Asked by: Emma Reynolds (Labour - Wolverhampton North East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what estimate her Department has made of the number of (a) Belgian, (b) Dutch (c) French, (d) German, (e) Italian and (f) Luxembourg nationals who were granted indefinite leave to remain prior to the accession of the UK to the EEC on 1 January 1973.
Answered by Brandon Lewis
Statistics of settlement grants in the United Kingdom for non Commonwealth nationals before 1973 are published in table se 06 ‘Grants of settlement to Commonwealth citizens and foreign nationals’) available at:
A breakdown of specific nationalities within this historical data is not available.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many and what proportion of stamp duty land tax returns filed from 31 October 2017 to June 2019 included a (a) claim for group relief, (b) non-residential property, (c) purchaser whose registered office address was in Luxembourg and (d) vendor whose registered office address was not in Luxembourg.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The number and proportion of stamp duty land tax returns filed from 31 October 2017 to June 2019 is not readily available.
Estimates for group relief are only available on an annual basis. The source is the structural tax reliefs publication which is available using the following link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/minor-tax-expenditures-and-structural-reliefs
Estimates for non-residential property transactions are available on a quarterly basis so data can only be provided for the period from September 2017 to June 2019. The source is the Quarterly Stamp Duty Land Tax Statistics which is available using the following link:
Estimates of the number of transactions by the country where the registered office for either purchaser(s) or vendor(s) lie have not been made, and are not readily available.
Asked by: Angus Brendan MacNeil (Independent - Na h-Eileanan an Iar)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his counterparts in (a) Austria, (b) Belgium, (c) Bulgaria, (d) Croatia, (e) Cyprus, (f) the Czech Republic, (g) Denmark, (h) Estonia, (i) Finland, (j) France, (k) Germany, (l) Greece, (m) Hungary, (n) Ireland, (o) Italy, (p) Latvia, (q) Lithuania, (r) Luxembourg, (s) Malta, (t) Netherlands, (u) Poland, (v) Portugal, (w) Romania, (x) Slovakia, (y) Slovenia and (z) Sweden on the jailing of Catalan politicians.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government has been clear on the issue of Catalonia. This is a matter for Spain. The United Kingdom continues to support the upholding of the Spanish Constitution and the rule of law. The conviction of the separatist leaders in Catalonia is a matter for the Spanish courts. The Foreign Secretary has had no discussions on this with his counterparts in the countries cited.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many requests for vehicle owner information have been made by overseas enforcement agencies in each of the last five years by country.
Answered by Michael Ellis
As part of the Cross Border Exchange Directive, EU Member States can request keeper or owner details of vehicles from other Member States, to follow up certain road traffic offences. CBE was implemented in the UK on 7 May 2017, the table below shows the number of requests for vehicle keeper information up to 27 June 2019.
| (from 7 May) 2017 | 2018 | (to 27 June) 2019 |
Austria | 15,988 | 30,530 | 8,786 |
Belgium | 7 | 11 | - |
Bulgaria | 1,222 | 2,693 | 1,235 |
Croatia | 218 | 367 | 102 |
Czech Republic | 86 | 2,115 | 1,474 |
Estonia | 7 | 2 | - |
Finland | - | - | 3 |
France | - | 36 | 241,467 |
Germany | 40,124 | 88,362 | 29,388 |
Hungary | 6,169 | 9,861 | 3,636 |
Italy | 13,586 | 58,832 | 21,422 |
Latvia | 13 | 512 | 15,354 |
Lithuania | 1,211 | 3,761 | 5,903 |
Luxembourg | 1,286 | 3,149 | 1,270 |
Malta | - | 2 | 43 |
Poland | 1,697 | 3,816 | 1,310 |
Slovakia | 199 | 408 | 195 |
Slovenia | 86 | 196 | 117 |
Spain | 1,199 | 51,851 | 16,863 |
The Netherlands | 55 | 3,569 | 21,961 |
In addition, the Home Office can receive requests for vehicle information from overseas authorities, through either Mutual Legal Assistance requests or European Investigation Orders. Information on the volume of these requests is not stored within the Department for Transport.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many companies previously registered as non-resident for corporation tax purposes in countries other than Luxembourg provided an address in Luxembourg to the Land Registry in May 2019.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
HM Land Registry do not hold information about a company’s tax status as this is not required for land registration purposes.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, with which EU member states the UK has concluded a reciprocal agreement on the right of each other's citizens to (a) vote and (b) stand as candidates in local elections after the UK leaves the EU; and with which EU member states are discussions ongoing.
