Lord Colgrain

The Parliamentary Works Sponsor Body and Restoration and Renewal (R&R) Delivery Authority were established in April and May 2020 respectively. The Sponsor Body was abolished on 1 January 2023 and its functions transferred to the R&R Client Team in Parliament. Prior to this, work related to the restoration and renewal of the Palace was funded and managed by the House Administrations. Both the R&R Client Team and Delivery Authority routinely publish information on costs, for instance in quarterly reports, annual reports, and memoranda provided to the Parliamentary Works Estimates Commission, as did the Sponsor Body prior to its abolition.

Staff costs for the Sponsor Body for its full two years of operation (2020-21 and 2021-22) are set out in its Annual Reports and Accounts (available at https://www.restorationandrenewal.uk/sponsor-body-archive), and amount to approximately £8.4 million. In 2022-23 the Sponsor Body was abolished and its costs merged into the R&R Client Team, which is a joint department of both Houses.

It is not possible to disaggregate recruitment fees for the Sponsor Body as this falls within other elements of expenditure. Approximately £540,000, excluding employer’s pensions and national insurance contributions, was paid in settlement payments to senior staff of the Sponsor Body (three Executive Directors and the Accounting Officer) which they were entitled to under their contracts, rather than seeking to transfer to the new Client Team. These settlement payments were approved by the Sponsor Body Nominations and Renumerations Committee and audited by the National Audit Office.

Staff costs for the R&R Delivery Authority from 2020-21 to 2023-24 are set out in its Annual Report and Financial Statements (available at https://www.restorationandrenewal.uk/about-us/corporate-publications), and amount to approximately £59.1 million. Recruitment fees in the Delivery Authority over this period amount to approximately £710,000.

Under the R&R Programme, tens of thousands of hours of complex building surveys and investigations to develop ever more detailed records of the Palace of Westminster have been carried out. These records are being used to inform design and planning, and future decisions on the essential restoration work required. Since its establishment in 2020 up to the end of 2023-24, the R&R Delivery Authority has spent approximately £28 million on surveys to the Palace.

The estimated costs incurred by the R&R Delivery Authority in respect of developing and assessing the QEII Conference Centre as the preferred decant location of the House of Lords from 2020-21 to 2023-24 is £12m. These figures do not include Sponsor Body, R&R Client Team, or House of Lords staff costs and do cover some other work related to temporary accommodation, where it is not possible to disaggregate work carried out by contractors to cover multiple activities. The work to assess and prepare for House of Commons decant location options, including the expenditure for that work, is the responsibility of the governance bodies in the House of Commons.

The House of Lords does not hold detailed information regarding the salaries, recruitment fees, and redundancy payments for non-parliamentary staff involved in the Restoration and Renewal Programme.

The House of Lords is recharged for its share of Restoration and Renewal costs by the House of Commons. Since 2014 the House of Lords contribution to the Restoration and Renewal Programme has been £58.7m. Of this sum, staff costs have totalled £7.55m and other costs, which include the costs of contractors to undertake surveys and other preparatory work, have totalled £51.15m.

The Sponsor Body and Delivery Authority were established in April and May 2020 respectively. Prior to this, the R&R Programme was funded and managed by the House Administrations.

The costs outlined below represent those incurred by the Sponsor Body and Delivery Authority since April and May 2020 respectively until the end of March 2022. Costs included for the 2021/22 financial year are based on the Quarter 3 forecast, which was presented in the Main Estimate Memorandum. The 2021/22 Sponsor Body and Delivery Authority accounts are currently being audited, and the final outturn position for 2021/22 presented as part of the Annual Report and Accounts will therefore vary from the forecast position.

The Sponsor Body has spent £8.2m on salaries (includng associated costs such as pension and national insurance contributions) and £45,000 on recruitment costs. The Delivery Authority has spent £25.3m on salaries (including associated costs such as pension and national insurance contributions) and £0.4m on recruitment costs. There have been no redundancy payments by either organisation in this period.

A further £10.9m has been spent on work assessing and preparing decant locations.

