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1503346

	registered interest
	date	02/09/2022
	answering body	Treasury
	answering dept id	14
	answering dept short name	Treasury
	answering dept sort name	Treasury
	hansard heading	Financial Services: Regulation
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to help ensure the independence of financial services regulators.
	tabling member constituency	Putney
	tabling member printed	Fleur Anderson
	uin	45033
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/09/2022 answer text <p>The legislative framework underpinning financial services regulation in the UK provides for the regulators to be independent of government in their operational decisions.</p><p> </p><p>Following the Future Regulatory Framework Review the regulators will take on significant new rulemaking responsibilities. It is important to balance these new responsibilities for the independent regulators with clear accountability, appropriate democratic input, and transparent oversight. Through the Financial Services and Markets Bill the government is bringing forward measures to achieve this balance.</p> answering member constituency Arundel and South Downs answering member printed Andrew Griffith question first answered 20/09/2022 13:53:34 answering member 4874 label Biography information for Andrew Griffith
	tabling member	4788 label Biography information for Fleur Anderson

1503347

	registered interest
	date	02/09/2022
	answering body	Treasury
	answering dept id	14
	answering dept short name	Treasury
	answering dept sort name	Treasury
	hansard heading	Pensions: Regulation
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what impact assessment the Government has carried out on the impact of Solvency II reforms on pensions.
	tabling member constituency	Putney
	tabling member printed	Fleur Anderson
	uin	45035
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/09/2022 answer text <p>The Government is committed to ensuring that the insurance regime remains a safe home for people’s pensions. As well as that, UK insurers remain internationally competitive.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>The Treasury's consultation on the prudential regulatory regime for insurers known as Solvency II closed on 21 July 2022. It included questions seeking evidence of the impact reforms would have on policyholder protection and annuity prices as well as other objectives, including investment for growth. The Government will set out its assessment of this evidence when it publishes a response to the consultation later this calendar year.</p><p> </p><p>The Solvency II consultation document can be found here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/solvency-ii-review-consultation" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/solvency-ii-review-consultation</a></p> answering member constituency Arundel and South Downs answering member printed Andrew Griffith question first answered 20/09/2022 14:25:06 answering member 4874 label Biography information for Andrew Griffith
	tabling member	4788 label Biography information for Fleur Anderson

1503551

	registered interest
	date	02/09/2022
	answering body	Treasury
	answering dept id	14
	answering dept short name	Treasury
	answering dept sort name	Treasury
	hansard heading	Bank Services: Rural Areas
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he plans to take through the Financial Markets and Services Bill to protect access to in-person banking services for rural communities such as Harpenden.
	tabling member constituency	Hitchin and Harpenden
	tabling member printed	Bim Afolami
	uin	45249
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/09/2022 answer text <p>The Government believes that all customers, wherever they live, should have appropriate access to banking services.</p><p> </p><p>As part of the Financial Services and Markets Bill 2022, the Government has introduced legislation to protect access to cash. The Bill protects access to cash by establishing the Financial Conduct Authority as the lead regulator and providing it with appropriate powers to ensure reasonable provision of withdrawal and deposit facilities.</p><p> </p><p>More broadly against the background of changing technology, decisions on opening and closing branches are a commercial decision for banks and building societies. However, the Government recognises that in-person access to banking services continues to be important for some customers. FCA Guidance is clear that firms are expected to carefully consider the impact of planned branch closures on their customers’ everyday banking and cash access needs and consider possible alternative access arrangements.</p><p> </p><p>For consumers and SMEs wishing to access over-the-counter services, the Post Office Banking Framework allows 99% of personal banking and 95% of business banking customers to carry out their everyday banking at 11,500 Post Office branches in the UK.</p><p> </p><p>Firms are also working together through the Cash Action Group to develop new initiatives to provide shared services including Bank Hubs. The Government welcomes the direction set by industry’s commitments and looks forward to seeing what results they deliver in protecting facilities for local communities across the UK.</p> answering member constituency Arundel and South Downs answering member printed Andrew Griffith question first answered 21/09/2022 13:27:25 answering member 4874 label Biography information for Andrew Griffith
	tabling member	4639 label Biography information for Bim Afolami

1503623

	registered interest
	date	02/09/2022
	answering body	Treasury
	answering dept id	14
	answering dept short name	Treasury
	answering dept sort name	Treasury
	hansard heading	First Time Buyers: Mortgages
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of encouraging mortgage lenders to use rental payments as proof of affordability for younger people applying for a mortgage to purchase a first home.
	tabling member constituency	Chatham and Aylesford
	tabling member printed	Tracey Crouch
	uin	45313
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/09/2022 answer text <p>The Government is committed to helping as many first-time buyers as possible get onto the housing ladder and agrees that a history of paying rent should be able to help with this.</p><p> </p><p>In 2017, the Government launched the Rent Recognition Challenge: a £2 million competition challenging the UK’s world-leading tech firms to develop innovative applications to enable tenants to record and share their rental payment data with lenders and credit reference agencies. The three winners of the challenge (CreditLadder, Bud and RentalStep) are now all using technology to verify and record tenants’ rental payments. Since launching their rent recognition service, CreditLadder has recorded over £600 million in users’ rental payments.</p><p> </p><p>The Government will continue to work with mortgage lenders and others to encourage rent track record is used in lending decisions.</p> answering member constituency Arundel and South Downs answering member printed Andrew Griffith question first answered 20/09/2022 15:37:30 answering member 4874 label Biography information for Andrew Griffith
	tabling member	3950 label Biography information for Dame Tracey Crouch

