Tag: Treasury

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 8 October 1997.

Helen Liddell takes EMU debate to Scotland

The decision to join EMU will centre round one simple question What is best for Britain?”, Economic Secretary, Helen Liddell said today.

Speaking to an audience of businessmen and women and local authority leaders in Glasgow the Minister re-affirmed that the Government’s position had not changed and that there remained formidable obstacles to entry in the first wave.

Mrs Liddell said:

“We will keep our options open. Take the right decisions at the right time. Not weaken our negotiating position.

“We must be confident that the single currency will deliver higher growth, stability and a lasting increase in jobs for the UK.”

Britain’s decision to join would be set against five key tests – tests that would ensure that our best interests are protected. The Minister went on to outline those tests:

“What’s best for Britain means what’s best able to provide more jobs, secure jobs, greater prosperity, higher growth and economic stability, without ever weakening or damaging our democracy.

“EMU must create better conditions for investment, have a     beneficial effect upon our financial services, which are unrivalled in Europe, be flexible enough to deal with problems as they arise and ensure that the business cycles and economic structures of the UK and the rest of the membership of the EU look likely to remain compatible.”

For countries to benefit from EMU there has to be genuine convergence among the economies taking part. EMU must be built on the strong foundation of long-term growth and jobs in Europe, the Minister said.

She continued:

“Every single country in Europe, whether or nor they intend to join in the first wave, has a strong vested interest in ensuring that EMU goes ahead on a sustainable basis and is good for prosperity, jobs and stability.

“Currency union is not a  suck it and see’ option.”

The Minister also set out the measures which the Treasury had taken to widen the debate on EMU. She said:

“We want to make sure that the people, as well as business, have the maximum understanding of what a single currency will mean.”

The measures include:

• a summary of the Currie report on the pros and cons of EMU. 17,000 copies have been sent to businesses, universities, schools and the wider public;
• a practical guide for businesses to inform them about  preparations they need to make for EMU. 35,000 copies  have been sent out; and
• a new advisory group, appointed by the Chancellor, to examine the practical implications for business of EMU.

The Economic Secretary was also clear that flexible labour markets are very important to creating and maintaining jobs but she also stressed that flexibility means the right conditions for workers and must not be a short cut to low employment standards.

The Minister also said:

“We are clear that we need to set a new agenda for employability growth, job creating adaptability and social inclusion in Europe.”

In her speech Mrs Liddell went on to outline what the Government means by employability’ – ensuring that people have the skills, knowledge and adaptability to enable them to get a job and keep it.

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 7 October 1997.

Two victims of personal pensions mis-selling today met with the Economic Secretary, Helen Liddell to discuss their cases.

Stella Gardner, a home care officer from Poole,Dorset and Christine Culbert, a school administrative assistant from London told the minister about their experiences of trying to get redress from the pension companies.

Following the meeting, Mrs Liddell said:

“This is the human face of pensions mis-selling. The statistics tell a grim tale but cannot give a true picture of just how much distress is caused. However,at last, it is heartening to meet people who have taken their complaints forward and – finally – received the redress they deserve. Their experiences illustrate the need for all firms involved in mis-selling to start looking after their customers. Delays and buck passing must stop.

“The very best customer care must be deployed if the industry is to regain the trust of its customers.”

The Minister urged people to check their pension provisions and if they believe they have a complaint, to pursue it. With compensation payments averaging 7,500 Pounds being made into people’s pension funds, it could make a real difference to their pension entitlement.

She said:

“We all get a lot of junk mail and it is very easy for   questionnaires from pension firms on the review to get overlooked. If your company is requesting information please reply.

“Don’t be put off: where it is due, redress will be made.”

When she met 17 firms in September, Mrs Liddell asked each firm to provide a statement setting out the policy they had adopted and the practical plans they had made to complete their reviews and better the targets set for them by the Personal Investment Authority (PIA). These plans will be published later this week.  The 17 firms have also provided the first monthly update on the progress they have achieved.

These figures, which cover the period to the end of September, were published alongside information provided by the 24 firms with the most cases to review.

The September figures show that:

• 5 of the 41 firms have resolved over half their cases;
• 25 firms have resolved between 25-50 per cent of cases; and
• 11 firms have resolved under 25 per cent.

On the figures, the Minister said:

“I want the public to have information to help people judge for themselves just how committed each firm is to achieving real progress.”

“The latest figures illustrate in stark terms how important it is that firms pull out all the stops. Clearly it is possible to make progress, though some firms are still lagging far behind.”

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 24 November 1997.

The first ever list of the Government’s assets was published today by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury Alistair Darling.

In a statement, he said:

“Today sees the publication of the first ever National Asset Register – the 1990s Domesday Book. All 550 pages of it. For the first time ever the nation can see what it owns.