Answered by Robin Walker
The UK has approached all EU Member States to offer bilateral agreements which protect the right to vote and stand in local elections for UK Nationals in the EU, and EU citizens in the UK after exit day.
We have reached agreements with Spain, Portugal and Luxembourg to secure the right for UK nationals in EU member states and EU citizens in the UK to vote and stand as candidates in local elections. This is a positive step and we hope this will encourage similar agreements with other Member States.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, which Common Security and Defence Policy (a) missions and (b) operations the UK contributes to; and which other countries participate in each of those missions.
Answered by Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton
The UK deploys personnel to two military Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) operations (Operation ALTHEA and Operation SOPHIA), two military training missions in Mali and Somalia, and three civilian missions in Georgia, Kosovo and Ukraine. As an EU Member State, we also provide common funding for all CSDP operations and missions, both military and civilian.
Other countries contribute personnel, equipment and funding to all of the CSDP operations and missions in which we take part. We can provide a snapshot of contributions by other states for the week ending 5 May 2019:
Operation ALTHEA: Austria; Bulgaria; Czech Republic; Greece; Spain; France; Hungary; Ireland; Italy; Poland; Portugal; Romania; Slovenia; Slovakia; UK; Albania; Switzerland; Chile; Northern Macedonia and Turkey.
Operation SOPHIA: Austria; Bulgaria; Cyprus; Czech Republic; Germany; Denmark; Estonia; Greece; Spain; Finland; France; Croatia; Hungary; Ireland; Italy; Lithuania; Luxembourg; Latvia; Malta; Netherlands; Poland; Portugal; Romania; Sweden; Slovenia and UK.
EU Treaty Mission (EUTM) Mali: Austria; Belgium; Bulgaria; Czech Republic; Germany; Estonia; Greece; Spain; Finland; France; Hungary; Ireland; Italy; Lithuania; Luxembourg; Latvia; Netherlands; Portugal; Romania; Sweden; Slovenia; UK; Albania; Georgia; Montenegro and Serbia.
EUTM Somalia: Spain; Finland; Italy; Portugal; Romania' Sweden; UK and Serbia.
EU Rule of Law Mission (EULEX) Kosovo: Austria; Belgium; Bulgaria; Croatia; Cyprus; Czech Republic; Denmark; Germany; Estonia; Greece; Spain; Finland; France; Hungary; Ireland; Italy; Lithuania; Netherlands; Poland; Portugal' Romania; Sweden; Slovakia; Slovenia; UK and Switzerland.
EU Monitoring Mission (EUMM) Georgia: Austria; Belgium; Bulgaria; Cyprus; Czech Republic; Denmark; France; Germany; Estonia; Greece; Spain; Finland; Croatia; Hungary; Ireland; Italy; Lithuania; Luxembourg; Latvia; Malta; Netherlands; Poland; Portugal; Romania; Sweden; Slovakia; Slovenia and UK.
EU Advisory Mission (EUAM) Ukraine: Austria; Bulgaria; Czech Republic; Germany; Denmark; Estonia; Greece; Spain; Finland; France; Croatia; Hungary; Ireland; Italy; Lithuania; Latvia; Netherlands; Poland; Portugal; Romania; Sweden; Slovakia; Slovenia; UK and Canada.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of child benefit paid for children who do not reside in the UK; how many such children there were; and in which countries those children resided in the most recent financial year for which data are available.
Answered by Mel Stride - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Total Child Benefit payments in 2018-19 amounted to £11.6 billion. It is estimated that approximately £15 million was paid for children resident in another EEA country or Switzerland. The number of children these payments relate to, broken down by the country they reside in, is provided in Table 1 below.
Table 1: Estimated number of children for whom Child Benefit is received where European Community regulations apply, as at February 2019
|
|
Country | Number of children |
Austria | 10 |
Belgium | 40 |
Bulgaria | 415 |
Croatia | 45 |
Cyprus | 40 |
Czech Republic | 165 |
Denmark | 20 |
Estonia | 35 |
Finland | 25 |
France | 605 |
Germany | 165 |
Greece | 55 |
Hungary | 150 |
Iceland | 5 |
Italy | 170 |
Latvia | 700 |
Liechtenstein | - |
Lithuania | 790 |
Luxembourg | 10 |
Malta | 25 |
Norway | 40 |
Poland | 10,975 |
Portugal | 230 |
Republic of Ireland | 1,945 |
Romania | 1,000 |
Slovakia | 575 |
Slovenia | - |
Spain | 625 |
Sweden | 30 |
Switzerland | 20 |
The Netherlands | 215 |
Total | 19,120 |
Footnote: Figures have been rounded to the nearest 5. Figures under 5 have been suppressed and shown as ‘-’.
