postmasters cover the shortfalls, and in many cases wrongfully prosecuted them between 1999 and 2015 for false accounting or theft.

In May 2020, the Post Office launched the historical shortfall scheme, and applications were received over the following months of that year. The scheme was designed to compensate postmasters, without convictions, and outside of those who brought the group litigation order, for the financial shortfalls that they had to make up and the losses accrued as a result. The Government have supported the Post Office in wanting to put right these historical wrongs and are therefore providing financial support to ensure that those affected receive the compensation they deserve.

I am pleased to update the House on the positive progress that has been made to deliver compensation for those currently in the scheme. Since the Government’s last update to Parliament, a further 388 further postmasters have received a compensation offer. As of 30 September, in total 82%—1938—of eligible claimants have now received an offer, meaning that £52 million has now been offered. To date, 1,628 claimants have accepted their offers, and compensation payments totalling over £33 million have been made to them, helping to address the historical wrongs suffered by these claimants. It is the stated target of the Post Office to issue 95% of offers to existing claimants by the end of the calendar year. The Government’s ambition remains for the Post Office to have issued 100% of offers in this time.

In addition to those claimants who are currently part of the historical shortfall scheme, the Government are aware that there are individuals who, for a variety of reasons, were unable to apply for the scheme while it was open. Today, I can announce that the Government will extend their financial support to the Post Office so that it can accept eligible late applications into the historical shortfall scheme.

The Post Office will be writing out to all individuals who have contacted it about making a late application to the historical shortfall scheme to inform them of this.

The Government encourage any other individuals who may have been eligible to claim compensation under the historical shortfall scheme to contact the Post Office to discuss their position. Further details will be set out on the Post Office website.

These late claims will be managed through existing historical shortfall scheme processes, including an assessment by the independent advisory panel, to ensure claims are considered consistently with those already submitted.

14/10/2022
Liz Truss – 2022 Statement on the Machinery of Government

The statement made by Liz Truss, the Prime Minister, in the House of Commons on 11 October 2022.

I am making this statement to bring to the House’s attention the following machinery of Government changes.

Responsibility for Union and devolution policy will move to the Cabinet Office under the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, in his role as Minister for Intergovernmental Relations. This will allow the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster to lead the UK Government’s engagement with the devolved Administrations and drive forward cross-Government efforts to deliver tangible improvements for people across the UK, working closely with the territorial Offices.

The Brexit Opportunities Unit will move from the Cabinet Office to sit under the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. This will bring together work to tackle EU red tape, seize post-Brexit opportunities and efforts to ensure the regulatory and business environment enables the UK to attract investment and boost growth.

Both machinery of Government changes will take effect immediately.

14/10/2022
Brandon Lewis – 2022 Statement on Transgender Prisoners

The statement made by Brandon Lewis, the Secretary of State for Justice, in the House of Commons on 11 October 2022.

On 4 October, I announced reforms to our policy for the allocation of transgender prisoners. Under the reforms, transgender prisoners with male genitalia should no longer be held in the general women’s estate. This will not be a blanket rule; exemptions to these new rules will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

This will also apply to transgender women who have been convicted of a sex offence.

Further detail about these reforms will be announced when we publish our updated transgender prisoners policy framework before the end of the year.

14/10/2022
Brandon Lewis – 2022 Statement on Electronic Monitoring of Criminals

The statement made by Brandon Lewis, the Secretary of State for Justice, in the House of Commons on 11 October 2022.

We set out in our beating crime plan how we will improve public protection and increase public confidence in the justice system. We are determined to empower the police and probation to keep us safe; through providing them with the technology and resources they need, we will crack down on the repeat offenders who are blighting our neighbourhoods.

Since April 2021 our acquisitive crime project has been using GPS electronic location monitoring to track the movements of burglars, robbers and thieves released on licence and serving a standard determinate sentence of 12 months or more across 19 police force areas. I have now laid a statutory instrument to expand this world-first project to include offenders serving shorter sentences of 90 days or more. This will come into force on 26 October.

Electronic monitoring will be a compulsory condition on the offender’s licence for the remainder of their sentence up to a maximum of 12 months, other than in exceptional circumstances where probation assess that an offender’s health or personal situation make the use of a tag inappropriate.

Through this measure we aim to deter further offending and reduce crime; expanding the project to offenders serving shorter sentences will increase the number of offenders captured by the legislation by around 2,000 by March 2025.

This expansion will be subject to robust evaluation, including of impact on reoffending and cost-effectiveness. The evaluation will be conducted by the Ministry of Justice data and analysis directorate; the final evaluation conclusions report will be peer reviewed by independent academics before publication. It will allow us to better assess the most effective period for electronic monitoring of acquisitive offenders, helping to identify what is necessary and proportionate use and therefore influencing future decisions on how electronic monitoring can be used to reduce reoffending.

