Asked by: Lord Hutton of Furness (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have undertaken of the impact of establishing independent governance committees to improve oversight of defined contribution pension schemes.
Answered by Lord Bates
This is a matter for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), who are operationally independent from Government.
The question has been passed to the FCA, who will reply directly to the Noble Lord by letter. A copy of the letter will be placed in the Library of the House.
Asked by: Lord Hutton of Furness (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have changed their assessment of the economic impact on the UK of leaving the EU from that set out in the April 2016 document HM Treasury Analysis — the long term economic impact of EU membership and the alternatives.
Answered by Lord Bates
Government has undertaken a significant amount of work to assess the economic impacts of leaving the EU. This is part of our continued programme of rigorous and extensive analytical work on a range of scenarios on a sector by sector basis.
Our long-term analysis examined scenarios based on existing alternative models to EU membership. The Prime Minister has since made clear however that the UK aims to agree an ambitious and comprehensive economic partnership with the EU that is of far greater scope and ambition than any existing free trade agreement
Asked by: Lord Hutton of Furness (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what advice has been given to UK banks regarding business and personal financial transactions between UK individuals or UK-registered companies and Cuban counterparties based in Cuba.
Answered by Lord O'Neill of Gatley
Cuba has previously been subject to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)’s on-going Global AML/CFT Compliance Process due to concerns over strategic deficiencies in its systems for anti-money laundering (AML) and combatting terrorist financing (CTF). HM Government notifies the financial sector of FATF’s decision to list countries and the risks associated with transactions with identified countries. In October 2014, the UK welcomed Cuba’s significant progress in improving its controls and noted that Cuba was no longer subject to the FATF’s monitoring process. This was also communicated to industry.
There are no UK, EU or UN sanctions regimes restricting transactions between the UK and Cuba. The US has economic sanctions against Cuba. EU legislation (Council Regulation (EC) No 2271/96) provides protection against and counteracts the effects of the extra-territorial application of US Cuba sanctions within the EU. The Government does not provide advice on sanctions regimes outside UK jurisdiction and does not intervene in the decisions of banks or other financial firms when made on the basis of their internal risk assessments.