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1131288

	registered interest
	date	11/06/2019
	answering body	Department for Work and Pensions
	answering dept id	29
	answering dept short name	Work and Pensions
	answering dept sort name	Work and Pensions
	hansard heading	Department for Work and Pensions
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much her Department has spent on advertising in the last 12 months; and what proportion of that spend was on advertising for universal credit.
	tabling member constituency	Stalybridge and Hyde
	tabling member printed	Jonathan Reynolds
	uin	263149
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/06/2019 answer text <p>We are the biggest Government Department providing support on a daily basis to around 22 million citizens. We have a responsibility to raise awareness of the benefits people may be entitled to and ensure they have the information they need when it comes to making a claim.</p><p> </p><p>The Department also has a responsibility to ensure claimants do not miss out on their full entitlements and to encourage people to make their claim as quickly as possible.</p><p> </p><p>We use advertising to communicate to our claimants. Total advertising spend across the Department in the 12 months from April 2018 to March 2019 was £17,351,663 of which the Universal Credit Opening Up Work campaign accounted for £4,600,209. We can commit to publishing an update 2019/20 advertising spend at the end of July.</p> answering member constituency Reading West answering member printed Alok Sharma question first answered 19/06/2019 16:52:56 answering member 4014 label Biography information for Sir Alok Sharma
	tabling member	4119 label Biography information for Jonathan Reynolds

1124234

	registered interest
	date	01/05/2019
	answering body	Treasury
	answering dept id	14
	answering dept short name	Treasury
	answering dept sort name	Treasury
	hansard heading	Mortgages
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Government is taking to improve access to the mortgage market for (a) small business owners, (b) self-employed people and (c) people working in the gig economy.
	tabling member constituency	Stalybridge and Hyde
	tabling member printed	Jonathan Reynolds
	uin	249973
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/05/2019 answer text <p>The Government is committed to maintaining an accessible mortgage market. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is responsible for regulating the market and protecting consumers, found in their Mortgage Market Study, published March 2019, that the market is working well and that consumers have access to mortgages that are suitable and affordable.</p><p> </p><p>The FCA recognises that lenders should have flexibility to decide what type of evidence of income they can accept from customers, including those who are self-employed or have alternative sources of income.</p><p> </p><p>Many lenders also offer custom mortgage products designed for contractors or the self-employed. These commonly include features designed to account for income volatility, such as the ability to make capital repayments at any time, or income assessments using averaged figures to smooth out monthly variations.</p><p> </p><p>Beyond the FCA’s regulations, decisions around the type and availability of mortgage products are commercial decisions for lenders, and the Government does not seek to intervene in these decisions.</p> answering member constituency Salisbury answering member printed John Glen grouped question UIN 249972 question first answered 13/05/2019 14:14:54 answering member 4051 label Biography information for John Glen
	tabling member	4119 label Biography information for Jonathan Reynolds

1124233

	registered interest
	date	01/05/2019
	answering body	Treasury
	answering dept id	14
	answering dept short name	Treasury
	answering dept sort name	Treasury
	hansard heading	Mortgages
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Government has taken to improve access to the mortgage market for underserved groups.
	tabling member constituency	Stalybridge and Hyde
	tabling member printed	Jonathan Reynolds
	uin	249972
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/05/2019 answer text <p>The Government is committed to maintaining an accessible mortgage market. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is responsible for regulating the market and protecting consumers, found in their Mortgage Market Study, published March 2019, that the market is working well and that consumers have access to mortgages that are suitable and affordable.</p><p> </p><p>The FCA recognises that lenders should have flexibility to decide what type of evidence of income they can accept from customers, including those who are self-employed or have alternative sources of income.</p><p> </p><p>Many lenders also offer custom mortgage products designed for contractors or the self-employed. These commonly include features designed to account for income volatility, such as the ability to make capital repayments at any time, or income assessments using averaged figures to smooth out monthly variations.</p><p> </p><p>Beyond the FCA’s regulations, decisions around the type and availability of mortgage products are commercial decisions for lenders, and the Government does not seek to intervene in these decisions.</p> answering member constituency Salisbury answering member printed John Glen grouped question UIN 249973 question first answered 13/05/2019 14:14:54 answering member 4051 label Biography information for John Glen
	tabling member	4119 label Biography information for Jonathan Reynolds

