Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have died while attempting to cross the English Channel to the UK illegally in each year since 2020.
Answered by Michael Tomlinson
The Home Office is aware of a total of 69 persons known to have died while attempting to cross the English Channel in small boats since 2020:
2020: 6 deaths reported
2021: 34 deaths reported
2022: 4 deaths reported
2023: 12 deaths reported
2024: 13 deaths reported (as at 30 April 2024)
A Bill to remove exemptions from requirements to provide access or services to a person who is accompanied by an assistance dog; to make the undertaking of disability equality training in relation to assistance dogs a condition of holding a licence to drive a taxi or private hire vehicle; to prohibit the parking of motor vehicles on pavements and footpaths; and for connected purposes.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what his policy is on open finance.
Answered by Bim Afolami
The financial services sector is currently at the forefront of Smart Data, through a combination of Open Banking and the HM Treasury-funded Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT), which recently published recommendations for driving Open Finance forward in the UK.
HM Treasury has worked closely with the Department for Business and Trade as it developed its Smart Data roadmap, which sets out the government’s ambition for future Smart Data scheme development across seven different sectors, including finance, and is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-smart-data-roadmap-action-the-government-is-taking-in-2024-to-2025.
As set out in the roadmap, HM Treasury will carefully consider CFIT’s recommendations for Open Finance, alongside wider industry engagement, as it develops its strategy for Open Finance.
In April 2024, HM Treasury also announced the launch of an industry-led taskforce, which will identify and prioritise Open Finance use cases and data-sets that could be unlocked to improve SME access to credit.