Asked by: Lord Hoyle (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the trade balance of the UK with the EU, broken down by each of the 27 other EU Member States.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Dear Lord Hoyle,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am replying to your Parliamentary Question asking what is the trade balance of the UK with the EU, broken down by each of the 27 other EU Member States (HL14453).
Table 1 below provides the total (goods and services) trade balance, total exports and total imports by EU aggregate and member state in 2017. These data are our latest full year estimates of total trade published 23 January 2018[1] and are consistent with the wider balance of payments. You can find more recent estimates of trade within the same release, although to note, these figures are quarterly estimates up to and including quarter three (July to September) 2018 and are not seasonally adjusted.
Yours sincerely,
John Pullinger
Table 1: Total trade (goods and services) exports, imports and balance for 2017[2]
£ million, current price | ||||
| Exports | Imports | Balance | |
AT | Austria | 2958 | 4261 | -1303 |
BE | Belgium | 19266 | 27870 | -8604 |
BG | Bulgaria | 831 | 991 | -160 |
HR | Croatia | 293 | 720 | -427 |
CY | Cyprus | 1079 | 1301 | -222 |
CZ | Czech Republic | 3069 | 6351 | -3282 |
DK | Denmark | 6261 | 6148 | 113 |
EE | Estonia | 213 | 277 | -64 |
FI | Finland | 2508 | 2850 | -342 |
FR | France | 40984 | 40427 | 557 |
DE | Germany | 56359 | 78586 | -22227 |
GR | Greece | 2321 | 3653 | -1332 |
HU | Hungary | 2120 | 3550 | -1430 |
IE | Ireland | 36747 | 21935 | 14812 |
IT | Italy | 19264 | 23793 | -4529 |
LV | Latvia | 393 | 702 | -309 |
LT | Lithuania | 670 | 997 | -327 |
LU | Luxembourg | 3297 | 2723 | 574 |
MT | Malta | 1262 | 726 | 536 |
NL | Netherlands | 38554 | 47105 | -8551 |
PL | Poland | 7052 | 12947 | -5895 |
PT | Portugal | 2774 | 5641 | -2867 |
RO | Romania | 1885 | 2900 | -1015 |
SK | Slovakia | 807 | 2724 | -1917 |
SI | Slovenia | 340 | 439 | -99 |
ES | Spain | 17256 | 31317 | -14061 |
SE | Sweden | 10238 | 9362 | 876 |
4A | European Union Institutions (excl. ECB and ESM) | 143 | 18 | 125 |
B5 | Total EU28 | 278944 | 340314 | -61370 |
Source: Office for National Statistics | ||||
[2]These data are our best estimate of these bilateral UK trade flows. Users should note that alternative estimates are available, in some cases, via the statistical agencies for bilateral countries or through central databases such as via UN Comtrade.
Asked by: Philip Hollobone (Conservative - Kettering)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, for each EU Member State, how many prisoners have been transferred (a) to and (b) from the UK under the EU Prisoner Transfer Directive.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Any foreign national who comes to our country and abuses our hospitality by breaking the law should be in no doubt of our determination to punish and deport them. More than 45,000 foreign national offenders have been removed from the UK since 2010, and in the last financial year almost 6,000 were removed from prisons, immigration removal centres, and the community.
The Early Removal Scheme is the principal method for removing foreign national offenders early from prison. In 2017/18, over 2,000 foreign national offenders were removed under this scheme. Prisoners may also be transferred to a prison in their own country under Prisoner Transfer Agreements. The principal compulsory prisoner transfer scheme is the EU Prisoner Transfer Framework Decision (2008/909/JHA). In addition, compulsory transfer may take place under the Additional Protocol to the Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons, and a small number of bilateral prisoner transfer agreements.
Our departure from the European Union will have implications on prisoner transfers to the EU. If we leave the EU without a ‘deal’, we will lose access to the EU Prisoner Transfer Framework Decision. This will mean falling back on the Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons and its Additional Protocol, which we believe to be a less effective mechanism than the EU agreement. Therefore, under a ‘no deal’ scenario we should be prepared to see a decline in the number of transfers to and from the EU.
