Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the (1) value, and (2) tonnage of (a) scrap copper and, (b) scrap steel, that the UK exported in the last year for which figures are available.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The value and tonnage of scrap steel and copper exported from the UK in 2024 is as follows:
Table 1: The UK's scrap steel* and copper exports in 2024, by export value (£millions) and net mass (thousand tonnes) |
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| Export Value (£millions) | Exports Net Mass (million tonnes) |
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Scrap steel* | 2,490.4 | 7.5 |
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Scrap copper | 1,334.5 | 0.3 |
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Grand Total | 3,824.9 | 7.8 |
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Source: HMRC Overseas Trade Statistics, uktradeinfo, compiled on 30th April 2025 |
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*Please note that some of the commodity codes reported in the Table 1 above include elements of scrap iron. |
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Please see OTS methodology for details. The table shown is compiled of both EU and Non-EU export trade. This data is compiled from the following commodity codes: |
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HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is responsible for the collection and publication of data on imports and exports of goods to and from the UK. HMRC releases this information monthly, as an accredited official statistic called the Overseas Trade in Goods Statistics (OTS), which is available via their dedicated website (www.uktradeinfo.com). From this website, it is possible to build your own data tables based upon bespoke search criteria.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what in their guidance for cost-benefit analysis is the current monetary value of a life year.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Green Book provides a figure of £70,000 for the value of a Quality-Adjusted Life Year (QALY). This is expressed in 2020-21 prices.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking with the Financial Conduct Authority to help ensure funeral fund providers have sufficient resources to meet their obligations.
Answered by Bim Afolami
In January 2021 the government legislated to bring all pre-paid funeral plan providers and intermediaries within the Financial Conduct Authority’s regulatory remit.
The FCA has extensive experience of both conduct and prudential regulation. As part of its regulation of the sector, the FCA have introduced requirements that ensure that funeral plan providers have sufficient funds to fulfil the funeral plan contracts they have entered into.
This includes rules that require funeral plan providers to:
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much revenue accrued to the Crown Estate from offshore wind leases in the last year.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
The Crown Estate operates as an independent commercial business, in line with The Crown Estate Act and the Framework Agreement with HM Treasury. The Crown Estate returns 100% of its net revenue to HM Treasury each year, totally over £3billion in the last decade.
The Crown Estate publishes its revenue performance for each business unit on an annual basis. These accounts are laid in Parliament.
For the financial year 2021/22, The Crown Estate generated £113.3million from its marine business, which includes offshore wind leasing activity alongside other seabed leasing activity. The seabed is a valuable national asset, and through The Crown Estate’s leasing and investment activity appropriate value is being secured to the benefit of the nation.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if his Department will make an assessment of the level of potential (a) inefficiencies and (b) inequalities in credit scoring systems.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) recently published an interim report on its Credit Information Market Study, which looks at how the credit information sector is working and how it could be improved. This includes consideration of the purpose, quality and accessibility of credit information. It can be found at: https://www.fca.org.uk/publications/market-studies/ms19-1-credit-information-market-study.
The Treasury is engaging with the FCA, as well as industry and consumer groups, on the emerging findings of the Market Study.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an assessment of potential trends in the level of discrimination of people from ethnic minority backgrounds in the provision of insurance.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
Under the Equality Act 2010 insurers cannot use ethnicity as a risk factor when determining the price of insurance. Insurers must treat customers fairly under the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) rules and the FCA has powers to act against firms that fail to comply.
The Treasury met with insurance companies following the Citizens Advice report on the ‘ethnicity penalty’ published in March 2022 and will continue to engage with the insurance industry and the regulator on this important issue.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the underlying causes of concerns relating to liability driven investment funds in the pensions industry in 2022; and what lessons his Department has learned about the operation of these funds during this period.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
The Pensions Regulator (TPR) regulates pension schemes, and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulates UK-based asset managers that manage LDI funds which are often used by pension schemes. The Government welcomes the recent work of the UK regulators to require that LDI funds hold higher levels of resilience, following volatility in gilt markets in 2022. This work has also been welcomed, as a first step, by the Bank of England’s independent Financial Policy Committee (FPC), which is responsible for identifying and addressing systemic risks to improve UK financial stability. The FPC’s December 2022 Financial Stability Report (FSR), and its assessment of the vulnerabilities associated with LDI funds, was an important milestone in the ongoing lessons learned process.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the number of people who have (a) no credit record, (b) an insufficient credit record and (c) no recent credit history.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
The Government does not hold information on the number of people who have limited or no credit history on their credit files.
However, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) recently published an interim report on its Credit Information Market Study, which may include information and insights relevant to this question. It can be found at: https://www.fca.org.uk/publications/market-studies/ms19-1-credit-information-market-study
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will provide additional resources to the England Illegal Money Lending Team to tackle the threat of illegal money lending.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
The Government recognises the dangers of illegal money lending, and that is why the Treasury funds the Illegal Money Lending Teams (IMLTs) across the UK via an industry levy collected by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Since taking over funding of the IMLTs in 2017, the Treasury has increased their annual funding by 37%. For the 2022/23 financial year, the Treasury increased funding for the England Illegal Money Lending Team by over 6% compared to 2021/22.
HMT officials regularly meet the IMLTs to understand the latest intelligence and monitor how funding is being deployed. These discussions will inform decisions about the appropriate levels of funding for the next financial year.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Answer of 23 April 2021 to Question 180919 on Bitcoin: electricity, what his planned timescale is for providing a common definition for environmentally sustainable economy activities for (a) Bitcoin and (b) other crypto-currencies.
Answered by John Glen
The Cryptoasset Taskforce, comprising HM Treasury, the Financial Conduct Authority, and the Bank of England, considers the impact of cryptoassets and assesses what, if any, regulation is required in response. The Government stands ready to respond to emerging risks or changes in the market and will continue to monitor developments in cryptoassets.
In November 2020, the Chancellor announced that the UK will implement a green taxonomy – a common framework for determining which activities can be defined as environmentally sustainable – which will improve understanding of the impact of firms’ activities and investments on the environment and support our transition to a sustainable economy. More details on the green taxonomy will be announced in due course.