Asked by: Lord McNicol of West Kilbride (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the Scottish Government since it projected a potential £1 billion resource spending gap in 2024–25, rising to £1.9 billion by 2027–28.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury engages regularly with the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance to discuss matters relating to Scottish Government funding. They met most recently in Edinburgh on 25 January at the Finance: Interministerial Standing Committee.
The UK Government is providing the Scottish Government with a record block grant settlement of £41 billion per year over this Spending Review. On top of this, the Scottish Government is receiving over £2 billion in additional funding through the Barnett formula over 2023-24 and 2024-25 as a result of decisions taken at fiscal events.
In August 2023, the UK and Scottish Government reached agreement on an updated Fiscal Framework for the Scottish Government. This included provision to maintain the Scottish Government’s preferred block grant adjustment methodology to account for tax and welfare devolution, remove drawdown limits from the Scotland Reserve and increase the Scottish Government’s borrowing and reserve limits in line with inflation each year.
Asked by: Lord McNicol of West Kilbride (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they consider that the Financial Ombudsman Service and Financial Services Compensation Scheme protections enacted under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, which underpin retail investor confidence in the UK financial industry, remain "an expression of UK national policy".
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government believes that it is important that consumers of financial services have appropriate routes to seek redress without having to go through the court system. The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 established both the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) for this purpose.
The FOS provides consumers and small businesses with a free, independent service that enables the proportionate, prompt and informal resolution of disputes with financial services firms. It is designed as an alternative to resolution of cases through the courts, which can be expensive for both firms and consumers and delay redress.
The courts also continue to play an important role alongside the FOS in ensuring consumers have access to redress and in some cases may be a more appropriate route to ensuring effective resolution of disputes.
The FSCS is the UK’s compensation scheme of last resort and pays compensation to consumers when authorised financial services firms fail. However, the FSCS does not cover losses that arise purely from investment performance. The UK does not operate a zero-failure regime in financial services and individuals have responsibility for choosing investments that are suitable for their risk profile.
Asked by: Lord McNicol of West Kilbride (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many times the UK has been subject to legal action through investor-state dispute settlement which has been brought either individually or as part of a wider claim; how many times such claims have been successful against the UK; and what was the legal costs of defending those claims.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Lainston - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The UK has investment agreements with Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions with around 90 trading partners. There has never been a successful ISDS claim brought against the UK, nor has any claim reached arbitral proceedings for the UK to defend.
Asked by: Lord McNicol of West Kilbride (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the National Insurance Fund is classified as a liability or a contingent liability on their balance sheet.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
It is neither a liability nor a contingent liability but is recorded as an asset on the government balance sheet.
Asked by: Lord McNicol of West Kilbride (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many businesses they expect to participate in the UK pavilion at the Osaka Expo 2025.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Lainston - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
UK Government will be working with as many British businesses as possible to showcase the UK across Japan and the Asia Pacific region, as well as promote foreign direct investment in the UK. This work is on-going; the total number of businesses that will be involved is not yet confirmed.
Asked by: Lord McNicol of West Kilbride (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government when construction of the UK pavilion for the Osaka Expo 2025 will (1) commence, and (2) be completed.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Lainston - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Construction for the UK pavilion in Osaka will commence in early 2024. Construction will be completed ahead of the Expo opening on 13 April 2025.
Asked by: Lord McNicol of West Kilbride (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much they estimate will be spent by each department on organising the UK pavilion at Osaka Expo 2025; and how much funding they estimate will be provided by (1) UK businesses, and (2) other organisations, to support the organisation of the UK pavilion at Osaka Expo 2025.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Lainston - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department for Business and Trade is organising the UK Pavilion at Osaka Expo 2025 on behalf of His Majesty's Government. The Department's estimated total budget for delivering the UK's presence is £58.39m. This is funded from contributions from existing budgets.
Significant additional funding is being sought from the private sector to offset costs to the taxpayer. This work is in train - it is not therefore possible to accurately estimate private sector funding levels at this point.
Asked by: Lord McNicol of West Kilbride (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the staffing costs for the UK pavilion at the Osaka Expo 2025.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Lainston - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Requirements for staffing the UK pavilion are still being scoped and therefore estimated costs are not currently known.
Asked by: Lord McNicol of West Kilbride (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to bid for the UK to host future Expo events.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
There are currently no plans for the UK to bid to host a future Expo.
Asked by: Lord McNicol of West Kilbride (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to their policy paper UK-India free trade agreement: the UK’s strategic approach, published on 13 January, to what extent they consider the long-run estimates within the document applicable to the UK in the first 15 years of the trade deal being in effect.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Lainston - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model used to estimate these benefits produces long run results: although not explicitly modelled, this is typically assumed to refer to a period of around 15 years after implementation. Because the model used is static, all changes resulting from the agreement are incorporated at once and therefore it does not capture short run impacts.
India is projected to be the world’s third largest economy by 2050 and as India’s middle class grows to nearly a quarter of a billion middle class consumers, greater access to this market is expected to benefit UK firms.