Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department has taken to ensure that the UK’s Carbon Border Adjustment does not adversely impact business competitiveness.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The UK Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) will give UK industry confidence to invest in their decarbonisation efforts. The CBAM will ensure highly traded, carbon intensive products from overseas face a comparable carbon price to those produced here so that UK decarbonisation efforts lead to a true reduction in global emissions rather than simply displacing carbon emissions overseas.
To ensure the costs of complying with the UK CBAM are proportionate, the UK CBAM will only apply to those importing CBAM goods valued at £50,000 or more over a rolling 12-month period. We estimate that will exclude 80% of CBAM goods but retain over 99% of imported emissions within the scope of the tax. Of those removed, over 70% are SMEs.
An assessment of CBAM impacts on the economy and businesses will be provided when the policy is final or near final, in the form of a tax information and impact note. A draft version of this is available at:
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department plans to provide longer-term capital funding settlements for Government departments to support the (a) maintenance and (b) renewal of public service facilities.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The government has, for the first time, announced long-term maintenance budgets for the health, education, and justice estates as part of the 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy.
This protects departments’ maintenance budgets in real terms, delivering at least £10 billion per year by 2034-35 to maintain and repair health, education and justice infrastructure.
This is in addition to significant investment in rebuilding assets and delivering additional capacity where it is needed – such as almost £20 billion in the School Rebuilding Programme and up to £24 billion in the New Hospital Programme over the next 10 years.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department has taken to ensure that the UK’s Carbon Border Adjustment reduces carbon leakage in relevant sectors.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The UK government is introducing a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) to address the risk of carbon leakage, which occurs when production and associated emissions shift from one country to another due to different levels of decarbonisation effort (for example through carbon pricing and climate regulation).
The UK CBAM will place a charge on the carbon emissions embodied in certain highly traded, carbon intensive goods imported to the UK from the aluminium, cement, fertiliser, hydrogen and iron & steel sectors. By placing a carbon price on imported goods, the UK aims to ensure that these goods face a carbon price that is comparable to that which the goods would have faced, if they had been produced in the UK.
Therefore, the UK CBAM will ensure highly traded, carbon intensive products from overseas face a comparable carbon price to those produced here so that UK decarbonisation efforts lead to a true reduction in global emissions rather than simply displacing carbon emissions overseas.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that individuals holding a registered Power of Attorney can access banking services on behalf of people with conditions such as dementia without undue delay or administrative barriers.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Ensuring all individuals have access to the appropriate financial services and products they need is a key priority for Government. Like all service providers, banks and building societies are bound under the Equality Act 2010 to make reasonable adjustments, where necessary, in the way they deliver their services. This may include allowing for a carer or deputy to act for the disabled person.
A Lasting Power of Attorney must be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) in order for it to be used. Whilst the OPG does not have statutory powers to tell banks or financial institutions how to manage their customers’ accounts, they do work closely with them to help improve their understanding of the role of OPG and how Powers of Attorney should be recognised and supported.
OPG regularly engages with the finance sector and finance membership groups to discuss any issues experienced with the use of OPG products. Recently, OPG have been working with the UK Regulators Network (UKRN) on updating joint guidance to help improve the understanding of LPAs with their members, including the banking sector.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which regulates the financial services sector, recently completed a review of retail banks’ Power of Attorney services. They recognised several areas for improvement in how banks allowed customers to manage the finances of the person for whom they were the Attorney, particularly highlighting the current limitations of app-based and online banking for attorneys. Following this, the FCA wrote to the banks involved, setting out their findings and the expected next steps for firms to follow. The Government is supportive of this work.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to reduce administrative friction in transferring large sums between personal accounts while maintaining robust fraud prevention and anti-money laundering measures.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The government recognises the importance of minimising administrative friction around payments for people, banks, and businesses, while maintaining strong safeguards against the growing threat to the economy from money laundering and economic crime. The department keeps the Money Laundering Regulations (MLRs) under regular review, and the MLRs require banks to take a proportionate approach commensurate with their assessment of the risk. The MLRs are being amended in a forthcoming Statutory Instrument, with various changes intended to reduce unnecessary checks on legitimate transactions while maintaining robust controls targeted at higher-risk activity; policy development is ongoing and next steps will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department plans to review thresholds for mandatory reporting of large cash withdrawals or transfers by banks under anti-money laundering regulations.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The government recognises the importance of minimising administrative friction around payments for people, banks, and businesses, while maintaining strong safeguards against the growing threat to the economy from money laundering and economic crime. The department keeps the Money Laundering Regulations (MLRs) under regular review, and the MLRs require banks to take a proportionate approach commensurate with their assessment of the risk. The MLRs are being amended in a forthcoming Statutory Instrument, with various changes intended to reduce unnecessary checks on legitimate transactions while maintaining robust controls targeted at higher-risk activity; policy development is ongoing and next steps will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of anti-money laundering regulations on the ability of small businesses to make large legitimate payments without disruption.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The government recognises the importance of minimising administrative friction around payments for people, banks, and businesses, while maintaining strong safeguards against the growing threat to the economy from money laundering and economic crime. The department keeps the Money Laundering Regulations (MLRs) under regular review, and the MLRs require banks to take a proportionate approach commensurate with their assessment of the risk. The MLRs are being amended in a forthcoming Statutory Instrument, with various changes intended to reduce unnecessary checks on legitimate transactions while maintaining robust controls targeted at higher-risk activity; policy development is ongoing and next steps will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that cryptocurrency exchanges operating in the UK are subject to clear and robust regulation.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
On 29 April, HM Treasury published draft legislation for the future financial services regulatory regime for cryptoassets.
The draft legislation includes a new regulated activity for operating a cryptoasset trading platform, meaning firms carrying on this activity and dealing directly or indirectly with UK consumers will need to be authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority.
The Government is seeking to bring forward final legislation before the end of this year.
Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking to help improve the (a) financial oversight and (b) delivery assurance of major infrastructure projects.
Answered by Darren Jones - Minister for Intergovernmental Relations
The government oversees some of the UK’s largest and most complex infrastructure projects. We are committed to enhancing the oversight and assurance of these projects through a series of reforms, including streamlining approvals and strengthening assurance. It will be better integrated and carried out by multi-disciplinary teams at critical stages of projects. For mega projects in particular, the government has announced new budgeting and governance arrangements to ensure better planning and transparency of our biggest, transformational projects, in line with recommendations from the Office for Value for Money. We are also improving transparency around investment decisions by publishing business cases for major projects and programmes. These changes, set out in the 10-Year Infrastructure Strategy, will support better value for money and more consistent, reliable delivery across major infrastructure projects.Asked by: Sarah Hall (Labour (Co-op) - Warrington South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate her Department has made of financial losses to consumers caused by cryptocurrency-related scams; and what steps she is taking to improve (a) prevention, (b) enforcement and (c) consumer protection for those scams.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)’s most recent consumer research publication provides indications of the levels of cryptoasset related fraud in the UK. This research is available online at: https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/research-notes/cryptoasset-consumer-research-2024-wave-5.pdf
The Government takes the issue of fraud very seriously and is developing a new and expanded fraud strategy to further protect the public and businesses from this appalling crime.
Relevant cryptoasset firms are already subject to UK financial promotions requirements, and required to register with the FCA for money laundering supervision.
Building on this, the Government is introducing a comprehensive financial services regulatory regime for cryptoassets this year. The new regime will provide further protections for UK consumers, by requiring firms offering them services to be authorised and regulated by the FCA.