1504362

	registered interest
	date	02/09/2022
	answering body	Treasury
	answering dept id	14
	answering dept short name	Treasury
	answering dept sort name	Treasury
	hansard heading	Economic Situation
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the strength of the UK economy.
	tabling member constituency	Newport West
	tabling member printed	Ruth Jones
	uin	46118
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/09/2022 answer text <p>The economy grew by 0.8% in Q1, faster than the United States, France, Germany and Italy.</p><p> </p><p>Unemployment is at a near 50-year low of 3.8% for the three months to June, with the total number of pay rolled employees consistently above pre-pandemic levels.</p> answering member constituency Arundel and South Downs answering member printed Andrew Griffith question first answered 21/09/2022 15:03:46 answering member 4874 label Biography information for Andrew Griffith
	tabling member	4716 label Biography information for Ruth Jones

1504375

	registered interest
	date	02/09/2022
	answering body	Treasury
	answering dept id	14
	answering dept short name	Treasury
	answering dept sort name	Treasury
	hansard heading	Debts: Southern Africa
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the context of remarks made by Anglican Bishops at the recent Lambeth Conference, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of cancelling debts owed by countries in southern Africa that are facing food shortages.
	tabling member constituency	Glasgow North
	tabling member printed	Patrick Grady
	uin	45883
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/09/2022 answer text <p>The Government recognises the significant debt vulnerabilities in developing countries and the critical challenge posed by food insecurity and is working closely with international partners to address these issues.</p><p> </p><p>The UK, along with the G20 and Paris Club, agreed a new Common Framework for Debt Treatments beyond the DSSI (CF), which was designed to help deliver a long-term, sustainable approach for supporting low-income countries facing debt vulnerabilities. 73 of the most vulnerable countries are eligible to request a debt treatment under the Framework and our priority is to work with our G20 partners to implement it quickly for those who have requested it and support new countries who come forward.</p><p> </p><p>The UK also continues to work with the international community to directly support countries affected by the food security crisis. For example, the UK played a leading role in securing the World Bank’s commitment of $12 billion of new projects in the next 15 months to respond to the food security crisis, on top of $18 billion of existing projects.</p> answering member constituency Arundel and South Downs answering member printed Andrew Griffith question first answered 20/09/2022 13:43:24 answering member 4874 label Biography information for Andrew Griffith
	tabling member	4432 label Biography information for Patrick Grady

1504376

	registered interest
	date	02/09/2022
	answering body	Treasury
	answering dept id	14
	answering dept short name	Treasury
	answering dept sort name	Treasury
	hansard heading	Debts: Zambia
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with UK-based private creditors and financial institutions that have bought debt owed by Zambia as part of its recent debt restructuring process.
	tabling member constituency	Glasgow North
	tabling member printed	Patrick Grady
	uin	45884
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/09/2022 answer text The Common Framework was agreed in November 2020 by the UK, along with the G20 and Paris Club, to help deliver a long-term, sustainable approach for supporting low-income countries to tackle their debt vulnerabilities. Zambia is one of three countries – along with Chad and Ethiopia - to have so far requested the Common Framework.<p> </p><p>Private sector participation in the Common Framework is critical. Under the terms of the Common Framework, a debtor country that signs an MoU with participating official creditors will be required to seek from all private creditors a treatment at least as favourable. Accordingly, once Zambia signs an MoU for its case it will need to engage its private creditors to ensure their participation on comparable terms.</p><p>The Government engages private sector creditors on international debt issues in a number of fora and will work closely with its international partners to ensure private creditors fully play their part in Zambia’s restructuring.</p> answering member constituency Arundel and South Downs answering member printed Andrew Griffith question first answered 20/09/2022 13:45:27 answering member 4874 label Biography information for Andrew Griffith
	tabling member	4432 label Biography information for Patrick Grady

