Asked by: Kelvin Hopkins (Independent - Luton North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment the Government has made of the implications for its policies of the recommendations made by the Institution of Civil Engineers in its paper entitled Reducing the gap between cost estimates and outturns for major projects and programmes.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government considers all reports from relevant stakeholders, and considerable work is taking place across government to improve the delivery of infrastructure projects.
Asked by: Kelvin Hopkins (Independent - Luton North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Government will take a systematic approach to the UK's infrastructure in the proposed National Infrastructure Strategy as advocated by the Institution of Civil Engineers; and whether this will include a programme of comprehensive electrification of Britain's rail track to help meet the UK's climate change obligations.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The National Infrastructure Strategy will be informed by the recommendations from the National Infrastructure Commission’s first National Infrastructure Assessment and will set out the Government’s long-term vision for infrastructure across the whole of the UK, including action on meeting the UK’s target of net zero emissions by 2050.
The Department for Transport published its Rail Network Enhancement Pipeline earlier this month, which includes electrification schemes. In addition, Network Rail is developing a Traction Decarbonisation Network Strategy which also serves to inform the Government’s decisions on electrification, alongside other technologies such as battery and hydrogen.
Asked by: Kelvin Hopkins (Independent - Luton North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Government is taking to prevent major infrastructure projects from exceeding their budgets and completion schedules (a) now and (b) in the future.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA) currently supports the Government Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP). This is a continually evolving portfolio of the Government’s most complex and high risk projects, which monitors and analyses cost, schedule and benefits data on a quarterly basis. Furthermore, each year the IPA undertakes over 200 independent assurance reviews to examine the delivery of GMPP projects.
In April 2019, the Department for Transport and the IPA jointly published the ‘Lessons from transport for the sponsorship of major projects’ report, which identified 24 practical lessons, which will help improve how the Government delivers projects. These lessons will be applied to future projects across Government and used to improve the system over the long-term.
Asked by: Kelvin Hopkins (Independent - Luton North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if the Government will make it mandatory for all public infrastructure owners to undertake a should-cost estimate as a reference point, as recommended in the Government's Outsourcing Playbook and endorsed by the Institution of Civil Engineers.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Outsourcing Playbook sets out the Government’s guidance on outsourcing services rather than infrastructure projects. All infrastructure projects are required to estimate costs as part of the Government’s business case process, in accordance with the guidance set out in the Green Book.
Asked by: Kelvin Hopkins (Independent - Luton North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Office for Professional Body Anti-Money Laundering Supervision in improving standards in the financial sector.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Office for Professional Body Anti-Money Laundering Supervision (OPBAS) became operational in January 2018. OPBAS is part of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and supervises 22 professional body anti-money laundering (AML) supervisors which oversee the legal and accountancy sectors, as listed in the Money Laundering Regulations 2017. Neither OPBAS, nor the professional body AML supervisors (PBSs) supervise AML activities in the financial sector, which is instead supervised by the FCA. Fighting financial crime is a key priority for the FCA.
OPBAS’s key objectives are to reduce the harm of money laundering and terrorist financing by:
ensuring a robust and consistently high standard of supervision by the PBSs overseeing the legal and accountancy sectors;
facilitating collaboration, and information and intelligence sharing between PBSs, statutory supervisors, and law enforcement agencies.
The recent Financial Action Task Force (FATF) review of the UK’s AML regime recommended that the UK should closely monitor the impact of OPBAS in undertaking its work.
By the end of 2018, OPBAS will have completed its initial supervisory assessments of all PBSs. The Government will continue to work closely with OPBAS to ensure that its plans and activities are effective and risk-based.
Asked by: Kelvin Hopkins (Independent - Luton North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if the Government will commit to the full disclosure of the beneficiaries of offshore trusts.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Overseas trusts that incur a UK tax consequence are already required to register full details of their beneficial ownership with HMRC, ensuring law enforcement can access this information.
The Fifth EU Anti-Money Laundering Directive (5AMLD) requires an expansion of the scope of the UK’s register from ‘trusts with a tax consequence’ to all UK express trusts and non-EU trusts which acquire UK real estate or have a business relationship with a UK regulated entity. Access to this register will also be extended to firms regulated for anti-money laundering purposes, and those persons with a ‘legitimate interest’ in the information. The Government will consult on the transposition of this change in due course. 5AMLD has a transposition deadline during January 2020. This falls within the implementation period, and so the UK will transpose this Directive.
Asked by: Kelvin Hopkins (Independent - Luton North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the expected contribution to the public purse of the proposed sale of the Government's stake in RBS.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
At Budget 2018 Government announced an intention to undertake a full disposal of its Royal Bank of Scotland shareholding by 2023-24.
In its Economic and Fiscal Outlook (https://cdn.obr.uk/EFO_October-2018.pdf), the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecast the total value of expected proceeds from sales of the RBS shareholding (paragraph 4.208). The OBR also estimate the gross and net cash flows of the financial sector interventions (table 4.44), noting that ‘the economic and fiscal costs of the [financial] crisis would almost certainly have been greater in the absence of these direct interventions to restore the financial system to stability’.
Asked by: Kelvin Hopkins (Independent - Luton North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the likelihood of recouping the cost to the public purse of the bailout of the Royal Bank of Scotland by planned sale of shares by 2023-24.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
At Budget 2018 Government announced an intention to undertake a full disposal of its Royal Bank of Scotland shareholding by 2023-24.
In its Economic and Fiscal Outlook (https://cdn.obr.uk/EFO_October-2018.pdf), the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecast the total value of expected proceeds from sales of the RBS shareholding (paragraph 4.208). The OBR also estimate the gross and net cash flows of the financial sector interventions (table 4.44), noting that ‘the economic and fiscal costs of the [financial] crisis would almost certainly have been greater in the absence of these direct interventions to restore the financial system to stability’.
Asked by: Kelvin Hopkins (Independent - Luton North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
What steps he is taking to reduce the total net annual financial outflow from the UK to the EU; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The UK and the EU reached an agreement in principle, in December 2017, on the financial settlement for the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. This was set out in the Joint Report on progress during Phase 1 of the negotiations. These principles will become legally binding through a Withdrawal Agreement as set out in the Government’s White Paper on legislating for the Withdrawal Agreement, published in July this year.
Post-exit, decisions on spending will be made based on domestic priorities, considering the economic environment, the fiscal position and the negotiated outcome.
Asked by: Kelvin Hopkins (Independent - Luton North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the publication of the Turnbull Report by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Fair Business, whether he has invited any regulatory body to bring charges against the parties named in that report.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
This is a matter for the operationally independent Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
This report was provided to the FCA and the police at the time, in 2014.
The FCA is currently investigating the extent and nature of the knowledge of the discovery of misconduct within HBOS Impaired Assets office in Reading and HBOS’ communications with the regulator after the initial discovery of the misconduct.