Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the total value of council property in England in each year since 2010.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
Every year the Treasury publishes Whole of Government Accounts (WGA). This is a consolidated account for the entire public sector.
WGA includes valuations (in line with those published in the statutory accounts of individual local authorities) of dwellings recognised in local authority accounts. These are then consolidated and published alongside other assets in the WGA accounts. This information is presented in the table below. Although WGA was published from 2009-10, the Treasury only holds information going back to 2012-13.
It is important to note that this figure does not include housing associations, which are not consolidated into WGA. This table only covers English Local Government.
Local authorities prepare their accounts under the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accounting (CIPFA) code of practice on local authority accounting. Under section 4.1.2 of this guidance, council dwellings includes dwellings within the Housing Revenue Account. The data below is consistent with that definition of Council dwellings.
Net book value (£k) | |
2017-18 | 88,043,828 |
2016-17 | 85,770,904 |
2015-16 | 76,405,486 |
2014-15 | 70,937,649 |
2013-14 | 65,527,405 |
2012-13 | 61,521,325 |
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many times the Financial Conduct Authority has taken enforcement action against lenders who have breached the rules on affordability checks for loans in each of the last five years.
Answered by John Glen
On 1 April 2014, regulation of the consumer credit market, including payday lenders, was transferred to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
We have passed the Honourable Member’s question on to the FCA, who will reply directly by letter. A copy of the letter will be placed in the Library of the House.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many companies have been investigated by the Financial Conduct Authority for (a) market abuses and (b) breaches of financial regulation in each of the last five years.
Answered by John Glen
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) provides an overview of its enforcement activities in its enforcement annual performance reports. These reports, for the past five years, can be found on the following links:
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent steps his Department has taken to ensure the enforcement of the UK's anti-money laundering laws.
Answered by John Glen
The UK has one of the strongest anti money laundering (AML) regimes in the world. The Financial Action Task Force – which sets global AML standards - concluded in December of last year that the UK has the strongest AML regime of over 60 countries assessed to date. This government is committed to combatting illicit finance, has already done more than any other to tackle the threat of money laundering, and we are building on our strengths.
The Treasury has strengthened AML supervision by creating the Office for Professional Body AML supervision (OPBAS), hosted by the FCA and operational since January 2018. OPBAS has recently completed its initial supervisory assessments of all professional body supervisors. The Treasury will continue to work closely with OPBAS to ensure that its plans and activities are effective, risk-based and implemented effectively by professional body supervisors.
The Economic Crime Strategic Board (ECSB) met for the first time in January. The Board is co-chaired by the Chancellor and the Home Secretary and consists of ministers, senior officials, heads of regulatory and law enforcement authorities, and representatives from the private sector including CEOs of major banks. The Board’s purpose is to drive the public and private sector response to economic crime, by setting strategic priorities, ensuring resources are aligned to priorities and scrutinising overall performance against the economic crime threat.
We are co-leading the wider economic crime reform programme with the Home Office, including reforming the Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) regime.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much has been allocated to the devolved administrations to help them prepare for the possibility that the UK does not agree a Withdrawal Agreement with the EU.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
The Government is making additional funding available so that departments and the devolved administrations can prepare effectively for EU Exit. More than £4.2 billion has been provided since 2016, including over £2 billion for core Brexit activity in 2019-20 for deal and no deal scenarios.
The 2019-20 allocations were announced in a Written Ministerial Statement on 18 December 2018. The devolved administrations received their full share of additional funding in devolved areas through the Barnett Formula, with the Scottish Government allocated £54.7m, the Welsh Government allocated £31.1m, and the Northern Ireland administration allocated £20.4m. The Police Service Northern Ireland has received a further £16.5m to reflect the specific and unique circumstances in Northern Ireland.
This follows 2018-19 Barnett-based allocations from a £1.5 billion fund, which provided the Scottish Government with £37.3m, the Welsh Government with £21.4m, and the Northern Ireland administration with £15.2m.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many (a) attempted prosecutions, (b) successful prosecutions and (c) penalties imposed for failing to pay the National Living Wage there have been in (i) England, (ii) Wales, (iii) Scotland, and (iv) Northern Ireland in each of the last three years.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
HMRC reviews all National Minimum Wage (NMW) complaints that are referred to them, in order to ensure that workers receive what they are legally entitled to. Breaches of NMW legislation are normally a civil matter, and consequences for not complying with paying NMW can include fines of up to 200% of the arrears and public naming.
For the most serious NMW breaches, HMRC will refer cases to the CPS who decide whether to prosecute. All HMRC NMW cases taken forward by the CPS have resulted in successful prosecution.
HMRC records do not distinguish between National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage (NLW) cases, nor is data available by reference to individual countries of the United Kingdom.
For the years 2015/2016, 2016/2017 and 2017/2018, HMRC undertook a number of successful criminal and civil actions against employers who failed to pay NMW to their workers.
| 2015/2016 | 2016/2017 | 2017/2018 |
Successful prosecutions |
| 4 | 1 |
Civil penalties | 815 | 821 | 810 |