Asked by: Matthew Pennycook (Labour - Greenwich and Woolwich)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 14 March to Question 229779, which four high street banks offer Sharia-compliant home purchase plans.
Answered by John Glen
The four banks serving the UK which offer Sharia-compliant home purchase plans are: Al Rayan Bank, United National Bank, Ahli United Bank and ABC International Bank.
Asked by: Matthew Pennycook (Labour - Greenwich and Woolwich)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many high street banks offer Islamic mortgage services.
Answered by John Glen
The Government is committed to the availability of Islamic finance in the UK to ensure that no one is denied access to competitive financial products for reasons of faith.
Sharia-compliant home purchase plans are enabled by regulations overseen by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). They are currently offered by four UK banks.
Beyond the requirements set out in the FCA regulations, decisions around the pricing and availability of individual mortgage loans remain commercial decisions for lenders, and the Government does not seek to intervene in these decisions.
Asked by: Matthew Pennycook (Labour - Greenwich and Woolwich)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the availability of Sharia-compliant home purchase plans.
Answered by John Glen
The Government is committed to the availability of Islamic finance in the UK to ensure that no one is denied access to competitive financial products for reasons of faith. We are doing this by working to ensure that Sharia-compliant financial products can be supplied on the same terms and at the same standard as conventional financial products. The UK is already the western leader in Islamic finance, however we continue to explore areas where Islamic finance can be developed further.
Home purchase plans are enabled by regulations overseen by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the independent regulator set up by the Government to ensure consumers are receive appropriate protection.
Beyond the requirements set out in the FCA regulations, decisions around the pricing and availability of individual mortgage loans remain commercial decisions for lenders, and the Government does not seek to intervene in these decisions.
Asked by: Matthew Pennycook (Labour - Greenwich and Woolwich)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 26 November 2018 to Question 194204 on Brexit and with reference to paragraph 4.111 of the Office for Budget Responsibility's Economic and Fiscal Outlook published in October 2018, what proportion of the £400 million underspend relates to the UK leaving the EU.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
On 13 March 2018, the Treasury confirmed allocations of c.£1.6bn to departments. A full breakdown of the allocation can be found in the Chief Secretary’s Written Ministerial Statement, HCWS540, laid on 13 March https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-03-13/HCWS540/.
The Economic and Fiscal Outlook is produced by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). As part of their fiscal forecast they take a judgement on how much departments will underspend on aggregate DEL spending. Further information on how the OBR reach their judgement is available at https://obr.uk/forecasts-in-depth/tax-by-tax-spend-by-spend/departmental-expenditure-limits/.
Asked by: Matthew Pennycook (Labour - Greenwich and Woolwich)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 8 November 2018 to Question 185719 on Brexit and with reference to paragraph 4.111 of the OBR’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook published in October 2018, how much of the current £0.4 billion underspend estimate is within the Brexit funding pot.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
On 13 March 2018, the Treasury confirmed allocations of c.£1.6bn to departments. A full breakdown of the allocation can be found in the Chief Secretary’s Written Ministerial Statement, HCWS540, which can be found at https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-03-13/HCWS540/.
The Economic and Fiscal Outlook is produced by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility. As part of their fiscal forecast they take a judgement on how much departments will underspend on aggregate DEL spending. This information is available at https://cdn.obr.uk/EFO_October-2018.pdf.
Asked by: Matthew Pennycook (Labour - Greenwich and Woolwich)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to page 139 of the Office for Budget Responsibility’s report entitled Economic and Fiscal Outlook October 2018, published in October 2018, CM9713, what proportion of the £1.5 billion allocated to the Brexit funding pot will be spent in 2018-19.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
On 13 March, the Treasury allocated c.£1.6bn to departments on March 2018. A full breakdown of the allocation can be found in the Chief Secretary’s Written Ministerial Statement, HCWS540, laid on the 13th March https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-03-13/HCWS540/.
Details of some of the work done by departments funded by these allocations can be found in the Technical Notices published on 24 August (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-governments-preparations-for-a-no-deal-scenario/uk-governments-preparations-for-a-no-deal-scenario).
The independent Office for Budget Responsibility as part of their fiscal forecast take a judgement on how much departments will underspend on all aspects of DEL spending. This information is available at https://cdn.obr.uk/EFO_October-2018.pdf.