The National Asset Register is an essential part of the Comprehensive Spending Review. It demonstrates our commitment to greater openness and accountability. It will help ensure that the Government achieves value for money.”

Announcing measures to help departments get better use from their assets he said:

“Publication of the National Asset Register is a real landmark in open and efficient Government. It will be an essential starting point for departments to identify whether they are making best use of their assets.”

“Looking to the long term means that Government has to ensure that every penny of public spending is geared to delivering its priorities and objectives. The NAR is an essential part of that.”

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 24 November 1997.

Learning the lessons from the past is the key to successfully running Britain’s public finances, says a Treasury paper published today.

The paper, ‘Fiscal policy: lessons from the last economic cycle’, identifies two key lessons for fiscal policy based on the experience of the last economic cycle:

• adopt a prudent approach; and
• an open and transparent fiscal policy.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown said:

“The Government is determined to prevent a return to the boom-bust cycles of the past, and that means learning the lessons from the last economic cycle.

“These important lessons have been taken on board in the design of the new fiscal framework, which will be set out in more detail in Tuesday’s Pre-Budget report. They confirm that this is the time to remain vigilant; there will be no relaxation of our tough approach to public spending.

“Just as the new framework at the Bank of England was designed to deliver low inflation, so the proposed Code for Fiscal Stability aims to encourage economic stability and will help to prevent history repeating itself.”

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 20 November 1997.

Retailers – large and small – were invited to follow the lead of some of their competitors in the sector by signing up to the Government’s New Deal bringing young people into work, Paymaster General Geoffrey Robinson said today.

Mr Robinson said:

“The retail sector represents 10 per cent of the workforce and has the potential to play a very important part in the delivery of the New Deal. What we are proposing is a new approach, engaging the business community as a partner in bringing people into work. It is working and businesses are signing up to get on board.”

Mr Robinson, who was addressing the British Retail Consortium in London, said he was encouraged by news of retailers offering their support for the New Deal.

“The British Retail Consortium are playing an extremely valuable role by providing a link between the Employment Service and retailers who wish to participate in the New Deal. I would like to express my support for the commitment from the retail sector.”

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 18 November 1997.

A package of sanctions aimed at maintaining the pressure on pension firms to meet their targets for resolving pensions mis-selling cases was outlined today by the Economic Secretary, Helen Liddell in a statement to the House of Commons.

Mrs Liddell said the measures were to ensure that such a scandal never happened again and that those who suffered can now look to speedy redress. She said:

“Justice for them has been too long delayed. This Government is determined to ensure it is delivered.”

The Minister said that while some companies had made some progress in resolving cases, there was still a long way to go. Publishing the table of the progress of the top 41 companies, she said:

“Far too many firms across the industry – from big insurance companies to small independent financial advisers (IFAs) – have been far too slow to act. Some firms have hardly started. They have not yet grasped the severity of the situation.”

The Minister stressed that the most pressing challenge for most of the companies was to complete 90 per cent of the highest priority cases, due by the end of December. Looking further ahead, she announced that once they had hit their second targets, due at the end of 1998 at the latest, their names would be taken off the list that is published every month.

Mrs Liddell drew attention to the recent use by the regulators of their powers to fine and censure firms. Rigorous discipline would continue, however for some firms a stronger armoury was called for. Under a new regime of individual registration with the Personal Investment Authority (PIA), due to come into force next year, individual directors, managers or sales staff found at fault could be liable to fines, reprimands or restrictions on the type of work they can be involved in.

The Minister noted that the PIA can require firms to advertise their misconduct and the grounds on which they are disciplined.

The Minister said:

“The Government believes that the time has come for a whole range of sanctions to come into play.

“The only way for a firm or an individual to avoid disciplinary action is to avoid the conduct which warrants it.”

Mrs Liddell said that she would continue to look for ways to maximise pressure on the industry. The PIA is currently exploring how to inform customers directly of firms’ misdemeanours.

She urged the industry to act quickly to restore confidence. Evidence of firms putting investors at risk would be acted upon. This might include:

• use of the PIA power to put firms out of business where compliance is so poor that investors are put at risk. This could include firms or IFAs using the review process to sell more products to customers; and
• taking action to exclude senior people who are not fit and proper from involvement in financial services business or to remove them from their posts.

The Minister also said that firms’ records on settling pension cases could be taken into account in future policy decisions on stakeholder pensions and individual savings accounts. She said:

“We anticipate that future decisions on the regulatory approval of stakeholder pensions would take into account the conduct and corporate governance of those involved. This would include, of course, their record in settling cases of mis-sold personal pensions.”

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 18 November 1997.

