Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with the travel and aviation industry to explore the potential merits of extending the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme for those sectors.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme was designed as a temporary, economy-wide measure to support businesses while widespread restrictions were in place. Closing the scheme at the end of September is designed to strike the right balance between supporting the economy as it opens up, continuing to provide support and protect incomes, and ensuring that incentives are in place to get people back to work as demand returns. This approach has worked; the OBR have estimated that without the short-term fiscal easing announced in the Budget, and in particular the CJRS extension, unemployment would have been about 300,000 higher in the fourth quarter of this year than the 2.2 million in the central forecast.
The Government recognises the particular challenges that the travel industry has faced as a result of COVID-19. In England travel agents have recently benefited from Restart Grants worth up to £6,000, and can continue to benefit from the £2 billion of discretionary grant funding that has been made available to local authorities in England through the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG). Furthermore, the aviation and aerospace sectors are being supported with over £12 billion that has been made available through loan guarantees, support for exporters, the Bank of England’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF) and grants for research and development. In addition, airports continue to benefit from the renewed Airport and Ground Operations Support Scheme announced at Budget.
The Global Travel Taskforce (GTT) report sets out a clear framework for the Government’s objective of establishing a safe and sustainable return to international travel, which is key to enabling the sector’s recovery. It has been created following extensive engagement with the international travel and tourism industries, and changes following the recent checkpoint review of the GTT are a vital step in enabling the recovery of travel operators and those whose jobs rely on the travel industry.
The Government has shown throughout the pandemic that it is prepared to adapt support if the path of the virus changes. It continues to engage closely with sectors across the economy, including the travel industry, in order to understand their recovery horizons as the vaccine is rolled out and restrictions ease.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many companies have signed up to the Trader Support Service in each of the last twelve months.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Trader Support Service has been open to registrations since November 2020. Since then over 38,400 businesses have registered in total.
The registrations by month are as follows:
November 2020 – 16,809
December 2020 – 8,180
January 2021 – 7,011
February 2021 – 2,789
March 2021 – 2,094
April 2021 – 1,063
May 2021 – 503 (to date)
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent progress has been made on the pilot no-interest loan scheme; and whether that scheme will operate in Northern Ireland.
Answered by John Glen
At Budget 2021, the Government announced up to £3.8 million of funding to support a pilot No-Interest Loans Scheme. The Government has been working closely with stakeholders, including with Devolved Administrations, to facilitate the pilot. An independent organisation will deliver the pilot. Further details, including the territorial extent of the pilot, will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will consider introducing a personal loan scheme similar to the Bounce Back Scheme to provide people in debt with a low interest route to financial wellbeing in the context of increasing household debt levels as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by John Glen
While the total amount of outstanding lending to individuals has increased by 0.9% since February 2020. The growth rate was below pre-pandemic levels and has mostly been driven by an increase in lending for house purchases. Since February 2020, the amount of outstanding consumer credit has fallen by 13.2%.
To support households that have been affected by Covid-19, we have put in place unprecedented support – including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme, and a package of welfare measures on which we spent an additional £7.4 billion in the 2020-21 financial year.
We have also taken specific action to support those in debt or in need of affordable credit as a result of Covid-19. For those facing temporary payment difficulties as a result of the pandemic, we worked with the FCA to introduce mortgage and consumer credit payment holidays. The Government has also agreed to maintain record levels of debt advice funding for the Money and Pension Service in 2021-22. To support access to affordable credit, since 2019, the Government has allocated £96 million of dormant assets funding to Fair4All Finance. Fair4All Finance was founded to improve the financial wellbeing of those who are financially vulnerable through fair and affordable financial products and services.
With respect to setting up a loan scheme, at Budget, HM Treasury announced it would provide up to £3.8 million of funding to deliver a pilot No-Interest Loans Scheme. The scheme will support vulnerable consumers who would benefit from affordable rather than high-cost credit to meet unexpected costs.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, on what date the fourth self-employed income support grant is planned to open for applications.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
I refer the Honourable Member to the answer given on 23 March 2021 to UIN 171650.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many requests his Department has received from the Finance Minister in Northern Ireland to meet to discuss the funding of a pension for victims of the troubles in Northern Ireland in the last 12 months.
Answered by Steve Barclay
I am responding to this PQ as the Minister responsible for leading the Treasury’s interests in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
I regularly engage with my counterpart in the Northern Ireland Executive on a wide range of issues as part of the ongoing collaboration between our Governments.
I am aware of the issues surrounding the Victims Payment Scheme. It is the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Executive to provide funding for victims of the Troubles and they are funded to do so. The UK Government will continue to engage with the Executive on its delivery of schemes designed to support victims of the Troubles.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people in Northern Ireland accessed support through the Self Employment Income Support Scheme in 2020; and what the total amount of that support was.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
By 31 July 2020, 78,000 individuals from Northern Ireland had claimed the first SEISS grant and the total claim amount was £223,000,000.
By 31 October 2020, 70,000 individuals from Northern Ireland had claimed the second SEISS grant and the total claim amount was £175,000,000.
By 31 October 2020, 81,000 individuals from Northern Ireland had claimed either the first or second SEISS grant or both and the total claim amount was £398,000,000.
These figures were taken from the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme statistics published on 21 August and 25 November respectively.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress has been made on the implementation of the Levelling Up Fund; and whether that fund will be administered by the (a) Northern Ireland Executive, (b) UK Government or (c) local authorities in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
As set out at the Spending Review, the new Levelling Up Fund will be worth £4 billion for England, and will attract up to £0.8 billion for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in the usual way. It will invest in local infrastructure that has a visible impact on people and their communities and will support economic recovery. More broadly, the Government is committed to levelling up all parts of the UK, with the Spending Review setting out both new UK-wide interventions and an additional £900 million Barnett funding for the Northern Ireland Executive.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much and what proportion of funds paid through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme have been voluntarily paid back to his Department by companies that were entitled to the payment; how many companies in Northern Ireland have made such payments; and what the amount was of each such payment.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
As of 3 November 2020, Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) grants to the value of £382 million have been recorded as returned. This figure consists of £198 million in payments being repaid and £184 million in adjustments to existing claims.
HMRC do not hold information by the geographic breakdown requested.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of the reduction in VAT for the hospitality industry to 5 per cent on the viability of that sector.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The temporary reduced rate of VAT (five per cent) was introduced in order to support the cash flow and viability of over 150,000 businesses and protect 2.4 million jobs in the hospitality and tourism sectors. This relief comes at an estimated cost of £2.54 billion and is therefore expected to have benefited the sector by reducing its VAT liabilities by this amount.