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Written Question
Funerals: Financial Services
Thursday 11th January 2024

Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking with the Financial Conduct Authority to help ensure funeral fund providers have sufficient resources to meet their obligations.

Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

In January 2021 the government legislated to bring all pre-paid funeral plan providers and intermediaries within the Financial Conduct Authority’s regulatory remit.

The FCA has extensive experience of both conduct and prudential regulation. As part of its regulation of the sector, the FCA have introduced requirements that ensure that funeral plan providers have sufficient funds to fulfil the funeral plan contracts they have entered into.

This includes rules that require funeral plan providers to:

  • place sufficient funds to provide any agreed upon funeral in a trust or insurance arrangements;

  • have systems and controls in place to ensure the adequacy of those trust and insurance arrangements and to ensure that pricing does not lead to insufficient sums being available to provide the agreed upon funeral; and

  • consider the risk of inflation and volatility of trust assets when assessing the sums needed to provide for the funeral.

Written Question
Wind Power
Monday 16th January 2023

Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much revenue accrued to the Crown Estate from offshore wind leases in the last year.

Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

The Crown Estate operates as an independent commercial business, in line with The Crown Estate Act and the Framework Agreement with HM Treasury. The Crown Estate returns 100% of its net revenue to HM Treasury each year, totally over £3billion in the last decade.

The Crown Estate publishes its revenue performance for each business unit on an annual basis. These accounts are laid in Parliament.

For the financial year 2021/22, The Crown Estate generated £113.3million from its marine business, which includes offshore wind leasing activity alongside other seabed leasing activity. The seabed is a valuable national asset, and through The Crown Estate’s leasing and investment activity appropriate value is being secured to the benefit of the nation.


Written Question
Credit Rating
Wednesday 11th January 2023

Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if his Department will make an assessment of the level of potential (a) inefficiencies and (b) inequalities in credit scoring systems.

Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) recently published an interim report on its Credit Information Market Study, which looks at how the credit information sector is working and how it could be improved. This includes consideration of the purpose, quality and accessibility of credit information. It can be found at: https://www.fca.org.uk/publications/market-studies/ms19-1-credit-information-market-study.

The Treasury is engaging with the FCA, as well as industry and consumer groups, on the emerging findings of the Market Study.


Written Question
Insurance: Racial Discrimination
Wednesday 11th January 2023

Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an assessment of potential trends in the level of discrimination of people from ethnic minority backgrounds in the provision of insurance.

Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Under the Equality Act 2010 insurers cannot use ethnicity as a risk factor when determining the price of insurance. Insurers must treat customers fairly under the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) rules and the FCA has powers to act against firms that fail to comply.

The Treasury met with insurance companies following the Citizens Advice report on the ‘ethnicity penalty’ published in March 2022 and will continue to engage with the insurance industry and the regulator on this important issue.


Written Question
Pension Funds: Investment
Wednesday 11th January 2023

Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the underlying causes of concerns relating to liability driven investment funds in the pensions industry in 2022; and what lessons his Department has learned about the operation of these funds during this period.

Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) regulates pension schemes, and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulates UK-based asset managers that manage LDI funds which are often used by pension schemes. The Government welcomes the recent work of the UK regulators to require that LDI funds hold higher levels of resilience, following volatility in gilt markets in 2022. This work has also been welcomed, as a first step, by the Bank of England’s independent Financial Policy Committee (FPC), which is responsible for identifying and addressing systemic risks to improve UK financial stability. The FPC’s December 2022 Financial Stability Report (FSR), and its assessment of the vulnerabilities associated with LDI funds, was an important milestone in the ongoing lessons learned process.


Written Question
Credit Rating
Monday 9th January 2023

Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the number of people who have (a) no credit record, (b) an insufficient credit record and (c) no recent credit history.

Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Government does not hold information on the number of people who have limited or no credit history on their credit files.

However, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) recently published an interim report on its Credit Information Market Study, which may include information and insights relevant to this question. It can be found at: https://www.fca.org.uk/publications/market-studies/ms19-1-credit-information-market-study


Written Question
England Illegal Money Lending Team: Finance
Wednesday 14th September 2022

Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will provide additional resources to the England Illegal Money Lending Team to tackle the threat of illegal money lending.

Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Government recognises the dangers of illegal money lending, and that is why the Treasury funds the Illegal Money Lending Teams (IMLTs) across the UK via an industry levy collected by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Since taking over funding of the IMLTs in 2017, the Treasury has increased their annual funding by 37%. For the 2022/23 financial year, the Treasury increased funding for the England Illegal Money Lending Team by over 6% compared to 2021/22.

HMT officials regularly meet the IMLTs to understand the latest intelligence and monitor how funding is being deployed. These discussions will inform decisions about the appropriate levels of funding for the next financial year.


Written Question
Cryptocurrencies
Wednesday 26th May 2021

Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Answer of 23 April 2021 to Question 180919 on Bitcoin: electricity, what his planned timescale is for providing a common definition for environmentally sustainable economy activities for (a) Bitcoin and (b) other crypto-currencies.

Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

The Cryptoasset Taskforce, comprising HM Treasury, the Financial Conduct Authority, and the Bank of England, considers the impact of cryptoassets and assesses what, if any, regulation is required in response. The Government stands ready to respond to emerging risks or changes in the market and will continue to monitor developments in cryptoassets.

In November 2020, the Chancellor announced that the UK will implement a green taxonomy – a common framework for determining which activities can be defined as environmentally sustainable – which will improve understanding of the impact of firms’ activities and investments on the environment and support our transition to a sustainable economy. More details on the green taxonomy will be announced in due course.


Written Question
Bitcoin: Electricity
Friday 23rd April 2021

Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the environmental impact of the electricity demand of bitcoin mining will be on the COP26 agenda.

Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade

The Government’s private finance objective for the upcoming COP26 climate change forum is to ensure that every professional financial decision takes climate change into account. The recovery from COVID-19 will determine the mitigation and adaptation pathways for decades to come.

The finance campaign will provide the conditions for a future that is genuinely greener, more resilient and more sustainable than the past. Action on finance underpins all the other COP campaigns: adaptation and resilience, energy transition, nature and zero-emission vehicles. Without the right levels of finance, the rest is not possible.

The Government has already taken action to ensure the UK is the world-leading centre for green finance including through announcing an intention to make disclosures aligned with the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) fully mandatory across the economy by 2025, making the UK the first country to do so.

Additionally, the Government has committed to the implementation of a green taxonomy. This will allow us to accelerate our work towards a greener financial sector, by providing a common definition for environmentally sustainable economy activities.

The Cryptoasset Taskforce, comprising HM Treasury, the Financial Conduct Authority, and the Bank of England, considers the impact of cryptoassets and assesses what, if any, regulation is required in response. The Government stands ready to respond to emerging risks or changes in the market and will continue to monitor developments in cryptoassets.


Written Question
Bitcoin: Electricity
Friday 23rd April 2021

Asked by: John Spellar (Labour - Warley)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what environmental impact assessment his Department has made of the electricity demand of Bitcoin mining.

Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given on 14 April.