Asked by: Lord Tyler (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Home Office will publish records of external meetings held by special advisers to its ministers.
Answered by Lord Bates
The Government publishes an unprecedented amount of data; departments publish details of Ministers’ and Permanent Secretaries’ meetings with external organisations, and Special Advisers' meetings with senior media figures.
The information requested is not held centrally and there are no plans to extend current arrangements.
Asked by: Lord Tyler (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the report by the Institute of Fiscal Studies <i>Living Standards, Poverty and Inequality in the UK: 2015;</i> and how they plan to respond to the findings that nearly 63 per cent of British children living in poverty are in working families.
Answered by Baroness Altmann
The recent IFS report is positive about the Government’s new approach to tackling the root causes of poverty: they said that “focusing on a broad range of inputs into life chances and causes of poverty is sensible.” They also add that “family worklessness certainly is a sensible thing to track if one wants to reduce the prevalence of low living standards.”
This Government knows that work remains the best route out of poverty. Research shows that around three-quarters of poor children in families that move into full employment exit poverty. We are committed to supporting parents to move into work, increase their earnings, and keep more of what they earn. Universal Credit, our investment in childcare and the introduction of the National Living Wage will all play an important part.
The Government also recognises that improving skills and progression is the key to making work pay. That is why under this Government we intend to create three million more apprenticeships over the next five years, and to help people move on to better jobs by improving qualifications and providing additional support through Jobcentre Plus.
Asked by: Lord Tyler (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the final outturn for each hospital trust in England for each of the last five years; and how much the surplus or deficit was as a proportion of each trust’s total budget.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
Data by individual National Health Service trust and foundation trust is attached.
NHS trusts and foundation trusts do not receive budgets directly from the Department. They receive income for the provision of services from NHS commissioners. We have therefore provided details in the attached annex of operating income by NHS trust and foundation trust.
Asked by: Lord Tyler (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to enable Pensioner Bonds to be taken out by an eligible pensioner in the name of a grandchild.
Answered by Lord Deighton
There are no plans to enable eligible pensioners to take out the bonds in the name of a grandchild. These new market-leading savings bonds and are designed to help support those who rely on their savings in retirement. Low interest rates have played an important part in stimulating the recovery. But there are those – especially pensioners – who rely on a reasonable rate of interest on their savings.
Asked by: Lord Tyler (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have considered any scheme to provide inheritance tax relief on bequests which are specifically and solely in respect of paying off student loans; and, if so, what assessment they have made of the impact such a scheme might have on the overall amount of student debt which remains unpaid after 30 years.
Answered by Lord Deighton
The Government has no plans to provide a targeted inheritance tax relief in respect of paying off student loans. The current inheritance tax nil rate band and rules for lifetime gifts means the vast majority of individuals are able to make bequests or gifts for this purpose without inheritance tax being a consideration.
The Government keeps all taxes under review.
Asked by: Lord Tyler (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the revenues which would be realised by applying income tax to Winter Fuel Payments.
Answered by Lord Freud
Eligibility for Winter Fuel Payments is based on female State Pension age. The latest estimates we have show that there are currently around 600,000 higher and additional rate taxpayers in Great Britain in 2014/15 who are above the female State Pension age and therefore qualify for Winter Fuel Payments1.
We ask people who want to return their payment to do so by post so that it can be dealt with securely under existing Departmental financial processes and recorded against their Winter Fuel Payment account. We also ask for a covering letter indicating whether or not they wish us to continue to issue payments in future years.
Returned payments should be sent to the address on the issuing letter or to the office that pays the claimant’s benefit.
The latest estimates we have show that treating Winter Fuel Payments as taxable income would bring in around £250 million a year of additional revenue2.
Notes:
1. This estimate is based on the 2011/12 Survey of Personal Incomes using economic assumptions consistent with the OBR’s November 2014 economic and fiscal outlook.
The estimate uses ONS population projections at mid year 2012 adjusted for financial years.
The estimate is rounded to the nearest 100,000.
2. This estimate is based on DWP modelling using HMRC taxpayer data from November 2012 and Winter Fuel Payment caseload data from Winter 2013.
This takes into account revenue from Basic, Higher and Additional rate taxpayers.
Winter Fuel Payment rates are assumed to be £200 per year for recipients under 80 and £300 a year for recipients aged 80 and over.
Asked by: Lord Tyler (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, and if so how, recipients of the Winter Fuel Payment may return their payment to the Treasury.
