Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress his Department has made on securing a lease for a permanent Darlington Economic Campus at Brunswick House; and when he expects that site to open.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
We announced on the 26 July 2022 that the Brunswick Street site would be the permanent home of the economic campus. Since then, the Government Property Agency have been working to finalise the commercial negotiations on the site.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many civil servants are based full time at the Darlington Economic Campus at grades (a) Administrative Officer/Administrative Assistant, (b) Executive Officer, (c) Senior Executive Officer/Higher Executive Officer, (d) Grade 7, (e) Grade 6, (f) Senior Civil Servant 1, (g) Senior Civil Servant 2, and (h) Senior Civil Servant 3.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Darlington Economic Campus comprises of the following civil service departments and agencies, HM Treasury, Department for Business and Trade, Department for Energy, Security and Net Zero, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Office for National Statistics, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Competition and Markets Authority, Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
HM Treasury does not hold the information requested by grade across the campus.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many and what proportion of civil servants in his Department are based full-time in (a) London and (b) the Darlington Economic Campus.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Information on the number and proportion of roles in the Darlington Economic Campus will be published in HM Treasury’s Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23 in July 2023.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many and what proportion of his Department's civil servants working at the Darlington Economic Campus were (a) recruited locally and (b) relocated from London.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Whilst the information requested is not publicly available, we will publish information on civil servants working at the Darlington Economic Campus in HM Treasury’s Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23 in July 2023.Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many of the civil servants working for his Department at the Darlington Economic Campus were (a) civil servants prior to their deployment to the campus, and (b) new recruits to the civil service.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Whilst the information requested is not publicly available, we will publish information on civil servants working at the Darlington Economic Campus in HM Treasury’s Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23 in July 2023.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment his Department has made of the economic impact of waste crime and landfill tax fraud.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Waste crime – including landfill tax fraud - is a blight on local communities, harms the environment and undermines legitimate businesses operating in the waste sector. The government is committed to tackling this issue, through a multi-agency response led by Defra and the Joint Unit for Waste Crime.
The government regularly publishes an assessment of the tax gap across the tax system. HMRC has collected and protected over £800m in additional Landfill Tax since 2018 with ever closer collaboration between government departments to make this possible and lay the foundations for further strengthening the regime.
As part of next steps on the Landfill Tax Review, the government will consider the impact of any potential changes to the tax on Landfill Tax fraud, evasion and waste crime and the interaction of potential changes with upcoming environmental regulatory reforms designed to improve compliance and tackle waste crime.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the paragraph 3.26 of the Office for Budget Responsibility's Economic and fiscal outlook - March 2023, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of that report's findings that cumulative UK Infrastructure Bank outlays between 2022-23 and 2025-26 will be 37 per cent lower than the initial estimate.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB) was launched in June 2021 to increase investment into infrastructure and to tackle climate change and support regional and local economic growth across the UK.
In its first Strategic Plan in summer 2022, UKIB set out that, subject to the pipeline of investible projects in each year, it aims to deploy up to £3 billion of debt and equity and £2.5 billion of guarantees a year, committing its initial £22 billion of financial capacity over five to eight years.
To date, UKIB have announced 15 deals in total, investing approximately £1.4 billion and unlocking over £6 billion in private capital and supported over 4,700 jobs.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the his Department's policy paper entitled Net Zero Review Final Report, published on 19 October 2021, what recent progress his Department has made on developing a technology framework to support net zero innovation at fiscal events.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
In 2021, Government published the Net Zero Research and Innovation Framework which sets the research and innovation challenges across sectors over the next 5 to 10 years.
The Net Zero Research and Innovation Delivery Plan 2022-2025, published on 30 March 2023, built on this Framework and set out the allocation of £4.2 billion in Government and Ofgem supported research and innovation funding for net zero. Projects were chosen to maximise strategic advantage for the UK, their contribution to carbon budget delivery and to retain optionality for different net zero pathways.
The Government will continue to use evidence and the Framework to ensure that public spending on net zero innovation is supporting the transition in the most cost-effective way.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the his Department's policy paper entitled Net Zero Review Final Report, published on 19 October 2021, what recent progress his Department has made on reviewing (a) the public sector balance sheet and (b) risk exposures in the context of climate change and the shift to a greener economy.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
HM Treasury continues to build governance, capabilities and processes to support our transition to Net Zero. That includes developing our analytical capability for assessing and reporting on our net zero transition and the impact of policies and projects.
As set out in the Charter for Budget Responsibility, the OBR produces an annual sustainability report which analyses the sustainability of, and the risks to, the public finances. The government’s response to the 2022 Fiscal Risks and Sustainability Report, published at Spring Budget 2023, included an update on progress made on managing the risks of the net zero transition.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the his Department's policy paper entitled Net Zero Review Final Report, published on 19 October 2021, what recent progress his Department has made on building macroeconomic modelling capability.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
As outlined in the Net Zero Review final report, HM Treasury is building its governance, capabilities and processes to support our transition to Net Zero. This includes developing a range of analytical approaches in order to develop our understanding of the many complexities of the economics of net zero and associated policy choices. Integrating the climate into macroeconomic models is an ongoing global effort and much of the international work is preliminary. HM Treasury is leading these discussions and will endeavour to use the best available evidence and analytical tools to carry out its economic assessment of net zero. Significant progress has already been made on building this analytical capacity.