Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of bank branch closures on (a) affected communities, (b) local businesses and (c) customers.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
The Government believes that banks should act in the best interests of their customers and continue to serve the needs of the consumer as well as the wider economy. This is why the Government welcomed the industry-wide Access to Banking protocol announced in March 2015. The protocol commits each participating bank to carry out a number of steps when it is closing a branch, including the preparation of meaningful local impact assessments. After deciding to close a branch a bank must also engage with key local stakeholders to understand the potential impact of the close on the local community and branch users. The results of the engagement and the impact assessment will be published before the branch is closed.
Professor Russel Griggs is leading an independent ‘one year on’ review of the protocol. The Government looks forward to seeing the conclusions of the review.
However, banks and building societies need to balance customer interests, market competition, and other commercial factors when considering their strategy. Decisions on the opening and closing of individual branches are taken by the management of each bank on a commercial basis without intervention from Government.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the extent to which banks have effectively applied and implemented the British Banker's Association Industry Protocol.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
The Government welcomed the industry-wide Access to Banking protocol announced in March 2015. The Government believes that banks should act in the best interests of their customers and continue to serve the needs of the consumer as well as the wider economy. Although decisions on opening and closing branches are commercial ones, in which the Government does not intervene, it is imperative that the banks live up to the spirit, as well as the letter, of the commitments in the protocol.
The British Bankers’ Association consulted relevant government departments and the regulator, as envisaged in the protocol, when it appointed Professor Russel Griggs to lead the independent review. The independent reviewer’s role is to consider and identify best practice in implementation and, if appropriate, make recommendations for amendments to the protocol to ensure it continues to meet its objectives.
The Government has not assessed the impact of the protocol or banks’ compliance with their commitments in the protocol and as such will not submit formal evidence. However, the Government awaits the independent review’s conclusions, and any recommendations that the reviewer makes for the future of the protocol, when they are published later this year.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent representations his Department has received from (a) Barclays, (b) HSBC, (c) Lloyds, (d) RBS, (e) Santander, (f) Halifax and (g) other retail banks on bank branch closures.
Answered by Harriett Baldwin - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
Treasury Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery. Details of ministerial and permanent secretary meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmt-ministers-meetings-hospitality-gifts-and-overseas-travel
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will provide dedicated funding to HM Revenue and Customs for the investigation and tackling of tax evasion and avoidance through the use of offshore companies, in light of the leaked documents relating to the operations of Mossack Fonseca.
Answered by David Gauke
The Government has introduced tough new powers and game-changing measures to tackle offshore and onshore tax evasion, and as recently as the summer Budget 2015 gave HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) an additional £800 million to invest in expanding compliance and tax evasion work. This is expected to recover £7.2 billion in tax over the next five years.
The Government is introducing a criminal sanction for corporates facilitating tax evasion, and launching a taskforce, jointly led by HMRC and the National Crime Agency (NCA). Drawing on investigators, compliance specialists and analysts from HMRC, NCA, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), its purpose will be to swiftly obtain and analyse the Mossack Fonseca papers and take rapid action where there is evidence of wrongdoing. The taskforce will look beyond tax into all potential areas of financial crime and other regulatory breaches.
The taskforce will provide a progress report to the Chancellor and Home Secretary later this year. The report will set out the their initial assessment of the information in the Panama papers and proposed actions for further analysis and strategy for pursuing any evidence found of wrongdoing and regulatory breaches.
Additional resourcing of £10m will ensure that the taskforce’s work can be done on top of departmental commitments. Where resource is moved into the task force, existing roles will be back filled as soon as possible.
Asked by: David Lammy (Labour - Tottenham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the implications of the leaked documents relating to the operations of Mossack Fonseca for HM Revenue and Custom's policy on investigating and tackling tax evasion and avoidance using offshore vehicles.
Answered by David Gauke
The Government has introduced tough new powers and game-changing measures to tackle offshore and onshore tax evasion, and as recently as the summer Budget 2015 gave HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) an additional £800 million to invest in expanding compliance and tax evasion work. This is expected to recover £7.2 billion in tax over the next five years.
The Government is introducing a criminal sanction for corporates facilitating tax evasion, and launching a taskforce, jointly led by HMRC and the National Crime Agency (NCA). Drawing on investigators, compliance specialists and analysts from HMRC, NCA, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), its purpose will be to swiftly obtain and analyse the Mossack Fonseca papers and take rapid action where there is evidence of wrongdoing. The taskforce will look beyond tax into all potential areas of financial crime and other regulatory breaches.
The taskforce will provide a progress report to the Chancellor and Home Secretary later this year. The report will set out the their initial assessment of the information in the Panama papers and proposed actions for further analysis and strategy for pursuing any evidence found of wrongdoing and regulatory breaches.
Additional resourcing of £10m will ensure that the taskforce’s work can be done on top of departmental commitments. Where resource is moved into the task force, existing roles will be back filled as soon as possible.