Answered by Lord Freud
Eligibility for Winter Fuel Payments is based on female State Pension age. The latest estimates we have show that there are currently around 600,000 higher and additional rate taxpayers in Great Britain in 2014/15 who are above the female State Pension age and therefore qualify for Winter Fuel Payments1.
We ask people who want to return their payment to do so by post so that it can be dealt with securely under existing Departmental financial processes and recorded against their Winter Fuel Payment account. We also ask for a covering letter indicating whether or not they wish us to continue to issue payments in future years.
Returned payments should be sent to the address on the issuing letter or to the office that pays the claimant’s benefit.
The latest estimates we have show that treating Winter Fuel Payments as taxable income would bring in around £250 million a year of additional revenue2.
Notes:
1. This estimate is based on the 2011/12 Survey of Personal Incomes using economic assumptions consistent with the OBR’s November 2014 economic and fiscal outlook.
The estimate uses ONS population projections at mid year 2012 adjusted for financial years.
The estimate is rounded to the nearest 100,000.
2. This estimate is based on DWP modelling using HMRC taxpayer data from November 2012 and Winter Fuel Payment caseload data from Winter 2013.
This takes into account revenue from Basic, Higher and Additional rate taxpayers.
Winter Fuel Payment rates are assumed to be £200 per year for recipients under 80 and £300 a year for recipients aged 80 and over.
Asked by: Lord Tyler (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many recipients of the Winter Fuel Payment are higher rate taxpayers.
Answered by Lord Freud
Eligibility for Winter Fuel Payments is based on female State Pension age. The latest estimates we have show that there are currently around 600,000 higher and additional rate taxpayers in Great Britain in 2014/15 who are above the female State Pension age and therefore qualify for Winter Fuel Payments1.
We ask people who want to return their payment to do so by post so that it can be dealt with securely under existing Departmental financial processes and recorded against their Winter Fuel Payment account. We also ask for a covering letter indicating whether or not they wish us to continue to issue payments in future years.
Returned payments should be sent to the address on the issuing letter or to the office that pays the claimant’s benefit.
The latest estimates we have show that treating Winter Fuel Payments as taxable income would bring in around £250 million a year of additional revenue2.
Notes:
1. This estimate is based on the 2011/12 Survey of Personal Incomes using economic assumptions consistent with the OBR’s November 2014 economic and fiscal outlook.
The estimate uses ONS population projections at mid year 2012 adjusted for financial years.
The estimate is rounded to the nearest 100,000.
2. This estimate is based on DWP modelling using HMRC taxpayer data from November 2012 and Winter Fuel Payment caseload data from Winter 2013.
This takes into account revenue from Basic, Higher and Additional rate taxpayers.
Winter Fuel Payment rates are assumed to be £200 per year for recipients under 80 and £300 a year for recipients aged 80 and over.
Asked by: Lord Tyler (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the remarks by Lord Wallace of Tankerness on 13 January (HL Deb, cols 19–20), what progress they have made in fulfilling their commitments to make further improvements to the accessibility of government transparency information by (1) ensuring greater co-ordination of the publication of data sets so that all returns within a quarter can be found on one page, (2) improving the access to and presentation of those data, including by improving the consistency of presentation and titling, (3) ensuring greater consistency in the content of departmental reporting, particularly in including the subject of meetings, and (4) ensuring that the gov.uk transparency pages contain a link to the statutory register of lobbyists so that the data can be easily cross-referenced.
Answered by Lord Wallace of Saltaire - Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson (Cabinet Office)
Cabinet Office regularly monitors adherence to departmental open data commitments, as well as timeliness of their publication across government. We are making regular efforts to improve access to and presentation of the data, including by improving the consistency of presentation and titling.
Steps have already been taken to improve the consistency of Ministers’, Senior Officials’ and Special Advisers’ transparency returns and technical improvements to the presentation of this data will be introduced for information published in 2015. The recently established independent Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists now has a web presence on gov.uk and the Government will ensure that the transparency pages of gov.uk provide a link to the statutory register once launched.
Asked by: Lord Tyler (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what proportion of their income local authorities in England raised themselves in each of the last three years for which figures are available.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The income raised by local authorities through council tax, locally retained business rates and sales fees and charges, as a proportion of their total non-ringfenced income, was 53% in 2012-13, 67% in 2013-14 and is budgeted to be 70% in 2014-15. This is a consequence of our programme of decentralisation, increasing local control of public funding.