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1177103

registered interest
date	07/02/2020
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	Workplace Pensions
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what duties the trustees of non-associated multi-employer pension schemes have to employers contributing to the scheme; and whether all such employers have a right to be consulted when trustees grant apportionment arrangements to departing employers.
tabling member printed	Baroness Altmann
uin	HL1428
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/02/2020 answer text <p>The employer debt legislation (section 75 of the Pensions Act 1995 and the Occupational Pension Schemes (Employer Debt) Regulations 2005) sets out the requirements on departing employers where any shortfall between liabilities and assets in a Defined Benefit pension scheme is treated as due.</p><p> </p><p>Trustees of all occupational pension schemes including non-associated multi-employer pension schemes have a duty to employers contributing to the scheme to ensure that the scheme is correctly administered in accordance with its rules and that the promised benefits are paid. Where a restructuring event takes place, trustees are required to consult the exiting employer and receiving employer about the likelihood of the receiving employer being able to meet all the exiting employer’s liabilities in relation to the scheme. The trustees must also notify the exiting and receiving employer (in writing) of their decision as to whether they consider the receiving employer capable of meeting all the exiting employer’s liabilities to the scheme.</p><p> </p><p>Whilst there is no general requirement for trustees to consult employers when granting apportionment arrangements to departing employers, the Occupational Pension Schemes (Employer Debt) Regulations 2005 require the consent of employers within the scheme when trustees grant Regulated Apportionment Arrangements, Scheme Apportionment Arrangements and Flexible Apportionment Arrangements to departing employers.</p><p> </p><p>The Government’s Green and subsequent White Paper on Defined Benefit pension schemes looked very closely at this issue and considered carefully what could be done to relieve the pressure some employers face from their obligation to pay an employer debt.</p><p> </p><p>The White Paper concluded that the existing arrangements in legislation, along with the deferred debt arrangement introduced in April 2018, provide enough flexibility for employers to manage their employer debts and the current “full-buyout” calculation method is the most secure and effective way of protecting members and remaining employers in a multi-employer scheme.</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 19/02/2020 13:02:46 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
tabling member	4533 label Biography information for Baroness Altmann

1177104

registered interest
date	07/02/2020
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Income Tax: Pensioners
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of pensioners paid tax at (1) 40 per cent, and (2) 45 per cent, in the last tax year.
tabling member printed	Baroness Altmann
uin	HL1429
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/02/2020 answer text <p>The answer given on 15<sup>th</sup> July 2019 to HL 16778, contains the information requested for the last tax year, 2018-19, and remains HM Revenue and Customs’ most recent estimate of the data requested.</p><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton question first answered 20/02/2020 14:07:19 answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton
tabling member	4533 label Biography information for Baroness Altmann

1177105

registered interest
date	07/02/2020
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	Workplace Pensions
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to ensure that the pensions industry routinely checks for auto-enrolment contribution data errors; and whether they receive reports from (1) pension providers, (2) employers, and (3) payroll operators, which verify the accuracy of such contributions.
tabling member printed	Baroness Altmann
uin	HL1430
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/02/2020 answer text <p>Successive governments have put in place a robust, proportionate, compliance framework for automatic enrolment, which is administered by The Pensions Regulator, and includes detailed regulatory guidance about how to comply with the law.</p><p> </p><p>In addition, employers and their pension scheme trustees, managers and providers must keep certain records including details of the pension contributions payable in each relevant pay reference period by an employer to the pension scheme, and the amounts payable. This includes the contributions due on the employer’s behalf and deductions made from an individual’s earnings towards automatic enrolment.</p><p> </p><p>The Pensions Regulator has published codes of practice on its website setting out how trustees of trust based defined contribution pension schemes and managers of contract based defined contribution pension schemes should monitor the payment of contributions, provide information to help members check their contributions and report material payment failures to The Pensions Regulator.</p><p> </p><p>The Pensions Regulator receives payment failure reports from pension providers, but these do not necessarily represent data errors. While The Pensions Regulator does not hold statistics on contribution data errors, the regulatory regime is designed so that errors can be identified and material failures can be reported. The Pensions Regulator can then require restitution and, where necessary, make use of its enforcement powers.</p><p> </p><p>The Pensions Regulator publishes regular assessments of its automatic enrolment compliance and enforcement activities as well as an annual commentary and analysis report, both of which are available on its website.</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 13/02/2020 14:54:56 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
tabling member	4533 label Biography information for Baroness Altmann