1123154

	registered interest
	date	25/04/2019
	answering body	Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
	answering dept id	7
	answering dept short name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
	answering dept sort name	Housing, Communities and Local Government
	hansard heading	Leasehold
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what progress he has made on proposals to (a) protect and (b) improve the rights of leaseholders in England and Wales.
	tabling member constituency	Stalybridge and Hyde
	tabling member printed	Jonathan Reynolds
	uin	247698
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/05/2019 answer text <p>The Government is committed to reforming the leasehold system to ensure fairness and transparency for leaseholders. Last year, we consulted on implementing the ban on new leasehold houses and restricting ground rents on future leases to zero financial value, and will provide a government response in due course.</p><p>We are working with the Law Commission, who are taking forward a programme of work and recently consulted on:</p><ul><li>making buying a freehold or extending a lease easier, quicker and more cost effective;</li><li>reinvigorating commonhold, so that it is a viable alternative to leasehold; and</li><li>making it easier for leaseholders to exercise the Right to Manage, and take control of their blocks.</li></ul><p>The Law Commission are now analysing responses and will report back to the Government with recommendations later this year.</p><p>In addition, the Government has established a working group chaired by Lord Best to raise standards across the property management sector. This group will consider the transparency of service charges, and how they should be presented to consumers, and the best means for challenging unjustified fees. The group is instructed to report back in 2019 and the Government will consider its recommendations. We are also ensuring all landlord freeholders belong to a redress scheme and giving freeholders on private or mixed use estates equivalent rights to leaseholders to challenge communal costs.</p><p>The Government recently announced an industry led Pledge so that leaseholders with 10 or 15 year doubling ground rents can have their lease terms amended voluntarily. We have also said that we will be clamping down on unjustified legal costs for leaseholders, we will implement the majority of the Law Commission's recommendations on 'event fees' in the retirement sector.</p> answering member constituency South Derbyshire answering member printed Mrs Heather Wheeler question first answered 03/05/2019 13:41:52 answering member 4053 label Biography information for Mrs Heather Wheeler
	tabling member	4119 label Biography information for Jonathan Reynolds

1109105

	registered interest
	date	02/04/2019
	answering body	Treasury
	answering dept id	14
	answering dept short name	Treasury
	answering dept sort name	Treasury
	hansard heading	Mortgages
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Government is taking to encourage greater switching and transparency in the UK mortgage market.
	tabling member constituency	Stalybridge and Hyde
	tabling member printed	Jonathan Reynolds
	uin	239957
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/04/2019 answer text The FCA’s final report of the Mortgage Market Study found that there are high levels of consumer engagement, with over three quarters of consumers switching to a new mortgage deal within 6 months of moving onto a reversion rate.<p> </p><p>The Government has worked closely with the FCA to consider how to remove the regulatory barriers that prevent some customers, particularly those with inactive lenders, from accessing better deals. The Government welcomes the FCA’s plans to move the affordability assessment from an absolute test to a relative one. This change removes the regulatory barrier that prevented some customers, who otherwise may have been able to switch, from accessing new mortgage products. The Government also welcomes the industry voluntary agreement covering 95% of the UK mortgage market to help ‘trapped’ customers of active lenders.</p><p> </p><p>Transparency and fairness in the mortgage market is a priority for the Government. The Treasury welcomes and supports the work the FCA are doing to improve this as a result of their findings in the final report of the Mortgage Market Study. The Government will continue to monitor the market and support the FCA when necessary.</p> answering member constituency Salisbury answering member printed John Glen question first answered 10/04/2019 15:24:04 answering member 4051 label Biography information for John Glen
	tabling member	4119 label Biography information for Jonathan Reynolds

1091344

	registered interest
	date	19/03/2019
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Teachers: Recruitment
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps are being taken to increase recruitment levels of science teachers.
	tabling member constituency	Stalybridge and Hyde
	tabling member printed	Jonathan Reynolds
	uin	234178
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/03/2019 answer text <p>Recruiting science teachers is a top priority for the Government. The Department has put in place a range of measures, including increased generous bursaries, worth up to £26,000 for physics, biology and chemistry to encourage even more talented individuals into teaching. Our prestigious scholarship scheme will also continue, offering a package of tailored support and £28,000 tax-free for scholars in physics, chemistry and computer science.</p><p>The Department is also testing new financial incentives to boost recruitment and retention, which include a student loan reimbursement pilot for science teachers in 25 local authorities that are most in need. Around 1,700 science teachers a year will be eligible for this pilot scheme.</p><p>In addition to this, the Department has developed a number of further initiatives to encourage more science specialists into initial teacher training (ITT). These include targeted marketing campaigns; providing support to potential science ITT applicants to increase the proportion of successful applications; and a programme to recruit high calibre post-doctoral researchers who have detailed subject knowledge and a passion to teach physics in the schools where they are most needed.</p><p><br> The new National Mathematics and Physics school-centred ITT plans to offer high quality teacher training, in collaboration with partner schools across the country and Buckingham University, led by maths and physics experts in partnership with the Institute of Physics and Mathematical Association.</p><p> </p><p>The Department provides the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics international Teacher Recruitment Programme to support state-funded secondary schools in England with recruiting to physics vacancies. Through this programme, schools can recruit qualified teachers from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the USA to teach physics.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb question first answered 27/03/2019 09:54:52 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
	tabling member	4119 label Biography information for Jonathan Reynolds

