Asked by: Earl Attlee (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 19 December 2023 (HL856), what is the average annual salary of a minister of the crown in the House of Lords, including unpaid ministers and excluding accommodation and travel allowances.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The average (mean) salary of a minister of the crown in the House of Lords, including unpaid ministers and excluding accommodation and travel allowances, is £41,490.26.
Ministerial salaries are payable under the Ministerial and Other Salaries Act 1975. Details of the salaries and allowances currently paid to Ministers at different ranks can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ministerial-salary-data
Asked by: Earl Attlee (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Vere of Norbiton on 30 November 2023 (HL457), what assessment they have made of whether the Financial conduct Authority can have confidence that lenders are correctly charging the advertised Annual Percentage Rates (APR) if they do not undertake spot checks.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Consumer Credit Act 1974 (CCA) forms a key part of the regulation of the consumer credit market. Under the CCA’s pre-contractual requirements, firms are required to state clearly the actual (rather than representative) APR in credit agreements.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has a range of supervisory tools to identify non-compliance with relevant rules, including proactive assessments, responding to reports and complaints, and conducting thematic reviews of particular sectors. As an independent regulator, it is for the FCA to make decisions on how it supervises firms and enforces its rules.
More broadly, the government is committed to working with the FCA to deliver a well-functioning and sustainable consumer credit market which meets consumers’ needs. As part of this, the government is reforming the CCA. Working closely with the FCA, it will be considering how reform can enhance consumer understanding of credit products and credit agreements, leading to improved customer outcomes.
Asked by: Earl Attlee (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Vere of Norbiton on 30 November 2023 (HL457), what assessment they have made of the ability of the average borrower to compare the representative Annual Percentage Rates (APR) with the actual APR offered in the pre-contract information required to be given under the Consumer Credit Act 1974.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Consumer Credit Act 1974 (CCA) forms a key part of the regulation of the consumer credit market. Under the CCA’s pre-contractual requirements, firms are required to state clearly the actual (rather than representative) APR in credit agreements.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has a range of supervisory tools to identify non-compliance with relevant rules, including proactive assessments, responding to reports and complaints, and conducting thematic reviews of particular sectors. As an independent regulator, it is for the FCA to make decisions on how it supervises firms and enforces its rules.
More broadly, the government is committed to working with the FCA to deliver a well-functioning and sustainable consumer credit market which meets consumers’ needs. As part of this, the government is reforming the CCA. Working closely with the FCA, it will be considering how reform can enhance consumer understanding of credit products and credit agreements, leading to improved customer outcomes.
Asked by: Earl Attlee (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to amend the Ministerial and Other Salaries Order 2008 to ensure that holding ministerial office in the House of Lords is not predicated on access to a private income in order to maintain a standard of living commensurate with those roles and responsibilities.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
There are no current plans to amend the legislation governing ministerial salaries.
Ministerial salaries are constrained by the Ministerial and other Salaries Act which sets cumulative limits on the total number of salaries that can be allocated to ministers.
Under successive governments a small number of ministers across the Commons and the Lords have been unpaid. The distribution of salaries between ministers in the House of Commons and the House of Lords is a matter for the Prime Minister, who is responsible for the overall organisation of the Executive.
Asked by: Earl Attlee (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government which sections of which Acts of Parliament that have received Royal Assent since May 2010 have not been commenced by Ministers.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Office does not maintain a central database of sections of Acts of Parliament that have not been commenced. Details of all Acts of Parliament that have received Royal Assent, including their commencement status, are publicly available at legislation.gov.uk.
Asked by: Earl Attlee (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Financial Conduct Authority regularly undertakes spot checks of firms offering loans to ensure that the contract details accurately reflect the advertised annual percentage rate of the financial product.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is responsible for regulating the consumer credit market. It is part of a robust regulatory system which is helping to deliver the government’s vision for a well-functioning and sustainable consumer credit market which meets consumers’ needs.
The FCA oversees firms through its supervision strategy. In the FCA Mission – Approach to Supervision April 2019, the FCA set out that to make the best use of its resources and deliver the greatest public value, it takes a proportionate approach to supervising firms. It supervises most firms as members of a portfolio of firms that share a common business model. It analyses each portfolio and agrees a strategy to take action on firms posing the greatest harm.
Firms are required by FCA rules to include a representative APR in certain circumstances. The FCA’s handbook (CONC 3.5) provides further rules and guidance on when a representative APR must be shown, how it should be denoted and the level of prominence it must be given.
While not all consumers will get the advertised APR, they should be told in advance of entering into the agreement what APR they have been offered and this will be shown in the pre-contract information required to be given under the Consumer Credit Act 1974.
If a customer is concerned that they may have been mis-sold a credit agreement, they may wish to consider making a formal complaint to the firm in question in the first instance. If they then feel that their complaint has not been dealt with satisfactorily, they are able to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) – an independent body set up to provide arbitration in such cases.
Asked by: Earl Attlee (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker, following the professional and technical advice received by both Houses that a partial decant is both more risky and expensive than a full decant, why a partial decant is still being considered as an option for Restoration and Renewal of the Palace of Westminster.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
In July 2023 the Restoration and Renewal (R&R) Client Board endorsed the R&R Programme Board’s recommended shortlist of R&R delivery options. This included a “full decant” option where both Houses move out of the Palace at the same time (with the Commons prioritised for earlier return) and an option whereby the House of Commons would maintain a “continued presence” in varying locations in the Palace during the works and the House of Lords would move out of the Palace. The Client Board has also requested that a fallback option of enhanced maintenance and improvement forms part of further detailed design work on these options to inform a decision on the preferred way forward in due course, currently expected in 2025.
The Client Board considered it important that more than one option should be subject to further detailed design work and analysis in order to meet the spirit of the new mandate for R&R agreed by both Houses last year and to reflect that members of both Houses have differing views about how the programme can best be delivered.
Asked by: Earl Attlee (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration has been given to remanufacturing the hulls of the Warrior armoured fighting vehicles in order to overcome the problem of cracking in highly stressed areas.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
There is no requirement for new hulls as the existing fleet of Warrior armoured fighting vehicles can be refurbished, as required, to a standard suitable for the needs of Defence. Procuring new hulls would also not present the optimum Value for Money solution when compared to maintaining the existing fleet.
Asked by: Earl Attlee (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government when an officer of (1) one-star, and (2) two-star, rank first rode in an Ajax armoured fighting vehicle at a speed of at least 30 miles per hour.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
According to information held by the Department, the first journeys made by a one and two star officer in the Ajax platform were in April 2019 (Director Land Warfare, a two star) and September 2020 (Commander 1 Armoured Brigade, a one star). There is no detail as to the speed travelled on either of these occasions. Noting it was within a trials environment, it is possible that 30mph was exceeded.
Asked by: Earl Attlee (Conservative - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Goldie on 15 May (HL7499), whether it is the Ministry of Defence that is the Government department leading on ensuring that the government of Ukraine and its armed forces have all the armoured fighting vehicles that are required.
Answered by Baroness Goldie
The Ministry of Defence is the UK Government Department leading on the granting of military equipment to Ukraine, including armoured fighting vehicles. To date, the UK has provided over 300 armoured and protected mobility vehicles to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.