Asked by: Baroness Prentis of Banbury (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have held any meetings with the Church of England or the Roman Catholic Church regarding the protection of cathedral schools and their choral traditions.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Ministers and departmental officials hold regular meetings with both the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church. The most recent meetings with my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education took place earlier this month. There have been no issues or concerns raised about the protection of Cathedral Schools and their choral traditions.
Asked by: Baroness Prentis of Banbury (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they are considering adding the church choral tradition to the list of inventories under the UN Convention on the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Communities of practice will be able to submit their living heritage to the inventories when we open for submissions later this year. We would welcome a submission on church choral tradition.
Asked by: Baroness Prentis of Banbury (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Community Municipal Investment (CMI) green investment bonds, such as those offered by the London Boroughs of Greenwich, Southwark, Hounslow and Hammersmith and Fulham, are authorised by any regulator; and whether retail investors in such municipal bonds have any form of protection under the (1) Financial Services Ombudsman Scheme or (2) Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 establishes a framework whereby any person, whether an individual or firm, can only carry out a regulated activity by way of business if they are authorised by the appropriate regulator or are exempt from the authorisation requirement. Under this framework, the government determines which activities are regulated activities, by specifying them in the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) Order 2001 (RAO).
Where local authorities are the issuers of bonds, or borrowers under loans, they themselves would not require authorisation from a financial services regulator to act in that capacity, and would not be subject to regulation by the financial services regulators.
Financial services firms facilitating access to such funding by local authorities may, depending on the circumstances, be subject to regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority, and investors may be eligible to refer disputes with the regulated firm to the Financial Ombudsman Service. Depending on the precise circumstances of any products offered, compensation in the case of default may be available under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.