Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an estimate of the annual cost of increasing Child Benefit by £20 per week.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
To ensure that Child Benefit payments retain their value, from April 2023, they will increase in line with September 2022 CPI (10.1%).
The Government publishes details of historic and forecast benefit expenditure, including Child Benefit, on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/benefit-expenditure-and-caseload-tables-2022
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent fiscal steps he has taken to help tackle regional economic inequalities.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Treasury remains committed to tackling this country’s geographical inequalities; the Chancellor recently outlined how spreading opportunity ‘everywhere’, including through devolution deals such as that recently announced with the North East, is crucial to long-term growth.
This Government has invested billions towards levelling up in this Parliament. Most recently, the Government announced the results of the £4.8 billion Levelling Up Fund’s second round, and rolled out the £2.6 billion UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much money have South Tyneside Council returned to his Department from Government Grants allocated over the past two years as of 6 January 2023.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Local authorities receive a wide range of grants from multiple government departments to reflect their broad responsibilities.
HM Treasury does not maintain a central record of grant funding provided to individual local authorities. Information on specific grants, including where relevant the amount returned, is held by the department that is responsible for administering the grant.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how the National Minimum Wage for Seafarers on UK flagged ships is monitored; and what plans his Department has to publish monitoring data.
Answered by Richard Fuller
The Government is determined that everyone who is entitled to the National Minimum Wage (NMW) receives it.
HMRC does not routinely publish sector specific data on NMW complaints received. However, since April 2021, they have received the following number of complaints from seafarers and third-party information (from members of the public who may not work for a specific employer) since April 2021:
Year | Complaints Received | Third Party Information Received |
2021-22 | 9 | 11 |
2022-23 | 4 | 2 |
Total: | 13 | 13 |
HMRC consider and take all complaints seriously from workers referred by the Acas helpline, or received via the online complaints form, and investigate as appropriate.
HMRC do not just rely on complaints. They also undertake proactive enforcement activities, based on their own risk modelling, and undertaking outreach activities to help employers understand their obligations and making sure workers know their rights
If anyone thinks they are not receiving at least the minimum wage, they can contact Acas, in confidence, on 0300 123 1100 or submit a query online using the link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pay-and-work-rights-complaints.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether people on Contributory Employment and Support Allowance are eligible for (a) the Energy Bills Support Scheme, (b) the Warm Home Discount Scheme and (c) Cold Weather Payments.
Answered by Simon Clarke
All households with a domestic electricity meter will receive a universal rebate of £400 through the Energy Bills Support Scheme. This is a doubling of the £200 of support announced in February, and there will no longer be any repayments.
In England and Wales, the £150 Warm Home Discount is targeted to all recipients of Pension Credit Guarantee Credit and also those households who receive means-tested benefits and whose homes are estimated to have the highest energy requirements. In Scotland, the £150 Warm Home Discount is also targeted to all recipients of Pension Credit Guarantee Credit and then certain low income and vulnerable households can apply to their energy supplier to receive the £150 rebate.
The qualifying income-related benefits for the £25 Cold Weather Payments are Pension Credit, Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, and Universal Credit. There are additional qualifying conditions that have to be met to receive the payment.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what guidance he has provided to banks, financial services and providers regarding early termination fees for Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Schemes.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
For Bounce Back Loan Scheme, early repayment is permitted at any stage, without early repayment fees.
For CBILS and CLBILS, as the loan are written in line with lenders’ commercial processes, there is no rule against lenders charging early repayment fees.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much has been spent on infrastructure per capita by the Government in (a) London, (b) the North East and (c) South Shields in each year from 2010 to 2022.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The government is committed to delivering a revolution in the UK's infrastructure. Spending Review 2021 delivers the government’s plans, first set out at Spring Budget 2020, to invest over £600 billion in gross public sector investment over this Parliament, reaching the highest sustained levels of public sector net investment as a proportion of GDP since the late 1970s.
The government has been taking action to level up the North East as set out in the recently published Levelling Up White Paper. This includes the announcements from the Spending Review and Autumn Budget 2021 of £310 million over five years to transform local transport networks in the Tees Valley for schemes such as upgrading Middlesbrough and Darlington stations and improving local rail links, £100 million through the Levelling up Fund for 5 projects in the Norther East and £600,000 through the Community Ownership Fund for two projects in North Shields and Whitley Bay.
A regional breakdown for total current and capital identifiable expenditure per head, from 2016-17 to 2020-21 can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/country-and-regional-analysis-2021/country-and-regional-analysis-november-2021.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Government is taking steps to make it easier for (a) charities, (b) local governments, (c) universities and (d) other service providers to remunerate people to give their feedback on public and social services that those people rely on for the purposes of helping to improve those services.
Answered by Simon Clarke
As set out in Managing Public Money, it is good practice to use customer feedback in evaluating the quality of services provided to the public. Spending decisions by central government bodies on remuneration for provision of feedback may be permitted where such spending is regular, proper, feasible and value for money.
At Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021 the government published an updated set of priority outcomes and metrics. These capture the real-world impacts for the public that departments have committed to achieve, including metrics that track user satisfaction with public services. The full list of priority outcomes and metrics can be found here.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made a comparative assessment of the impact on large business that have several venues of introducing the 50 per cent business rates relief discount on a (a) per business and (b) per premises basis.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Together with Small Business Rates Relief, over 90 per cent of retail, hospitality and leisure businesses will receive at least a 50 per cent reduction in their business rates bills in the year 2022-23.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the 50 per cent business rates relief discount will be afforded per businesses or per premises; and whether high street and seaside arcades will be eligible for that support.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Eligible retail, hospitality and leisure properties in England will receive up to 50 per cent off their business rates bill in 2022-23, subject to a £110,000 cash cap per business.
Guidance setting out eligibility for the 2022-23 retail, hospitality and leisure relief will be published by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in due course.