1177106

registered interest
date	07/02/2020
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Workplace Pensions: Tax Allowances
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Buscombe on 31 October 2018 (HL10750), how many (1) women, and (2) men, recorded in HMRC’s Real Time Information records, earnt below £12,500 and contributed to a net pay arrangement in the last tax year.
tabling member printed	Baroness Altmann
uin	HL1431
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/02/2020 answer text <p>HMRC’s Survey of Personal Income (SPI) and administrative data was used to produce the estimates that follow. 2016-17 is the latest year where SPI data is available. The personal allowance in 2016/17 was £11,000, not £12,500 (which is the current personal allowance for 2019-20).</p><p> </p><p>HMRC estimates that a total of 6.8m individuals made workplace pension contributions using relief at source via RTI in 2016-17. Around 45% of these individuals are estimated to be female and 55% are estimated to be male.</p><p> </p><p>HMRC estimates that 1.3m individuals earning below the personal allowance in 2016-17 made workplace pension contributions via Real Time Information (RTI) using net pay arrangements. Around 75% of these individuals are estimated to be female and 25% are estimated to be male.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton grouped question UIN HL1432 question first answered 24/02/2020 16:44:34 answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton
tabling member	4533 label Biography information for Baroness Altmann

1177107

registered interest
date	07/02/2020
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Workplace Pensions: Tax Allowances
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Buscombe on 31 October 2018 (HL10750), how many (1) women, and (2) men, recorded in HMRC’s Real Time Information records, contributed to a relief at source pension scheme in the last tax year.
tabling member printed	Baroness Altmann
uin	HL1432
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 24/02/2020 answer text <p>HMRC’s Survey of Personal Income (SPI) and administrative data was used to produce the estimates that follow. 2016-17 is the latest year where SPI data is available. The personal allowance in 2016/17 was £11,000, not £12,500 (which is the current personal allowance for 2019-20).</p><p> </p><p>HMRC estimates that a total of 6.8m individuals made workplace pension contributions using relief at source via RTI in 2016-17. Around 45% of these individuals are estimated to be female and 55% are estimated to be male.</p><p> </p><p>HMRC estimates that 1.3m individuals earning below the personal allowance in 2016-17 made workplace pension contributions via Real Time Information (RTI) using net pay arrangements. Around 75% of these individuals are estimated to be female and 25% are estimated to be male.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton grouped question UIN HL1431 question first answered 24/02/2020 16:44:34 answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton
tabling member	4533 label Biography information for Baroness Altmann

1177108

registered interest
date	07/02/2020
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Workplace Pensions: Tax Allowances
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government how much the Treasury provided in tax relief to UK pension schemes in each of the past ten years.
tabling member printed	Baroness Altmann
uin	HL1433
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/02/2020 answer text <p>HMRC publishes figures relating to tax relief for registered pension schemes in Table 6 of the publication series ‘Personal pensions: contribution and tax relief statistics’. Table 6 (published in 2019) contains information for the years 2012 to 2013 through 2017 to 2018. Please see below:</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Year</p></td><td><p>Pension tax relief (net of tax received on pension income) (£m)</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2012-13 <sup>r</sup></p></td><td><p>19,200</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2013-14 <sup>r</sup></p></td><td><p>18,200</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2014-15<sup> r</sup></p></td><td><p>17,900</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2015-16 <sup>r</sup></p></td><td><p>20,700</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2016-17 <sup>r</sup></p></td><td><p>18,900</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2017-18 <sup>p</sup></p></td><td><p>19,000</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>The above figures reflect the net cost of tax relief on pension contributions and any investment growth within pensions, less the tax paid on payments from pension schemes to those accessing their pensions that year. Also, please note:</p><p>i. The figures are based on HMRC administrative data and information compiled from a variety of sources by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Costs are subject to large revisions and have a particularly wide margin of error.</p><p>ii. The cost of the tax relief is calculated as the tax that would be paid on contributions to registered pension schemes presuming they were not registered and the payments were subject to the normal tax rules applying to individuals' remuneration. The estimates do not represent the yield from withdrawing tax relief as there would be significant changes in taxpayers' behaviour.</p><p>iii. Figures for tax liabilities on pensions in payment are now calculated using administrative taxpayer data on RTI payments made by pension schemes.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Historical figures relating to older years are available on the national archive (see relevant figures below), however due to substantial revisions to methodology, figures for these years are not comparable with 2012 to 13 onwards.</p><table><tbody><tr><td><p>Year</p></td><td><p>Pension tax relief (net of tax received on pension income) (£m)</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2009-10</p></td><td><p>20,100</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2010-11</p></td><td><p>24,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>2011-12</p></td><td><p>22,800</p></td></tr></tbody></table> answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton question first answered 21/02/2020 13:16:36 answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton
tabling member	4533 label Biography information for Baroness Altmann

1177109

registered interest
date	07/02/2020
answering body	Home Office
answering dept id	1
answering dept short name	Home Office
answering dept sort name	Home Office
hansard heading	Female Genital Mutilation
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Sugg on 6 February (HL Deb, col 1885), how many claims for asylum have been made by (1) women and girls at risk of female genital mutilation (FGM), and (2) anti-FGM campaigners, in each of the last 10 years; and how many such claims (a) have been accepted, (b) have been rejected, and (c) are awaiting a decision.
tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
uin	HL1434
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/02/2020 answer text <p>The Home Office does not record the basis of claims in a way that can be easily aggregated so cannot provide figures on how many asylum claims have been made by (1) women and girls at risk of female genital mutilation (FGM), and (2) anti-FGM campaigners, in each of the last 10 years; and how many such claims (a) have been accepted, (b) have been rejected, and (c) are awaiting a decision.</p><p>However, the Home Office does publish data on the number of cases concluded by gender. This data can be found at Asy_05/06/06q/07, of the published Transparency data: August 2019: <a href="http://www.gov.uk/government/publications/asylum-transparency-data-august-2019" target="_blank">www.gov.uk/government/publications/asylum-transparency-data-august-2019</a></p> answering member printed Baroness Williams of Trafford question first answered 20/02/2020 16:50:49 answering member 4311 label Biography information for Baroness Williams of Trafford attachment 1 file name UKVI_Asylum_Q2_2019_Published (1).xlsx title Asylum Transparency Data - August 2019
tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle

1177110

registered interest
date	07/02/2020
answering body	Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept id	10
answering dept short name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
answering dept sort name	Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
hansard heading	Sustainability of the Press Review
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the statement by Baroness Morgan of Cotes on 6 February (HL Deb, col 1937) that the Government “supported all the recommendations apart from one: the proposal to establish an institute for public interest news” and “the Government have decided that it is not for the Government to take that recommendation forward”, what assessment they made to inform that decision; what support they intend to give, if any, to the establishment by other organisations of an institute for public interest news; what discussions they have had with other organisations about establishing such an institute; and with which organisations they have discussed any such plans.
tabling member printed	Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle
uin	HL1435
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/02/2020 answer text <p>The Government acknowledges the value the ‘Institute for Public Interest News’, proposed by Dame Frances Cairncross in her Review, is intended to achieve, in bringing different initiatives together in order to amplify their impact, and acting as a channel for collaboration. However, the Government recognises the concerns of many in the publishing industry regarding the inherent challenge an organisation with such a purpose will face in defining what qualifies as ‘public interest’ news, and what might therefore be deserving of support. It is not for the Government to define what qualifies as 'public interest' news. While any institute would be at arm’s length from the Government, we recognise concerns that even an arm’s length relationship risks perceptions of inappropriate Government interference with the press. The Government has therefore decided that it is not for the Government to take the recommendation forward.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>There are a number of existing initiatives set up by the industry in this area, for example, the Google News Initiative, Facebook’s Community News Project, the Public Interest News Foundation set up by Impress, and the BBC’s proposed Local Democracy Foundation — with more potentially under development across the sector. Parts of the sector have shown a desire to help share approaches and best practice. It remains open for the sector to support the existing initiatives or form others as they see fit.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>Notwithstanding that it is not for the Government to play a role in leading or designing an institution, there are some challenges and functions that Dame Frances envisaged as potentially being undertaken by an institute that the Government is minded to support through other routes. A key function where we see a potential role for Government to support is the funding of research into news provision and its impact on communities. The Government has recently put out an invitation to tender for research to support policy development on news sustainability and will continue to explore how it can commission further research into these areas, to provide a solid evidence base for future policy interventions.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 19/02/2020 11:09:47 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
tabling member	4719 label Biography information for Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle

1177111

registered interest
date	07/02/2020
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	Universal Credit
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government when the pilot project for Managed Migration from legacy benefits to Universal Credit, commenced in July 2019, will be completed; whether they intend to report the findings from that pilot to Parliament; and if so, when.
tabling member printed	Baroness Donaghy
uin	HL1436
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/02/2020 answer text <p>The Move to Universal Credit pilot commenced, as scheduled, in the area served by Harrogate Jobcentre in July 2019. The goal of the pilot is to learn as much as possible about how to safely move people from legacy benefits onto Universal Credit. As a result, we will increase numbers as slowly and gradually as necessary.</p><p> </p><p>We are adapting the design of this service and its processes frequently to ensure we provide the best possible support to those claimants who move to Universal Credit from their legacy benefit claims.</p><p> </p><p>The Department has already committed to updating Parliament and stakeholders on progress. We expect to provide our first update in the Spring.</p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 21/02/2020 13:26:26 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
tabling member	4166 label Biography information for Baroness Donaghy

1177112

registered interest
date	07/02/2020
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	Universal Credit
house id	2
legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee's 59th report of Session 2017–19 (HL Paper 419) on the Universal Credit (Managed Migration Pilot and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2019 (SI 2019/1152), published on 6 September 2019; what steps they have taken in response; and whether they intend to report to Parliament on their progress.
tabling member printed	Baroness Donaghy
uin	HL1437
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 21/02/2020 answer text <p>The Department has noted the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee’s (SLSC) 59th report of Session 2017-19 (HL Paper 419) on the Universal Credit (Managed Migration Pilot and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2019 (SI 2019/1152), published on 6 September 2019.</p><p> </p><p>As the Parliamentary website notes, the SLSC’s scrutiny role is advisory; it does not seek to recommend courses of action on these instruments, and its reports are published principally to provide information for members of the House. Ministers regularly update Parliament regarding progress on Universal Credit and will continue to do so.</p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member printed Baroness Stedman-Scott question first answered 21/02/2020 13:35:59 answering member 4174 label Biography information for Baroness Stedman-Scott
tabling member	4166 label Biography information for Baroness Donaghy