Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Office for Financial Sanctions Implementation is taking to ensure the compliance of attestation documents for Russian oil products.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The PM along with other G7 Leaders in their statement of 24 February 2024 committed to continue to take steps to tighten compliance and enforcement of the oil price cap on Russian oil. The UK and G7 partners will respond to violations including by imposing additional sanctions measures on those engaged in deceptive practices while transporting Russian oil and against the networks Russia has developed to extract additional revenue from price cap violations. These additional sanctions measures include, but are not limited to, the changes to the attestation model announced by the G7+ Price Cap Coalition on 20 December 2023 and the UK’s new designations of oil traders announced on 22 February 2024.
From 19 February 2024, the attestation model was updated to require attestations to be shared on a per-voyage basis, as part of a relevant transaction. As well as per-voyage attestations, the new model requires itemised ancillary costs to be recorded and provided to contractual counterparties upon request.
To support industry participants in complying with the oil price cap and with the new attestation requirements, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OSFI) on 16 February 2024 issued updated industry guidance. OFSI also co-authored a joint G7+ Price Cap Coalition oil price cap compliance and enforcement alert which issued on 1 February 2024.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many violations of the price caps on Russian oil products the Office for Financial Sanctions Implementation has (a) investigated and (b) enforced since the implementation of those caps.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
OFSI takes a proactive enforcement approach and is currently undertaking a number of investigations into suspected breaches of the oil price cap, using powers under SAMLA to request information and working closely with our international partners in the G7+ Coalition.
Due to the sensitivity of ongoing sanctions enforcement casework, I cannot confirm the number of suspected oil price cap violations which are under investigation or have been enforced against by OFSI.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a price cap on insurance premiums for elderly drivers.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Insurers make commercial decisions about the pricing of insurance based on their assessment of the likelihood and expected cost of a claim. The Government does not intervene in these commercial decisions by insurers as this could damage competition in the market.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is the independent regulator and responsible for supervising the insurance industry. The FCA have introduced several reforms, including the Consumer Duty rules, to ensure consumers are treated fairly in regard to pricing.
In 2012, the Government agreed the Age Agreement with the insurance sector. This signposts older consumers struggling to access motor insurance to specialist providers.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will provide immediate additional funding to support people who are unable to pay for (a) energy, (b) food and (c) other essential items.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recognises the challenges facing households due to elevated costs of living, so has taken further action at Autumn Statement 2023 to support vulnerable households. From 1 April 2024, the National Living Wage will increase by 9.8% for 2.7 million low paid workers. Local Housing Allowance rates will rise to the 30th percentile of local market rents in April 2024 for 1.6 million households. The Government will also uprate all working age benefits in full by September 2023 CPI of 6.7%, benefitting 5.5 million households in 2024-25.
This brings the total support over 2022-2025 to help households with the high cost of living to £104 billion – an average of £3,700 per UK household.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make it his policy to extend business rates relief to grassroots music venues.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
At Autumn Statement 2022, an extended Retail, Hospitality and Leisure (RHL) relief worth £2.1 billion was announced for 2023-24. The relief provides a 75% discount for eligible RHL properties, including music venues, up to a cash-cap of £110,000 per business.
Grassroots music venues will also have benefitted from the decision to freeze the multiplier for a further year. This was a tax cut worth £9.3 billion to businesses over the next five years, and means all bills are 6% lower, before any reliefs or supplements are applied, than without the freeze.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the availability of cash withdrawal facilities throughout the Nottingham East constituency.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government recognises that while the transition towards digital payments brings many opportunities, cash continues to be used by many people across the UK, including those who may be in vulnerable groups.
The government is currently legislating to protect access to cash across the UK as part of the Financial Services and Markets Bill 2022. The Bill establishes the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as the lead regulator for access to cash with responsibility and powers to seek to ensure reasonable provision of withdrawal and deposit facilities. In recognition of the important role of cash for individuals, the government has tabled an amendment to the Bill that will require the FCA to seek to ensure that there is reasonable provision of free withdrawal and deposit facilities for holders of personal accounts.
The ATM network also plays a critical role in the availability of cash withdrawal facilities. LINK (the scheme that runs the UK's largest ATM network) has made commitments to protect the broad geographic spread of free-to-use ATMs and is held to account against these commitments by the Payment Systems Regulator. According to LINK data for March 2023, there were around 39,000 free-to-use ATMs across the UK, including 53 free-to-use ATMs in the constituency of Nottingham East. Further information is available at: https://www.link.co.uk/initiatives/financial-inclusion-monthly-report/
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department is taking steps to support public sector catering suppliers who are fulfilling their public sector contracts but servicing at a loss as a result of food inflation.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Government departments manage their relationships with third-party suppliers in line the Sourcing Playbook, which sets out the core principles to successful outsourcing; achieving value for money and successful service delivery. Decisions on outsourcing are made according to Treasury guidance and the Sourcing Playbook, which focuses on setting our projects up for success, right from the start. The Government’s Contract Management Principles make clear that there should be flexible approaches to dealing with change through joint working with suppliers and that costs should be controlled with strong change control mechanisms.
As the Prime Minister has set out, one of the five immediate priorities for the government is to halve inflation this year to ease the cost of living and give people financial security.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans his Department has to ensure the equity of the High Income Child Benefit charge for single income households in the context of the application of that charge to households with two incomes below the threshold.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Government introduced the High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC) from January 2013 to ensure that support for families is targeted at those who need it most. The tax charge applies to anyone with an individual income over £50,000 who claims Child Benefit, or whose partner claims it, regardless of family make-up.
HICBC is calculated on an individual rather than a household basis, in line with other income tax policy. Basing HICBC on household incomes would mean finding out the incomes of everyone in each of the 7.8 million households currently registered for Child Benefit. This would effectively introduce a new means test, which would be costly to administer and create burdens on the majority of families who receive Child Benefit.
The Government has no current plans to review HICBC but, as with all elements of tax policy, keeps this under review as part of the annual Budget process.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a ring-fenced fund to support the provision of local authority social care.
Answered by Simon Clarke
The Spending Review provides local authorities with an additional £1.6 billion of grant funding in each of the next three years. The provisional Local Government Finance Settlement for 2022/23 confirmed that local authorities will have access to over £1 billion of additional resources next year specifically for social care. Ultimately, it is for local authorities to manage their budgets within the funding available and prioritise spending based on their own understanding of the needs of their local communities.
Asked by: Nadia Whittome (Labour - Nottingham East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that compensation is provided to Equitable Life Assurance Society policy holders.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
I refer the Honourable Member for Nottingham East to the answer I gave on the 19 April 2021. UIN: 179543