Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Henley on 22 January (HL4627), why the penultimate paragraph of the fact sheet accompanying the request for payment by the Financial Reporting Council expressly states that the amount is required to be paid, refers to 20 per cent and 50 per cent discounts in certain cases, but does not refer to the payment either before or after discount being voluntary.

The Financial Reporting Council’s Preparers Levy fact sheet (attached) makes clear that the payment is voluntary. The paragraph referred to in the question explicitly requests rather than requires payment. The section above this in the fact sheet contains the text referred to in my written answer on 22^nd January 2018 (HL4627).