Excluding the costs outlined above, the Delivery Authority has spent £151m over this period on contractor costs. This comprises all third-party spend, including design and surveys work, programme delivery and project and programme management. It also includes spend required to establish and mature the organisation in preparation for delivery, such as in data and digital, and procurement. Excluding the costs above, the Sponsor Body spent £16.1m on all third-party suppliers. The most significant pieces of work included business case and Strategic Review consultancy, independent assurance, organisational development, corporate services, and public engagement.

The total expenditure on all these items is £212m.

Under the Parliamentary Buildings (Restoration and Renewal) Act 2019, the Sponsor Body must, in exercising its functions, have regard to the need to ensure that the Parliamentary building works represent good value for money. The costs of the Sponsor Body and Delivery Authority to date have been through a comprehensive process of review and challenge led by the CEOs and Boards of both organisations, and scrutinised by the Commissions of both Houses as well as the Parliamentary Works Estimates Commission. These costs are also audited by the National Audit Office.

The Department for Business and Trade is committed to helping UK businesses export to Morocco, supported by the UK-Morocco Association Agreement in force since January 2021. Bilateral trade was worth £4.2 billion in 2024, up £0.6 billion in current prices from 2023. An example of the opportunities for further UK-Morocco business partnerships comes with Morocco co-hosting the 2030 FIFA World Cup, where opportunities are emerging for British businesses.

In January 2025, Ben Coleman MP was appointed Trade Envoy for Morocco and Francophone West Africa to support the UK’s growth agenda with Morocco.

There are approximately 22,810 Non-Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive participants with meters that will need to comply with metering obligations. Currently 630 are under review by Ofgem, the scheme administrator. The time taken to complete a review is dependent on the quality and complexity of the participant’s submission, response time to requests for further information and the review caseload.

Solar power is a key part of the energy mix, and the Government will continue to support its deployment to meet energy security and net zero goals consistent with COP27 ambitions.

In December 2021, the Government introduced an uplift in energy efficiency standards for new builds, which came into force on 15 June 2022 and expects that to meet the new standards, most new buildings are likely to be built with renewables, principally rooftop solar panels.

The published Ragwort code of practice (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5cd93824e5274a38bf503d1d/code-of-practice-on-how-to-prevent-the-spread-of-ragwort.pdf ) is in place to provide advice to landowners and managers to prevent ragwort spreading where it presents a high risk of poisoning horses and livestock or spreading to fields used for the production of forage.

There are no plans to issue legislation to impose legal duties on landowners to restrict the growth of ragwort. The Government’s ‘Code of Practice on How to Prevent the Spread of Ragwort’ (see attached) sets out guidance for landowners on when and how common ragwort should be removed, taking into account both animal welfare and environmental considerations.

The Code does not seek to eradicate common ragwort, but only seeks to control its spread where it poses a high risk of spreading to agricultural land, for example land used for grazing.

At present, there are no direct system-to-system data exchanges between Rural Payments Agency and Environment Agency systems. Defra is committed to sharing data internally within the Department, externally across Government and with any interested party. Both the Rural Payments Agency and the Environment Agency publish datasets on the publicly available Defra Multi-Agency Geographic Information for the Countryside website, and within the Defra Spatial Repository and Toolkits which are accessible to all Defra Group organisations. Defra also publishes more than 8,000 datasets, which are publicly available under open licence.

However, both organisations have access to the Defra Customer and Land Database (CLAD) which is due to be replaced in 2019 by a system called CLARIS, which will enable the Environment Agency to have access to Rural Payments Agency land data. Additionally, the Rural Payments Agency periodically provides the Environment Agency with a manual extract of data relating to the ownership of land within Nitrate Vulnerable Zones for cross-compliance purposes.

As part of its wider consolidation and upgrade of IT systems the Defra Group is adopting shared IT platforms, for example cloud email services, document management, customer relationship management and identity management platforms. Agency data will coexist within the same physical platforms which may facilitate data sharing where there is a specific purpose for that data to be shared, and this is done in accordance with regulations such as the Data Protection Act and appropriate interagency data sharing agreements.

The Government is providing £590m of capital funding to progress work on the Lower Thames Crossing. The Government is looking to bring private sector finance and expertise into this project, and further work will now be undertaken with the private sector to design a long-term funding model which delivers value for money for the taxpayer.