The location monitoring data is used to support the work of probation and the police. Using “crime mapping” technology we overlay police acquisitive crime data with tagging data to identify if any tagged offenders were in the vicinity of a given crime, to better equip the police to investigate offences, apprehend or rule out suspects and to support prosecutions. Alongside this, probation practitioners are provided with summaries of an offender’s movements and compliance behaviour and, to further enhance supervision, they can investigate an offender’s movements in closer detail using a self-service portal.

Throughout this joint endeavour between the Ministry of Justice and the Home Office, feedback from policing and probation has been positive, and expansion is supported by them.

A copy of this statement has also been laid in the House of Lords by my colleague, the Lord Bellamy.

14/10/2022
Kit Malthouse – 2022 Statement on Examinations in 2023

The statement made by Kit Malthouse, the Secretary of State for Education, in the House of Commons on 11 October 2022.

The Department of Education welcomed the successful return of summer exams and other formal assessments in 2022. Alongside Ofqual, we put in place a package of support to recognise disruption faced by the 2022 exam cohort while being clear of our intention to return to exams as normal in 2023.

In May, the Department and Ofqual confirmed that for exams and formal assessments in 2022-23 there would be usual arrangements for non-exam assessment and there would be full subject content coverage for all subjects.

On 29 September, the Department and Ofqual confirmed exams will largely return to well-established, pre-pandemic arrangements in summer 2023. In making these decisions, the Department considers the level of disruption experienced by the 2023 cohort over the course of their qualifications has not been as significant as that experienced by those who received qualifications in 2022 as they will have had more time to cover their curriculum, practise assessments, and access education recovery programmes and interventions. There have been no national school closures in the 2023 cohort’s GCSE/A-level teaching years, which are designed as two-year courses. The 2023 cohort had less overall absence, including all covid absences, in their year 10 autumn term than the 2022 cohort did. Furthermore, the Department believes it is important to return to pre-pandemic arrangements to build confidence in the credibility and validity of qualifications.

In that context, the Department confirms that advance information will not be provided for any exams taken in summer 2023. However, acknowledging students may still have experienced a level of disruption due to the pandemic, the Department has decided that formulae and equation sheets for GCSE mathematics, physics and combined sciences exams should be provided in summer 2023, as was the case for exams in 2022. As most students take at least one of these subjects at GCSE, this will provide broad support for all GCSE students. We have asked Ofqual to put this into place and they have launched a consultation on this.

On grading, Ofqual have confirmed the position they set out in September 2021, to return to pre-pandemic grading in 2023.

Looking back over the past three years, the Department and Ofqual are keen to build resilience in the exam system and learn lessons from the alternative arrangements that have been put in place. Jointly with Ofqual, we have launched a consultation that seeks views on how centres should gather and retain evidence from students so that it can be used both to support students’ revision and exam preparedness and could be used as a basis to determine students’ grades in the unlikely event that formal exams and assessments do not go ahead as planned. It invites views on whether the guidance proposed will minimise the burden on centres and students, and if it will support centres in providing the best possible preparation for students for their exams.

14/10/2022
Jonathan Gullis – 2022 Statement on Initial Teacher Training

The statement made by Jonathan Gullis, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education, in the House of Commons on 11 October 2022.

Today, my Department is informing applicants of the outcomes of the final round of the application process to gain accreditation as a provider of initial teacher training from September 2024. This forms part of the ongoing initial teacher training reform announced on 1 December 2021.

The key aim of the reforms, which centre around the introduction of a new set of clear quality requirements, is to ensure high-quality teacher training is available in all areas of the country. Following the development of the early career framework and National Professional Qualifications, the reforms to ITT are the next step in realising our ambition to create a golden thread of evidence-based training, support and professional development, which will run through every phase of a teacher’s career. We know that the quality of teaching is the single most important in-school factor in improving outcomes for children, especially for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Being taught by a high-quality teacher can add almost half a GCSE grade per subject to a given pupil’s results.

As part of the provider accreditation process, both existing and prospective ITT providers were invited to apply for accreditation to deliver courses from September 2024, when the new quality requirements will come into effect. The process was designed to be proportionate but rigorous, with questions that reflected vital components of the ITT market review’s recommendations.

One hundred and seventy-nine providers have been awarded accreditation in total across the two rounds, and I am pleased to see the high quality of provision that has been accredited.

The Department will now work the accredited providers as part of the next stage of the reform process to ensure that all ITT courses are developed in line with the new criteria and are ready for delivery from September 2024. The Department will also work with these providers to ensure that they have strong partnerships in place to provide sufficient training places in the subjects, phases and areas where they are needed.

