Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the RAC Fuel Watch data which show that the average UK petrol and diesel prices was around 191 pence per litre of petrol and 199 pence per litre of diesel as of June, what steps they are taking to reduce (1) fuel duty, and (2) VAT on fuel, to assist families and businesses with the increased cost of living.
Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)
The temporary 5p cut to duty on petrol and diesel represents a £2.4 billion tax cut in 2022-23, to help consumers with high fuel prices.
VAT is a broad-based tax on consumption and the 20% standard rate applies to most goods and services. It would cost over £6 billion to cut VAT on road fuel from 20% to 5%.
The Government keeps all taxes under review.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the survey conducted by the Institute of Directors in April which found that six in ten employers thought that digitisation, upskilling and professional training would have the greatest impact on the future productivity of their firm and only one in ten cited additional investment in plant and machinery; what steps they plan to take as a result of the survey; and what assessment they have made of the case for tax credits for investment in digitisation and training.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Government is helping businesses to invest in digitisation and training through our Help to Grow programmes. Help to Grow Digital aims to support up to 100,000 SMEs to boost their performance by providing financial discounts of up to £5,000, to cover up to half the costs of approved digital technologies, along with advice and support on the learning platform. Help to Grow Management, meanwhile, is an intensive national training programme designed to improve leadership and management skills. Delivered by leading business schools across the UK, the programme is 90% subsidised by government, with participants contributing £750. It will support up to 30,000 SME business leaders to increase productivity, seize investment opportunities and grow their businesses, developing skills in areas such as financial management, innovation and staff engagement.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they plan to take to reverse the fall in the number of small businesses in the UK.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and government aims to make the UK one of the best places in the world to start and grow a business. The government provides a range of support that all businesses can access. These include information on starting up and running a business on GOV.UK, one to one advice via our free Business Support Helpline and through 38 Growth Hubs across England, government backed Start-Up Loans, and businesses with 5 or more employees can access our Help to Grow schemes.
Small businesses will also benefit from the £15 billion of targeted support to help with the rising cost of living. This brings the total cost of living support measures announced to £37 billion this year. Government has cut fuel duty for 12 months, raised the Employment Allowance to £5,000, and is zero-rating VAT on energy-saving materials. This builds on existing support, including business rates relief worth £7 billion over five years.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to support small businesses in light of the Office for National Statistics release Producer price inflation, UK: May 2022, published on 22 June, showing that in the last year factory gate prices rose by 15.7 per cent and producer input prices rose by 22.1 per cent.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Small businesses will benefit from the £15 billion of targeted government support to help with the rising cost of living. This brings the total cost of living support measures announced to £37 billion this year. Government has cut fuel duty for 12 months, raised the Employment Allowance to £5,000, and is zero-rating VAT on energy-saving materials. This builds on existing support, including business rates relief worth £7 billion over five years.
Additionally, Help to Grow programmes will enable eligible SMEs to mitigate the effects of rising costs by providing financial discounts on approved digital technologies up to a value of £5000 and improving SME leadership and management skills though subsidised courses.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that gas and electricity suppliers are not increasing customer direct debits more than is necessary as a result of the increasing cost of energy.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government expects all energy suppliers to treat their customers fairly. Ofgem, as the independent regulator, has recently launched a consultation to strengthen the existing requirements on the level of direct debits licensed energy suppliers can charge customers, according to the best and most current information available to them, to ensure credit balances do not become excessive.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to assist households who not have a mains gas supply and are dependent on heating oil, as the cost of oil increases.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government understands that fuel prices are an important component of UK household and business expenditures and understands the negative impact of domestic fuel costs on UK consumers.
The main drivers of changes in heating oil prices are the international traded prices of crude oils and refined products. BEIS continues to monitor the market closely and to work with the industry to mitigate any supply risks to ensure that prices stay as low as possible.
The Government recently announced a £15 billion package to support households with the cost of living, in addition to over £22 billion that had already been committed.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that repayment of debts on prepay energy cards is proportionate and does not lead to increasing debt for customers using prepay (1) meters, and (2) cards.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Prepayment meter consumers who are repaying a debt, repay a set amount each time they top up the credit on the meter for their current use. Energy suppliers are required under the terms of the supply licence to set repayment rates based on a consumer’s ability to pay.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that when estimating bills, energy suppliers estimate historic usage only from the property being billed and not from (1) surrounding, or (2) similar, properties.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Ofgem’s licence conditions stipulate that, when estimating bills, suppliers must ensure that each customer is provided with relevant billing information.
Suppliers must also ensure customers receive regular and accurate bills and take all reasonable steps to obtain meter readings at least annually and make a bill or statement available at least twice per year. They must also take reasonable steps to reflect meter readings in bills that have been provided by a customer.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they plan to begin the review of the apprenticeship programme announced in the Spring Statement; and when they expect to publish a call for evidence.
Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)
The government’s ambition is to encourage greater levels of private sector investment in employee training, both for apprentices and for employees more generally.
At the Spring Statement, the Chancellor announced that he would consider whether further intervention is needed to encourage employers to offer the high-quality training the UK needs. This will include examining whether the current tax system – including the operation of the Apprenticeship Levy – is doing enough to incentivise businesses to invest in the right kinds of training.
The Chancellor will update the House further in the Autumn.
Asked by: Lord Allen of Kensington (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their assessment of the number of people unable to claim statutory sick pay from their employer because their earnings are below the lower earnings level; of these, what proportion are (1) male and (2) female; and what plans, if any, they have to remove the lower earnings limit.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
As set out in the 2019 “Health is Everyone’s Business” consultation, it is estimated that there are around 2 million employees who earn below the Lower Earnings Limit (LEL) and are therefore ineligible for Statutory Sick Pay (SSP). Of those, approximately 30% are male and 70% are female.
SSP reform, including extending SSP eligibility to those earning below the LEL, was part of the “Health is Everyone’s Business” consultation in 2019. In the response to the consultation published in 2021, Government stated the pandemic was not the right time to introduce changes to the rate of SSP or its eligibility criteria as this would have placed an immediate and direct cost on employers at a time where many were struggling.
As we learn to live with Covid-19, the Government is continuing to take a broader look at the role of SSP and is keeping the system under review.