Simon Kirby: The Equality Act 2010 (Amendment) Regulations 2012 currently require HM Treasury to review the implementation of the principle of equal treatment between men and women in the access to and supply of goods and services in respect of insurance services, before 21 December 2017.
Simon Kirby: Treasury Ministers and officials meet regularly with colleagues across Government to discuss a wide range of issues. As was the case with previous Administrations, it is not the Treasury's practice to provide details of all such discussions. The Government is committed to improving access to financial services. Access to a transactional bank account is key to enabling people to manage their...
Simon Kirby: Government departments buy copyright licences according to their needs from their departmental budgets. Funds are not allocated by HM Treasury specifically for licensing and departmental procurement. This type of procurement is a matter for individual departments.
Simon Kirby: The government has committed to exploring whether some form of “breathing space” would be a useful and viable addition to the current range of debt solutions available to consumers and creditors. Work is continuing on this review, and the government plans to provide an update in due course.
Simon Kirby: This is an operational matter for the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), who are operationally independent from Government. The questions have been passed to the FOS. The FOS will reply directly to Alex Cunningham MP by letter. A copy of the letter will be placed in the Library of the House.
Simon Kirby: The Government takes the issue of pension scams, and the targeting of vulnerable people through cold calls, very seriously. That is why Government is consulting on a package of measures aimed at tackling these issues. The consultation closed on 13 February, and the Government is currently reviewing responses.
Simon Kirby: The government has committed to exploring whether some form of “breathing space” would be a useful and viable addition to the current range of debt solutions available to consumers and creditors. Work is continuing on this review, and the government plans to provide an update in due course.
Simon Kirby: The Government is determined to protect people from being tricked out of their life savings by fraudsters. Currently, almost 11 million pensioners are being targeted annually by cold callers. The proposed ban, which allows calls where an existing relationship exists or at the express request of the recipient, is intended to allow legitimate businesses to continue to operate. The Government...
Simon Kirby: Government departments buy copyright licences according to their needs from their departmental budgets. This includes any contributions made to shared licensing arrangements across government.
Simon Kirby: Government departments are required to comply with the law including the law of copyright. To this end they enter into licensing arrangements and monitor compliance locally. The Accounting Officer within each department is responsible for ensuring legal compliance.
Simon Kirby: In each of the last 5 years, HM Treasury as spent the following on iPads and tablets 2012 – 2 iPads costing £489 each2015 – 5 Lenovo ThinkPad 10 costing £630 each2016 – 2 iPads costing £390 each2017 – 1 iPad costing £400 In each of the last 5 years, HM Treasury has spent the following on paper 2012/13 - £50,069.052013/14 - £50,645.922014/15 - £70,776.852015/16 -...
Simon Kirby: The Government believes that widespread free access to cash remains extremely important to the day-to-day lives of many consumers and businesses in the UK. To this end, the Government is engaging with LINK (the network that runs the ATMS scheme) and its members, including banks and Independent ATM Deployers, to ensure that widespread free access to cash is maintained, and is encouraged to...
Simon Kirby: The department’s spend on procurement for each financial year since 2010 can be found in the Annual Report and Accounts published at Gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmt-annual-report
Simon Kirby: A competitive and transparent financial services sector is vital to ensuring that the UK economy delivers for consumers and businesses. As with all policy areas, the Government continues to keep transparency of foreign exchange fees under review, and is currently conducting research on the effects of this on consumer decisions to inform its policy approach. The Government is also...
Simon Kirby: The government has committed to exploring whether some form of “breathing space” would be a useful and viable addition to the current range of debt solutions available to consumers and creditors. Work is continuing on this review, and the government plans to provide an update in due course.
Simon Kirby: The Government has not made any assessment of the potential effect of reduced access to free ATMs on small businesses in (a) England, (b) the Yorkshire and Humber region and (c) Leeds West constituency. The Government believes that widespread free access to cash remains extremely important to the day-to-day lives of many consumers and businesses in the UK. To this end, the Government is...
Simon Kirby: The Treasury welcomes the Competition and Market Authority’s (CMA’s) remedies on Open Banking, which has the potential to bring significant benefits to consumers and SMEs by promoting competition in the retail banking sector. Responsibility for assessing and monitoring the progress on implementation rests with the independent CMA. As set out by the CMA, the element of Open Banking...
Simon Kirby: The Treasury is working hard to promote the UK FinTech industry. At Autumn Statement the government announced specific measures to boost the industry: the Treasury commissioned EY to produce an annual ‘State of UK FinTech’ report on key FinTech metrics to raise the profile of FinTech as an investment opportunity. The Treasury has also appointed regional FinTech envoys for the Northern...
Simon Kirby: This information is not available in the format requested. HM Treasury holds data according to job title, which is not an accurate enough basis to answer the question.
Simon Kirby: The Government believes that widespread free access to cash remains extremely important to the day-to-day lives of many consumers and businesses in the UK. In 2015 Government set up the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) with the statutory objective to ensure that the UK’s payment systems, including the LINK ATM scheme, work in the interests of their users. The PSR is monitoring developments...