1092243

	registered interest
	date	20/03/2019
	answering body	Treasury
	answering dept id	14
	answering dept short name	Treasury
	answering dept sort name	Treasury
	hansard heading	Access to Cash Review
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Government is taking to (a) minimise the effect of IT outages on consumers’ ability to pay for goods and services and (b) ensure that digital payment systems are more reliable.
	tabling member constituency	Stalybridge and Hyde
	tabling member printed	Jonathan Reynolds
	uin	234748
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/03/2019 answer text <p>We take the operational resilience of the finance sector and any detrimental impacts on consumers very seriously. HM Treasury works closely with the Bank of England, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) (collectively the ‘Financial Authorities’) to assess, test and improve the operational resilience of the sector and to respond to any major disruption, including to payment systems.</p><p> </p><p>In July 2018, the PRA and the FCA published a joint Discussion Paper on an approach to improve the operational resilience of firms and financial market infrastructures, including to payment systems. The Authorities will use responses to this to inform supervisory activity and future policy-making to support firms’ and FMIs’ operational resilience[i].</p><p> </p><p>The Financial Authorities also have a single mechanism, the Authorities’ Response Framework, to coordinate a response to incidents affecting the finance sector. The Financial Authorities regularly exercise incident response frameworks with the sector to assess their effectiveness and identify improvements. The Bank of England held a sector resilience exercise (SIMEX18) in November 2018 which tested the joint response by public authorities and industry to a simulated disruption.</p><p> </p><p>1 <a href="https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/prudential-regulation/discussion-paper/2018/dp118.pdf?la=en&amp;hash=4238F3B14D839EBE6BEFBD6B5E5634FB95197D8A" target="_blank">https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/prudential-regulation/discussion-paper/2018/dp118.pdf?la=en&amp;hash=4238F3B14D839EBE6BEFBD6B5E5634FB95197D8A</a></p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Salisbury answering member printed John Glen question first answered 26/03/2019 13:41:49 answering member 4051 label Biography information for John Glen
	tabling member	4119 label Biography information for Jonathan Reynolds

1092245

	registered interest
	date	20/03/2019
	answering body	Treasury
	answering dept id	14
	answering dept short name	Treasury
	answering dept sort name	Treasury
	hansard heading	Access to Cash Review
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to examine the (a) role of cash in the UK and (b) effect of reduced access to cash has on different groups and communities.
	tabling member constituency	Stalybridge and Hyde
	tabling member printed	Jonathan Reynolds
	uin	234750
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/03/2019 answer text <p>Following a programme of currency modernisation we initiated a discussion on payment methods last year, through our Call for Evidence on Cash and Digital Payments in the New Economy. This was launched at Spring Statement 2018. This sought to gather evidence on how changing preferences for cash and digital payments impact on different sectors, regions and demographics. Furthermore, it demonstrated the Government’s intent to explore how cash can remain accessible.</p><p> </p><p>The Government intends to publish a response to this Call for Evidence in due course.</p> answering member constituency Salisbury answering member printed John Glen grouped question UIN 234749 question first answered 26/03/2019 13:17:15 answering member 4051 label Biography information for John Glen
	tabling member	4119 label Biography information for Jonathan Reynolds

1092244

	registered interest
	date	20/03/2019
	answering body	Treasury
	answering dept id	14
	answering dept short name	Treasury
	answering dept sort name	Treasury
	hansard heading	Access to Cash Review
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when his Department plans to publish the findings from its call for evidence on cash and digital payments; and what steps he is taking to progress that work.
	tabling member constituency	Stalybridge and Hyde
	tabling member printed	Jonathan Reynolds
	uin	234749
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/03/2019 answer text <p>Following a programme of currency modernisation we initiated a discussion on payment methods last year, through our Call for Evidence on Cash and Digital Payments in the New Economy. This was launched at Spring Statement 2018. This sought to gather evidence on how changing preferences for cash and digital payments impact on different sectors, regions and demographics. Furthermore, it demonstrated the Government’s intent to explore how cash can remain accessible.</p><p> </p><p>The Government intends to publish a response to this Call for Evidence in due course.</p> answering member constituency Salisbury answering member printed John Glen grouped question UIN 234750 question first answered 26/03/2019 13:17:15 answering member 4051 label Biography information for John Glen
	tabling member	4119 label Biography information for Jonathan Reynolds

1087127

	registered interest
	date	12/03/2019
	answering body	Treasury
	answering dept id	14
	answering dept short name	Treasury
	answering dept sort name	Treasury
	hansard heading	Child Tax Credit
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what his Department's policy is on entitlement to child tax credits once a dependent in full-time education turns 19 years old.
	tabling member constituency	Stalybridge and Hyde
	tabling member printed	Jonathan Reynolds
	uin	231457
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/03/2019 answer text <p>Entitlement to Child Tax Credit can be paid for a qualifying young person up until the age of 20. This is provided the qualifying young person is in full-time non-advanced education, and they enrolled on their course before they turned 19.</p> answering member constituency South West Norfolk answering member printed Elizabeth Truss question first answered 19/03/2019 14:18:30 answering member 4097 label Biography information for Elizabeth Truss
	tabling member	4119 label Biography information for Jonathan Reynolds