Asked by: Baroness Kramer (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to their announcement on 7 October that they intend to legislate to change the language and presentation of information in debt letters, what changes they plan to make to letters and notices from HMRC to taxpayers deemed to be in default on tax payments.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The changes referred to in the legislation apply to lenders in the credit industry, rather than Government departments. HMRC’s letters are always being reviewed and improved to follow best practice in debt collection. At the start of the pandemic, HMRC reviewed and amended the majority of their debt collection letters so they were tailored to taxpayers’ changing circumstances and to promote the support available to them.
Asked by: Baroness Kramer (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many BAME civil servants there are at Her Majesty's Treasury at (1) SCS1, (2) SCS2, (3) SCS3, and (4) SCS4, grade.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The Annual Report and Accounts 19/20 includes the percentage of Senior Civil Servants from an ethnic minority background.
The Annual Report and Accounts 19/20 shows that the percentage of SCS that are from minority ethnic backgrounds is 9.6% (Core Treasury grade diversity as at 31 March 2020 table on page 98). It also shows that the SCS total FTE is 129.9 (Core Treasury – staff composition at 31 March 2020 FTE table on page 98). Using these numbers, it can be calculated that the number of SCS from this cohort is 12.4 FTE
We cannot provide a breakdown of ethnicity by grade due to the small number of Directors and Director Generals. To do so would risk people being identifiable.
Asked by: Baroness Kramer (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on foster carers of their plans to extend the new IR35 rules to the private sector from April 2020.
Answered by Earl of Courtown - Opposition Deputy Chief Whip (Lords)
The reforms to how the off-payroll working rules are administered have already been in place in the public sector, including local authorities, since 2017. In the first 12 months, these reforms brought in an additional £550 million in Income Tax and NICs, which otherwise would have gone unpaid. Independent research into the public sector reforms found that most public bodies did not experience any change in their ability to fill vacancies, or the rates they pay following the reforms.
Following consultation, the Government announced at Budget 2018 that it will extend this reform to all medium and large organisations. On 11 July 2019 HMRC published a Tax Information and Impact Note setting out the impact on individuals, households and families of the reform in the private sector.
Asked by: Baroness Kramer (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the preparedness of the financial services industry to solve the issue of LIBOR-linked loan contracts before 2021.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
The Government is supporting a market – led transition away from LIBOR by end-2021.
UK financial services regulators have said that they will be expecting banks to show that they have eliminated dependency on LIBOR in their lending businesses, have suitable plans to move to non-LIBOR products in new lending well before end-2021, and to explain changes to affected customers.
Asked by: Baroness Kramer (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the consequences for accountability including under data protection legislation of the use by banks and other financial services providers of the Symphony suite of software, which allows for the instant and permanent deletion of email files.
Answered by Lord Bates
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) does not directly regulate the activities of Symphony Communication Services LLC or any other electronic messaging platform. However, firms that are authorised by the FCA who use messaging services such as Symphony are subject to a range of applicable requirements, including the recording and storage of such tapes and electronic communications.
MiFID II extended the UK’s existing record keeping requirements for telephone conversations and electronic communications from six months to a minimum of five years (this change came in on 3 January 2018). This will give the FCA an enhanced ability to investigate historic concerns.
With regards to firms’ compliance with data protection legislation, it is the responsibility of the Information Commissioner to regulate compliance with the Data Protection Act. The Commissioner may act on complaints about companies which are not complying with the law.