I would like to thank all ITT providers for engaging in the process and for their ongoing support as we implement the ITT market review. We understand that providers who have not received accreditation will be disappointed. My Department will work closely with these providers to support their next steps and look to facilitate partnership with accredited providers for those who want to continue to provide ITT from September 2024.

The Department’s priority will be ensuring that the new standards and expectations will continue to be met at all institutions delivering ITT, both accredited and through the formation of partnerships. As the market develops over the next two years, officials will continue to work closely with a range of sector experts to monitor the availability of provision across all regions. We will be encouraging providers who did not achieve accreditation to consider forming a partnership with an accredited provider in the areas where this is needed.

This is a significant step in the delivery of our ambitious programme to create a world-class teacher development system and transform the support teachers receive at every stage of their career—all the way from ITT and early career support, to specialisations and school leadership. The number of teachers in England remains high, with over 465,500—full-time equivalent—working in state-funded schools across the country, which is over 24,000 more than in 2010. I am confident that from 2024 the accredited providers will deliver high-quality, evidence-based, training in a reformed ITT market that prepares trainees to thrive in the classroom, wherever they are in the country.

14/10/2022
Kwasi Kwarteng – 2022 Statement on the Timing of Medium-Term Fiscal Plan

The statement made by Kwasi Kwarteng, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the House of Commons on 11 October 2022.

Today I can inform the House that I have asked the Office for Budget Responsibility to bring forward the date of its next forecast to 31 October.

Strong growth and sustainable public finances go hand in hand. Alongside the publication of the economic and fiscal outlook, I will set out the Government’s medium-term fiscal plan. This will set out further details on the Government’s fiscal rules, including ensuring that debt falls as a share of GDP in the medium term.

This forecast, in addition to the forecast that will be commissioned in spring, will fulfil the obligation for the OBR to produce at least two forecasts in a financial year, as is required by legislation.

14/10/2022
Alison Thewliss – 2022 Speech on the Economic Situation

The speech made by Alison Thewliss, the SNP’s Economic Spokesperson, in the House of Commons on 12 October 2022.

The Minister talks about the IMF, but not about its criticism yesterday or the pathetic growth it has projected for next year of just 0.3%—funny that.

The Treasury Committee took evidence this morning from a range of economists, all of whom echoed the concerns of the public about the chaos that this shambolic UK Tory Government have created. I am not sure whether the Minister considers Deutsche Bank as part of his anti-growth coalition, but its chief economist, Sanjay Raja, was very clear this morning that the UK has particular characteristics that are making this crisis worse. He said, “you’ve got a sidelined fiscal watchdog, you’ve got the lack of a medium-term fiscal plan, one of the largest unfunded tax cuts and package of measures since the early 1970s, and it’s sort of the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

This is chaos that the Minister and his colleagues have deliberately created, and it is impacting people and businesses across these islands, so I ask him: will he bring more money to the devolved institutions to help them tackle the chaos that he and his colleagues have created? Will he commit to uprating benefits by inflation and giving more support to those in the asylum system and those on “no recourse to public funds”? Will he bring certainty to businesses that do not yet know what will happen at the end of the six-month reprieve, because those bills have not gone away?

The Glasgow Centre for Population Health published some research that attributed about 330,000 excess deaths since 2010 to austerity—the Tory austerity by the Minister and his colleagues over the past 12 years—so will he cancel any further cuts, because they cost Scotland and our neighbours far more than we can ever afford? Scotland did not want this, did not vote for this and cannot trust in the financial stability of the UK, never mind this Tory Government.

Mr Speaker

Order. I have the greatest respect for the hon. Lady, but can I just say that she knows the rules give her one minute, not one minute and 45 seconds or two minutes? Please, let us stick to the rules of the House.

Chris Philp

The Scottish Government are of course receiving record levels of funding, and that will continue. The hon. Member asked about excess deaths. Well, I think the drug death record of the nationalist Government is, frankly, pretty terrible. She asked about the uprating to welfare. There is a statutory process that happens every year—every autumn—and that decision has not been taken. It will happen in the normal way, as it has been done for every year.

The hon. Member referenced the IMF’s growth forecast for next year. I have already pointed out that last year we had the highest growth in the G7 and this year we have the highest growth in the G7. If we take the three years together—last year, this year and next year—we will find that the UK, at 11.7% over those three years, still has the highest growth of any G7 country.

The hon. Member asked about institutions. The Chancellor and the Prime Minister have the highest regard for the OBR and the Bank of England. They are meeting both of those institutions regularly. She referenced the growth plan. Having a competitive tax system, supply-side reforms to unleash the productive potential of our economy and making our energy market function properly once again are essential prerequisites for growth, and I am proud that it is this Government who are promoting them.

14/10/2022