Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to require all large companies to publish a country-by-country report.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The government does not currently plan to require large companies to publish their country-by-country reports. The government keeps tax policy under review but believes that public country-by-country reporting should apply consistently across all multinationals, and therefore an approach should be developed internationally.

More widely, the government’s ambition is to design out non-compliance in the tax system and make the tax system easier and quicker to deal with for taxpayers, delivering the modern and digital service taxpayers expect.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what fines they have levied on P&O Ferries Limited and its directors for failure to file annual audited financial statement at Companies House within the statutory prescribed time for the accounts made up to (1) 31 December 2021, (2) 31 December 2022, and (3) 31 December 2023.

Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

P&O Ferries Limited has incurred the following penalties for delivering overdue accounts for the reporting years specified:

Accounts for the year ending 31 December 2023 will incur a £3000 penalty when they are delivered.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government how they sanction foreign resident directors of UK registered companies for violations of company law.

Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The Companies Act 2006 applies equally to all UK registered companies and their officers regardless of where the directors are based.

Insolvency Service decisions to pursue an allegation of criminal misconduct by a foreign resident director of a UK registered company will assess the seriousness of the offence(s) alleged, whether there is a reasonable prospect of securing their return to the jurisdiction for any prosecution and the resources required.

Civil enforcement requires leave of the court to serve proceedings outside the jurisdiction.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is the annual cost of assessing and administering (1) Pension Credit, and (2) winter fuel payments.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

In terms of administrative costs, in 2023/24 the Department for Work and Pensions spent

(1) £30.7m on the administration of Pension Credit

(2) £3.3m on the administration of Winter Fuel payments.

Cost figures are rounded to the nearest £0.1m

The numbers quoted are estimated DWP level 1 operating costs, including both direct delivery staff and non-staff costs. Non-staff costs are only those costs incurred in local cost centres, relating to direct delivery staff in the processing and management of cases.

Please note that the data supplied is from the Departmental Activity Based Models (ABM). This data is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standards.

The Departmental Activity Based staffing models are a snapshot of how many people were identified as undertaking specified activities as assigned by line managers.

The data is frequently revised and changes to definitions / benefits / DWP structure effect comparisons over time. It should therefore be treated with caution and must be seen as an indication of cost, rather than the actual cost.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of carbon emissions generated by private planes entering or leaving the UK.

Answered by Lord Hendy of Richmond Hill - Minister of State (Department for Transport)

This Government is committed to delivering greener transport and is considering its strategic approach to decarbonising aviation.

In 2023 the Department for Transport published research which estimated carbon emissions from UK-registered General Aviation aircraft arriving and departing from UK aerodromes in 2019. General Aviation includes all non-scheduled civil aviation, including business aviation.

By considering the typical maximum take-off weight of aircraft used for business aviation, his research found that approximately 370 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent were emitted by UK registered business aviation or larger recreational aircraft. Emissions from non-UK registered aircraft were not included.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many companies registered at Companies House do not have a UK resident director.

Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

Companies House does not currently hold this statistic. Furthermore, as country of residency is a free-form text field there are issues with the data quality. However, the introduction of voluntary and mandatory identity verification will allow us to be able to analyse and determine the residency of company directors in the future.

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