Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish the Government's economic impact assessment on unilateral action by the Government on the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Answered by John Glen
It is for the Office for Budget Responsibility to provide and publish economic and fiscal forecasting.
The Government’s overriding priority has been, and continues to be, preserving peace and stability in Northern Ireland. Peace in Northern Ireland is based on respect between all communities and the consent of those communities. We urge our partners in the EU to work with us to deliver changes to the Protocol. If we cannot find the solutions we need, we will take the steps necessary to protect all dimensions of the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the total value is of assets frozen under sanctions relating to Russia.
Answered by John Glen
Relevant firms are legally obliged to report to the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) if they hold frozen assets of a designated person or entity they suspect to be on the list of asset freeze targets. OFSI is currently receiving a high volume of reporting about assets being frozen relating to sanctions imposed since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. This information is being collated and assured. Fuller details will be released in due course and will mark a substantial increase on previous assets reported as frozen under Russia sanctions.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the Government intends to do with frozen assets of sanctioned individuals.
Answered by John Glen
The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), part of HM Treasury, is the competent authority for financial sanctions in the UK and is responsible for monitoring asset freezes. When an asset freeze is imposed against an individual or entity, any funds or economic resources are to be frozen immediately by the person in possession or control of them. It Is prohibited to deal with the frozen funds or economic resources, belonging to or owned, held or controlled by a designated person, or to make funds or economic resources available, directly or indirectly to, or for the benefit of, a designated person.
An asset freeze does not involve a change in ownership of the frozen funds or economic resources, nor are they confiscated or transferred to OFSI for safekeeping. Any release of frozen assets can only be accomplished legally with a licence from OFSI. The asset freeze will remain in place until the sanctions are lifted.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the cost to the public purse is of maintaining frozen assets owned by individuals targeted under the Government’s Magnitsky sanctions regime.
Answered by John Glen
The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), part of HM Treasury, is the competent authority for financial sanctions in the UK and is responsible for monitoring asset freezes. When an asset freeze is imposed against an individual or entity, any funds or economic resources are to be frozen immediately by the person in possession or control of them. It Is prohibited to deal with the frozen funds or economic resources, belonging to or owned, held or controlled by a designated person, or to make funds or economic resources available, directly or indirectly to, or for the benefit of, a designated person.
An asset freeze does not involve a change in ownership of the frozen funds or economic resources, nor are they confiscated or transferred to OFSI for safekeeping. Any release of frozen assets can only be accomplished legally with a licence from OFSI. The asset freeze will remain in place until the sanctions are lifted.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of level of debt repayments owed by Ukraine to UK-based bondholders.
Answered by John Glen
According to the IMF’s latest country report for Ukraine in November 2021, Ukraine owes bondholders USD$ 24.8 billion, with debt repayments in 2022 amounting to USD$ 2.51 billion. Based on the most recently available IMF data, UK holdings of Ukrainian debt securities amounted to USD$ 1.43 billion in June 2021. This accounted for 5.5% of the total value of foreign-owned Ukrainian debt securities, as reported by IMF’s Coordinated Portfolio Investment Survey. However, bonds are tradeable instruments meaning holders of these bonds can fluctuate on a regular basis.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to assist Ukraine with debt repayments.
Answered by John Glen
The Chancellor continues to engage with G7 partners and International Financial Institutions on progressing current and future support to Ukraine. This includes a G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting held on 1 March with the Ukrainian Finance Minister.
Alongside our allies, we’ve hit Russia with the most severe package of sanctions it has ever seen and our economic and humanitarian support to Ukraine now totals around £400 million. This includes USD$100 million of funding to Ukraine through the World Bank Multi-Donor Trust Fund and that we stand ready to provide USD$500 million in loan guarantees to support Multilateral Development Bank lending. This support has also enabled a package to be agreed on 8 March of over $700m for direct fiscal support to Ukraine via the World Bank, to help mitigate direct economic impacts.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions his Department has had with counterparts in Jersey regarding the granting of 21E high-net-worth individual residency rights to Russian nationals.
Answered by John Glen
Treasury Ministers and officials engage regularly with their counterparts from the Crown Dependencies, including Jersey, across the Department’s interests. 21E high-net-worth individual residency rights for Russian nationals have not featured in recent engagement.
The Crown Dependencies are not part of the UK but are self-governing dependencies of the Crown. This means they have their own directly elected legislative assemblies, administrative, fiscal and legal systems and their own courts of law.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the (a) economic impact of lost workforce days due to long covid and (b) impact of those lost days due to that condition on GDP.
Answered by John Glen
The government’s Living with Covid strategy, published on 21 February, outlined that the NHS will continue work to better understand Covid-19 and the long-term health impacts it may have, supported by £50 million in research funding. The Therapeutics Taskforce will also continue to support the eight national priority clinical trial platforms run by the National Institute for Health Research, focused on prevention, novel treatments, and treatments for Long COVID.
HM Treasury will continue to monitor Covid impacts, such as workforce absences, on the economy as we move into the next phase of Living with Covid. HM Treasury does not prepare formal economic forecasts, including GDP, for the UK economy, which are the responsibility of the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
The Living with Covid strategy can be found at the following website: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-response-living-with-covid-19
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many businesses have applied to his Department to use the simplified declaration for imports since 1 Jan 2022; how many of those applications were successful; and how many days it took on average for authorisation to be approved for those successful applications.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
Since 1 January 2022, HMRC has received 10 new applications to use the simplified customs declaration process for imports. HMRC aims to process a complete application within 60 days of receipt, with the legal deadline for this being 120 days from receipt. January’s applications are being processed in line with this target. During January, HMRC approved 35 applications, including those carried forward from the previous month, which took between 29- 54 days to approve. As of 9 February, HMRC have authorised a total of 764 businesses to use simplified customs declaration process for imports, including new applications approved this year.