The criteria necessary for a location of cultural and historical significance to potentially warrant a brown traffic sign are provided in Schedule 1 of the Traffic Signs Regulations and General Directions, 2016 (TSRGD). TSRGD defines the term ‘tourist destination’ with the following meaning:

(a) a Tourist Information Centre or Point;

(b) a permanently established attraction or facility (other than a leisure facility) which—

(i) attracts or is used by visitors to an area;

(ii) is open to the public without prior booking during its normal opening hours; and

(iii) is recognised as a tourist attraction or facility by the appropriate national promoter of tourism;

(c) a village, town or city that is of particular interest to tourists;

(d) a route that is of particular interest to tourists

VisitBritian is the national promoter for England and they have criteria for minimum number of visitors, car parking, toilets etc.

Decisions on whether to erect and display brown signs for any qualifying attraction is the responsibility of the relevant local authority. However, local councils are not required to provide assistance to attractions during the process of meeting the criteria.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is the regulator responsible for authorising biocidal products (which include insecticides) on the market in Great Britain.

Insecticide control options are already available to expert government officials carrying out treatments to destroy Asian hornet nests. Whilst there are currently no insecticide biocidal products specifically authorised for use against Asian hornets, there are a number of products available for use against hornets. Manufacturers of insecticides can apply to HSE if they wish to add specific claims for Asian hornets to their products.

The vast majority of Capital Gains returns are filed online, through entries in a Self-Assessment Tax return or our online service for sale of a property which is not the main residence. Taxpayers using online services are presented with their tax calculation immediately, unless there are any exceptions requiring a manual check. For the small numbers of 2022-23 tax returns requiring manual checks, HMRC will complete these by 31 January.

For customers who file their self-assessment return on paper, HMRC aim to process 99% of returns received by the 31 October submission deadline by 31 December. They expect to meet that target this year.

HMRC covers a wide range of taxes where refunds may be made. These include, for example, Income Tax (both Pay As You Earn and Self Assessment), Corporation Tax, Stamp Duty Land Tax, Value Added Tax (with a number of different regimes in use), Inheritance Tax and Capital Gains Tax.

The speed of repayment, and our service level agreements (SLAs) for speed of repayment, varies across different areas.

Footnote:

How HMRC is performing against its service standards can be found here:

https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/guidance/HMRC-service-dashboard/outcome/HMRC-service-dashboard

HMRC covers a wide range of taxes where refunds may be made. These include, for example, Income Tax (both Pay As You Earn and Self Assessment), Corporation Tax, Stamp Duty Land Tax, Value Added Tax (with a number of different regimes in use), Inheritance Tax and Capital Gains Tax.

The speed of repayment, and our service level agreements (SLAs) for speed of repayment, varies across different areas.

Footnote:

How HMRC is performing against its service standards can be found here:

https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/guidance/HMRC-service-dashboard/outcome/HMRC-service-dashboard

The Government sets the Approved Mileage Allowance Payments (AMAPs) rates to minimise administrative burdens.

Employers are not required to use the AMAPs rates. Instead, they can agree to reimburse the actual cost incurred, where individuals can provide evidence of the expenditure, without an Income Tax or National Insurance charge arising.

Alternatively, they can choose to pay a different mileage rate that better reflects their employees’ circumstances. However, if the payment exceeds the amount due under AMAPs, and this results in a profit for the individual, they will be liable to pay Income Tax and National Insurance contributions on the difference.

The Government keeps this policy under review.

HMRC are constantly reviewing the progress of the Making Tax Digital (MTD) service. As at 18 July, over 712,000 businesses have joined the VAT service and over 460,000 VAT submissions have been made successfully.

The VAT Helpline has been performing within the 5 minute target for average waiting time. A small proportion of customers – around 0.5% - have been affected by service issues which HMRC are addressing.

The Government recognises the value of independent assurance. MTD is part of the Government’s Major Projects Portfolio and the VAT service will be reviewed by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) in September.

Software enabling customers to use MTD is provided by a wide range of third-party software providers. This approach has led to a rich choice of products to meet businesses’ different needs, preferences and budgets.