1504487

	registered interest
	date	02/09/2022
	answering body	Treasury
	answering dept id	14
	answering dept short name	Treasury
	answering dept sort name	Treasury
	hansard heading	Cash Dispensing
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will carry out regular assessments of (a) the adequacy of how the ATM network is funded and (b) the impact of the levels of funding of the ATM network on free access to cash.
	tabling member constituency	Midlothian
	tabling member printed	Owen Thompson
	uin	45945
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/09/2022 answer text <p>The Government recognises that cash will remain an important part of daily life for millions of people across the UK for many more years.</p><p> </p><p>Decisions regarding the operation and funding arrangements of the ATM network are taken by LINK (the scheme that runs the UK's largest ATM network). LINK has commitments to protect the broad geographic spread of free-to-use ATMs and is held to account against these commitments by the Payment Systems Regulator. LINK has committed to protect free-to-use ATMs more than one kilometre away from the next nearest free ATM or Post Office, and free access to cash on high streets (where there is a cluster of five or more retailers) that do not have a free-to-use ATM or a Post Office counter within one kilometre.</p><p> </p><p>The Government has introduced legislation to protect access to cash as part of the Financial Services and Markets Bill. The Bill will establish the Financial Conduct Authority as the lead regulator for cash access and provide it with appropriate powers to seek to ensure reasonable provision of withdrawal and deposit facilities. The powers provided to the FCA will allow it to determine standards to ensure reasonable access, reflecting factors such as cost for end users.</p> answering member constituency Arundel and South Downs answering member printed Andrew Griffith question first answered 20/09/2022 14:00:24 answering member 4874 label Biography information for Andrew Griffith
	tabling member	4482 label Biography information for Owen Thompson

1505087

	registered interest
	date	05/09/2022
	answering body	Treasury
	answering dept id	14
	answering dept short name	Treasury
	answering dept sort name	Treasury
	hansard heading	Commodity Markets
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of lifting constraints on commodity market speculation introduced following the 2008 (a) finance and (b) food price crisis.
	tabling member constituency	Ealing Central and Acton
	tabling member printed	Dr Rupa Huq
	uin	47615
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/09/2022 answer text <p>The Government believes effective commodities markets regulation is a key part of ensuring economic stability. This is a lesson reinforced by both the food and financial crises in the 2000s. In response to G20 commitments, the EU put in place a regime that sets limits on the amounts of commodity derivatives that market participants can hold, to ensure speculation does not lead to economic harm.</p><p> </p><p>The Government supports the application of position limits to the most volatile commodities (including key energy and agricultural products). However, the regime that we have inherited from the EU is overly complicated, needlessly burdensome and poorly designed. In particular, it unnecessarily captures all exchange traded and economically equivalent over-the-counter commodity derivative contracts including those that have low levels of low volatility and risk. This undermines efficient pricing in many such contracts and creates burdens for firms.</p><p> </p><p>To address this, the Financial Services and Markets Bill will ensure exchanges can once again set position limits, within an FCA framework. Exchanges are well placed to ensure that such position limits only apply to contracts that are subject to high volatility. Agricultural products and other key physically settled contracts such as oil and gas will remain subject to position limits. The FCA will also powers to intervene to set position limits if need be.</p><p> </p><p>These changes were consulted on and received broad support[1] and is in line with the Government’s G20 commitments.</p><p> </p><p>[1] Wholesale Markets Review Consultation: <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/998165/WMR_condoc_FINAL_OFFICIAL_SENSITIVE_.pdf" target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/998165/WMR_condoc_FINAL_OFFICIAL_SENSITIVE_.pdf</a></p><p>Wholesale Markets Review Response: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1057897/Wholesale_Markets_Review_Consultation_Response.pdf</p> answering member constituency Arundel and South Downs answering member printed Andrew Griffith question first answered 21/09/2022 07:12:13 answering member 4874 label Biography information for Andrew Griffith
	tabling member	4511 label Biography information for Dr Rupa Huq

1505392

	registered interest
	date	06/09/2022
	answering body	Treasury
	answering dept id	14
	answering dept short name	Treasury
	answering dept sort name	Treasury
	hansard heading	Cost of Living Payments: Students
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what reasons university students were excluded from cost of living support packages.
	tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Selly Oak
	tabling member printed	Steve McCabe
	uin	48211
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/09/2022 answer text <p>The government understands that people across the UK are worried about the rising cost of living and are seeing their disposable incomes decrease as they spend more on the essentials.</p><p> </p><p>On 8 September, government announced that the energy price cap will be superseded with a new Energy Price Guarantee, which means that a typical UK household will pay no more than £2500 a year on their energy bill over the next 2 years from 1 October.</p><p> </p><p>This announcement comes in addition to the £37bn of support previously announced, which will see eight million of the most vulnerable households receive £1200 support, with additional support for pensioners and those claiming disability benefits.</p><p>However, the Government recognises that students have also been impacted by the cost of living pressures that have arisen this year, and we have confirmed in our guidance to the Office for Students (OfS) on funding for the 2022-23 financial year that universities will continue to be able to support students in hardship through their own hardship funds and the student premium, for which up to £261 million is available for academic year 2022/23.</p><p> </p><p>The government has also worked closely with the OfS to clarify that English providers can draw upon this funding now, to provide hardship funds and support disadvantaged students impacted by cost-of-living pressures.</p><p> </p><p>Later this month, the Chancellor will set out a package of measures to deliver on the Prime Minister’s commitment to cut taxes and boost growth, laying the groundwork for the change we need in the long term to make our economy stronger.</p> answering member constituency Arundel and South Downs answering member printed Andrew Griffith grouped question UIN 48212 question first answered 21/09/2022 07:14:27 answering member 4874 label Biography information for Andrew Griffith
	tabling member	298 label Biography information for Steve McCabe