The tables below provide information for England and Wales, taken from Management Information. In relation to British national prisoners transferred into England and Wales, Management Information does not distinguish between prisoners transferred under the EU Prisoner Transfer Framework Decision and the Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons. Transfer may therefore have taken place on either a voluntary or compulsory basis. Please note that transfers have not taken place to several countries listed in the tables below as the UK either does not hold nationals from those countries in our prisons, or because there are concerns that prisons might be in breach of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The transfer of prisoners into and out of Scotland and Northern Ireland is a devolved matter.
Table 1: Transfer under the EU Prisoner Transfer Framework Decision (EU PTFD) | ||||
Country | Date country ratified the EU PTFD | Number of foreign national prisoners transferred from England and Wales | Number of British national prisoners transferred into England and Wales | |
1 | Austria | 01/01/2012 | -- | 1 |
2 | Belgium | 18/06/2012 | 17 | 3 |
3 | Bulgaria | Not ratified | -- | -- |
4 | Croatia | 01/07/2013 | -- | 1 |
5 | Cyprus | 23/05/2014 | 1 | 5 |
6 | Czech Republic | 01/01/2014 | 12 | 3 |
7 | Denmark | 05/12/2011 | 1 | 6 |
8 | Estonia | 01/01/2015 | 1 | -- |
9 | Finland | 05/12/2011 | -- | 1 |
10 | France | 05/08/2013 | -- | -- |
11 | Germany | 25/07/2015 | 2 | 9 |
12 | Greece | 15/11/2014 | -- | 2 |
13 | Hungary | 01/01/2013 | -- | 1 |
14 | Italy | 05/12/2011 | 9 | 9 |
15 | Ireland (Republic) | Not ratified | -- | -- |
16 | Latvia | 01/07/2012 | 15 | -- |
17 | Lithuania | 01/04/2015 | 28 | -- |
18 | Luxembourg | 05/12/2011 | -- | 2 |
19 | Malta | 03/02/2012 | 1 | 1 |
20 | Netherlands | 01/11/2012 | 141 | 6 |
21 | Poland | 01/01/2012 | 35 | -- |
22 | Portugal | 17/12/2015 | 9 | 7 |
23 | Romania | 26/12/2013 | 56 | -- |
24 | Slovakia | 01/02/2012 | 17 | 2 |
25 | Slovenia | 20/09/2013 | -- | -- |
26 | Spain | 11/12/2014 | 9 | 40 |
27 | Sweden | 01/04/2015 | 3 | 1 |
Total | 357 | 100 | ||
Table 2: Transfer Under the Additional Protocol to the Council of Europe Convention on the Transfer of Sentenced Persons This table does not include EU Member States which have ratified the Additional Protocol as transfers take place under the EU Prisoner Transfer Framework Decision. Please note: the date of entry into force has been taken as the date the UK ratified the Additional Protocol or the date of ratification by the named country, whichever is the later date. | ||||
Country | Date the Additional Protocol entered into force | Number of foreign national prisoners transferred from England and Wales | Number of British national prisoners transferred into England and Wales | |
1 | Bulgaria | 01/11/2009 | -- | -- |
2 | Georgia | 01/11/2009 | -- | -- |
3 | Iceland | 01/11/2009 | -- | -- |
4 | Lichtenstein | 01/11/2009 | -- | -- |
5 | FRY Macedonia | 01/11/2009 | -- | -- |
6 | Moldova | 01/11/2009 | -- | -- |
7 | Montenegro | 01/11/2009 | -- | -- |
8 | Norway | 01/11/2009 | -- | -- |
9 | Russia | 01/11/2009 | -- | -- |
10 | Serbia | 01/11/2009 | -- | -- |
11 | San Marino | 01/11/2009 | -- | -- |
12 | Switzerland | 01/10/2014 | -- | -- |
13 | Turkey | 01/09/2016 | -- | -- |
14 | Ukraine | 01/11/2009 | -- | -- |
Table 3: Bilateral Prisoner Transfer Agreements | ||||
Country | Date the Bilateral Prisoner Transfer Agreement came into force | Number of foreign national prisoners transferred from England and Wales | Number of British national prisoners transferred into England and Wales | |
1 | Albania | 11/06/2013 | 24 | 2 |
2 | Ghana | 06/07/2017 | -- | -- |
3 | Libya | 29/04/2009 | -- | -- |
4 | Nigeria | 29/09/2014 | 1 | -- |
5 | Rwanda | 23/11/2010 | -- | -- |
6 | Somaliland | Not Available | -- | -- |
Total | 25 | 2 | ||