Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they intend to take in response to the ruling of the High Court on 3 May regarding their carbon budget delivery plan.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government is immensely proud of its record on climate change. The Carbon Budget Delivery Plan remains Government policy and sets out over 300 policies and proposals that the Government has in place to reach its ambitious carbon budgets.
The judgment contains no criticism of these detailed plans nor the policies themselves, which will keep the UK on track to meet net zero by 2050.
Officials are now considering the best approach to comply with the court order and the Government will publish a new report within 12 months.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the bank loan application success rates of small and medium-sized enterprises.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recognises the vital importance small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and is committed to supporting SMEs grow and create jobs by providing an environment in which they can thrive.
Access to finance for small businesses is important to drive growth. The government supports that access through the Recovery Loan Scheme, which offers a 70% government guarantee on loans to SMEs
of up to £2 million. The scheme has supported over £5.3 billion of finance to SMEs since its introduction in April 2021.
At the 2024 Spring Budget, the Government announced that the Recovery Loan Scheme would be extended to the end of March 2026, and renamed as the Growth Guarantee Scheme.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to (1) retain, and (2) attract, foreign financial firms and jobs in the UK.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Financial and related professional services employ more than 2 million people in the UK and the Government is committed to ensuring the UK remains the location of choice for top talent from across the world. This is part of the Government’s mission to ensure the UK retains its position as one of the most innovative and competitive financial centres in the world. Most recently, at Spring Budget 2024, the Chancellor updated on the ambitious package of reforms which will help to deliver the Government’s vision for a financial sector that is open, sustainable, technologically innovative, and globally competitive.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the recent content licensing agreement between The Financial Times and OpenAI, what assessment they have made of the potential implications this may have for the AI industry; and what steps they are taking to further promote transparency and accountability in AI-driven content generation and distribution.
Answered by Viscount Camrose - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government wants the AI sector and our creative industries to grow together in partnership and is encouraged to see agreements being reached between AI developers and press publishers.
As set out in its response to the AI White Paper, the Government believes there should be greater transparency from AI developers in relation to data inputs and the attribution of outputs. It is considering ways to achieve this and will engage closely with right holders and AI developers.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the 12 per cent increase in house sales during April; and what steps they are taking to support first-time buyers.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The most comprehensive measure of UK property transactions is published by HMRC. According to this measure, residential property transactions rose by 1% in March 2024 compared to February, the third consecutive monthly increase.
The Government continues to monitor developments in the housing market closely and consider the implications.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the reported recent increase in mergers and acquisitions activity among medium-sized companies, what steps they are taking to support continued mergers and acquisitions activity whilst ensuring that it does not lead to (1) monopolistic practices, or (2) reduced competition in key industries.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Lainston - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Competition and Markets Authority is the UK's independent competition regulator with responsibility for reviewing mergers and acquisitions on competition grounds.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to support small businesses in adapting to additional costs for post-Brexit border checks.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
To support SMEs, Defra has identified and issued guidance on a number of facilitations and mitigations to reduce the burden of sanitary and phytosanitary import requirements using groupage.
The Common User Charge is designed to spread the costs to be recovered across the maximum number of imports. This approach distributes the cost across business of all sizes and sectors and provides a high level of predictability on costs for all importers.
The impact of the Common User Charge on businesses, and especially on small businesses, will be kept under monthly and quarterly reviews, with rates reviewed and updated annually.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have had, or intend to have, discussions with the EU regarding the implementation of a post-Brexit agreement on the supply of veterinary medicines to Northern Ireland.
Answered by Lord Douglas-Miller - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is committed to securing a long-term sustainable solution ahead of December 2025 that will properly support the flow of veterinary medicines into Northern Ireland from Great Britain on an enduring basis. We are determined to safeguard the supply of veterinary medicines, and we will pursue technical discussions with the EU to find a solution that removes barriers to supply; in return we are willing to provide assurances and safeguards to the EU. The Veterinary Medicines Working Group, including experts, industry representatives and elected representatives, will report back to Government on steps needed to secure supplies for the long term.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that the transition to electric vehicles supports the automotive industry.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government continues to engage extensively with the automotive industry to ensure the transition supports the sector.
Government has already spent over £2 billion to support the transition to ZEVs. This funding has focused on reducing barriers to the adoption of such vehicles to support demand, including offsetting their higher upfront cost, and accelerating the rollout of chargepoint infrastructure. The Government’s plug-in vehicle grants, favourable benefit in kind tax rates and generous tax incentives also remain in place to encourage the uptake of ZEVs.
As part of the Advanced Manufacturing Plan, the Government has also announced over £2 billion of capital and research and development funding to 2030, to further boost the UK’s competitiveness and unlock strategic investments in the automotive industry.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the recent decline in corporate insolvencies, what steps they are taking to (1) identify the factors they believe contributed to this reduction, and (2) ensure this trend continues.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government was pleased to see that statistics reported by the Insolvency Service showed the number of corporate insolvencies in March 2024 had fallen by 28% compared to March 2023.
The Government continues to help businesses, including through a swathe of policy measures in the Autumn explicitly aimed at ‘Backing British business’. Recent and current Government policies supporting businesses include:
· Energy Bills Discount Scheme that provided discounts on high energy bills to eligible businesses and other non-domestic energy users from April 2023 to April 2024, with higher support to businesses in energy / trade intensive sectors.
· Continued frozen small business rates multiplier and business rates relief for the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure sector, the latter policy supporting around 230,000 properties up to £110,000 per business. Transitional Relief to protect ratepayers facing bill increases due to rising rateable value and scrapping ‘downwards caps’.
· Payment and cashflow review outlining measures to combat late payments that can jeopardise stable cashflows, and penalising late paying firms by exempting those paying invoices after an average of 55 days from bidding for Government contracts worth over £5mn.
The Government will continue to monitor the UK corporate sector, including insolvency trends, using official data and engaging with firms and business groups to inform policy decisions.