Asked by: Lord Faulkner of Worcester (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the decision by the World Snooker Championship to refuse entry to fans that are considered clinically vulnerable to the event at the Crucible Theatre in May, and (2) the consistency of the decision with (a) government guidelines, and (b) equality legislation.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Events Research Programme (ERP) is running its first phase of 10-15 pilots in April and May to inform decisions around the safe removal of social distancing at Step 4 of the Roadmap. The pilots will be run across a range of settings, venues, and activities so that findings will support the full reopening of similar settings across multiple sectors.
We fully recognise the importance of these inclusion concerns and are reflecting on issues of diversity, inclusion and equality in the Events Research Programme, ensuring the pilot events cover a range of age groups, ethnicities, geographic location and accessibility.
The pilot events are the first steps to helping all members of the public safely back to mass events and these have been developed under a SAGE framework in line with the latest PHE and DHSC guidance.
Our Science Board has reviewed the Events Research Programme’s approach to clinically extremely vulnerable individuals attending the pilot events.
They strongly urge caution for the clinically extremely vulnerable attending the events on public health grounds, however these groups are not excluded from involvement in the pilots.
All attendees are required to fill out a consent form as part of the sign up process for the research programme, given the increased risk of COVID 19 transmission on account of the relaxation of some risk mitigation factors (social distancing and numbers attending).
For each pilot event, a Public Sector Equality Duty impact assessment is being carried out before each event which considers the impact of this scientific study on groups with protected characteristics, including those with disabilities.
Asked by: Lord Faulkner of Worcester (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how the Thomas Cook historical archives will be (1) preserved, and (2) made accessible.
Answered by Lord Duncan of Springbank
The archive of Thomas Cook’s historical papers has been transferred to the Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland in order that it can be preserved and made available for inspection.
Asked by: Lord Faulkner of Worcester (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with Northern Rail about the provision of additional services on the Esk Valley railway from Middlesbrough to Whitby, following the extra funding secured for these services by the Community Rail Partnership.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government understands the importance of this line and welcomes the funding secured to improve its services. These plans are linked to a wider development vision for Whitby. Transport for the North is supporting North Yorkshire County Council on the delivery of this important Esk Valley project and will be leading aspects of the project going forwards. In delivering extra services, the priority is to find a solution that is affordable and acceptable to all stakeholders with the aim of helping deliver improved transport opportunities to support the economy of North Yorkshire. Northern is currently working with Network Rail to look at the feasibility of running an earlier service from Whitby to Middlesbrough from December 2019.
Asked by: Lord Faulkner of Worcester (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 continued availability of coal at an affordable price for (1) heritage steam locomotive, (2) traction engine, and (3) stationary engine, operations.
Answered by Lord Henley
The Government produces regular reports on the supply and cost of coal. These reports can be found attached.
Asked by: Lord Faulkner of Worcester (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government why reverse charge VAT has been applied to products such as mobile phones and gold, but not to scrap metal.
Answered by Lord Bates
HMRC uses a wide range of risk assessment and compliance responses to identify and tackle non-compliance. The introduction of a reverse charge can be effective in preventing certain types of VAT fraud. It is used selectively and targeted at the highest risks such as mobile phones and, most recently, telecommunications.
Asked by: Lord Faulkner of Worcester (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with scrap metal trade bodies about reverse charge VAT.
Answered by Lord Bates
HMRC meets with a variety of trade bodies as part of its general approach to assessing and tackling non-compliance, including the British Metals Recycling Association (BMRA). This has included discussing ways in which HMRC can provide guidance to BMRA members about spotting VAT fraud.
Asked by: Lord Faulkner of Worcester (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps HMRC is taking to tackle carousel or missing trader intra-community fraud in the scrap metal sector.
Answered by Lord Bates
HMRC has identified metals as a common commodity used to perpetrate Missing Trader Intra Community (MTIC) fraud and will take all necessary and proportionate steps to tackle it. HMRC is committed to tackling tax fraud through the most effective means possible, and has successfully reduced fraud levels by a significant amount.
HMRC works closely with businesses to raise their awareness and understanding of risks, promoting good governance and risk assessment, in order to minimise the likelihood of them becoming involved in fraudulent supply chains.
One of HMRC’s approaches for tackling MTIC fraud is to continuously monitor traders in risk sectors. This enables HMRC to quickly identify suspect activity and make early interventions.
HMRC also carries out criminal investigations and prosecutions in line with its published criminal investigation policy as part of this wide ranging programme of interventions to combat MTIC fraud.
Asked by: Lord Faulkner of Worcester (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much potential revenue they estimate the Government is losing each year through carousel or missing trader intra-community fraud.
Answered by Lord Bates
I refer the Hon Member to the answer that I gave on 4 December to the Rt Hon. Baroness Primarolo (HL3403). The information is also available in Chapter 2 of the ‘Measuring Tax Gaps’ publication.[1]
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/measuring-tax-gaps
Asked by: Lord Faulkner of Worcester (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether UK overseas posts have facilitated meetings on tobacco control legislation between the tobacco industry and foreign government ministers or officials since the issuing of revised guidance to posts in December 2013; and whether they will give details of each case.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government has standing instructions to all diplomatic staff to follow the revised December 2013 guidelines on interactions with tobacco companies. In line with this guidance, assistance may be offered to counter discriminatory practices. The Government does not catalogue the representations it makes on behalf of companies.
Asked by: Lord Faulkner of Worcester (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether any plans to support implementation of the Tobacco Control Plan for England will contain provisions for future year funding to cover the full length of the Plan from 2017 to 2022.
Answered by Lord O'Shaughnessy
The Department is still considering the scope and procurement process for grants to support the implementation of the Tobacco Control Plan. Cabinet Office standards require all new grants to be subject to competition. Our intention is to make any future grant available on a multi-year basis, subject to an appropriate business case and satisfactory performance on the part of the funded bodies.