The Government will make full use of its Presidency of the European Union during the first half of next year to push forward an active agenda to deal with fraud and waste, Economic Secretary Helen Liddell made clear today.

Commenting on the publication of the Annual Report of the European Court of Auditors she said;

“This report makes disturbing reading, but it is also a useful tool in the UK’s fight against fraud and mismanagement in the Community Budget. This report highlights the good sense of the Government in making fighting fraud a key priority of our Presidency of the EU.

Our determination to make better use of taxpayers money was highlighted in our manifesto. At the Amsterdam Intergovernmental Conference we obtained Treaty changes which strengthen the powers of the European Court of Auditors and will make it easier to fight fraud in the Community Budget.

A modern European Union must be fair and strong, fraud and waste hold back the achievement of our aspirations.”

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 17 November 1997.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has, with the agreement of the Prime Minister, appointed Mr Gus O’Donnell as Director of the Treasury’s Macroeconomic Policy and Prospects Directorate. Mr O’Donnell succeeds Sir Alan Budd who retired from the Treasury on 14 November. In addition to the existing functions of the MPP Directorate, Mr O’Donnell has been asked to take responsibility for, and give additional emphasis to, long-term economic analysis across the range of Treasury policies and interests. He will also be head of the Government Economic Service.

Notes for Editors

1.  Mr O’Donnell will be head the Treasury’s Macroeconomic Policy and Prospects Directorate. The responsibilities of the Directorate include fiscal and macroeconomic policy, economic prospects, EMU, debt and resource management and the Bank of England Bill. He will normally attend meetings of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee as the Treasury representative. This is in addition to the responsibility for long-term economic analysis announced above.

2.  Mr O’Donnell will also be head of the Government Economic Service, consisting of around 520 economists working in all the major Government Departments.

3.  Mr O’Donnell is 45. He is currently the Economic Minister at the British Embassy in Washington and the UK’s Executive Director of the IMF and World Bank. He took his first degree at Warwick University and a second degree at Oxford. He lectured in Economics at Glasgow University and then joined the Treasury as a Senior Economic Assistant in 1979. In a varied career, Mr O’Donnell has not only filled a number of economic posts in the Treasury but has served as the First Secretary (Economics) in Washington and as Press Secretary to both the Chancellor and the Prime Minister. Before returning to Washington earlier this year, he was a Deputy Director in the Treasury, responsible for monetary policy and EMU.

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 13 November 1997.

Helen Liddell calls on building societies to show their commitment Building societies must seize the challenge and start promoting mutuality, Economic Secretary Helen Liddell said today.

Speaking at the Building Societies Annual Lunch Mrs Liddell told societies that they were effective and efficient organisations which should have the confidence to put forward the case for mutuality to their members and the public more widely. She said:

“Mutuality does have a future. Millions in the country do believe in it. And it is worth fighting for. But you have to be in the front line.

“The more people who know and understand the benefits of mutuality, the less likely they are to be seduced by the arguments for conversion or takeover.”

The Minister announced that the threshold on turnouts for conversions will be increased from 20 to 50 per cent. This will bring it into line with the threshold for takeover votes.

Mrs Liddell said it was now time to draw a line under the 1997 Building Societies Act and look to the future. The third and final Commencement Order was made earlier this month and the Act is now fully in place.

She said:

“This new Act has given you the ability to compete freely in offering the services which your members demand. It sweeps away the restrictions on commercial freedom that had been holding back development, and which had artificially disadvantaged societies compared to banks and other providers of financial services.

“It removed the quality asset threshold, so that there is no longer a distinction between the powers of smaller and larger societies.

“So the challenge for societies is to make the most of these new powers, combined with the unique benefits that their mutual status brings, to compete even more efficiently in the market place.”

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 7 November 1997.

The UK is leading the world in its fight against drug smuggling, Financial Secretary Dawn Primarolo said today during a visit to the Czech customs headquarters in Prague.

Ms Primarolo said:

“HM Customs and Excise staff play a crucial role in the world-wide fight against drug smuggling, placing the UK at the forefront of the battle. Help is provided on a practical level to law enforcement agencies throughout the world as the UK is widely recognised to be highly skilled and effective at smashing drug smuggling organisations.”

Ms Primarolo praised the work of UK Customs & Excise International Assistance (IA) officers working operationally alongside their national counterparts in providing expertise and on-the-ground assistance to improve international cooperation and increased intelligence flows. Officers also provide support with the customs and indirect tax fields worldwide, helping with the implementation of legislation and resources to help drug source and transit countries.

“During training provided by UK Customs, Czech authorities seized over 12 kilos of heroin and 7.25 tonnes of herbal cannabis. I am delighted at the level of cooperation which has been established.”