Scotland had an independence referendum in 2014. It was legal, fair and decisive and people in Scotland voted by a significant margin to remain part of the UK. The UK Government is committed to upholding and respecting the result of the 2014 referendum. The Scottish Government has stated that the cost of running the 2014 referendum was £15.8 million.

The Government are committed to strengthening the links between the four nations of the Union. The Prime Minister is taking personal charge, as Minister for the Union, supported by the Cabinet Office. We have boosted spending across the Union, including a further £300 million of new growth deal funding, which will open up opportunities for cities and regions across Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The Chancellor announced at the recent Spending Round that we will provide £160m to the Scottish Government in 2020-21 in relation to historic allocations of Common Agricultural Policy ‘convergence’ funding. The additional funding will be ring-fenced for farmers and land managers in Scotland. The review led by Lord Bew of Donegore has considered a separate but related matter.

The amount of Universal Credit paid to claimants reflects, as closely as possible, the actual circumstances of a household during each monthly assessment period.

Monthly assessment periods align to the way the majority of employees are paid and how utility companies and other service providers collect payments. It also allows Universal Credit to be adjusted each month, this means that if a claimant’s income falls, they will not have to wait several months for a rise in their Universal Credit.

We have recently reviewed and updated guidance to help ensure claimants, staff and representatives are aware of the importance of employers reporting accurate dates and the impact on payment cycles.

We know that some people find managing their money challenging and Alternative Payment Arrangements (APA) can be provided to help them manage that change. These include: managed payment of the Universal Credit housing cost to landlords; making payments more frequently; and splitting the payment between partners within the household.

APAs can be requested by a claimant at any point during their claim and are considered on a case by case basis and assessed by Universal Credit staff. Staff work closely with claimants and are trained to gauge a claimant’s financial needs at their initial interview, and throughout their claim, based on their personal circumstances.

We continuously review Universal Credit using feedback from claimants and stakeholders. We are currently trialling new ways of working around more frequent payments, monitoring the outcomes to further inform improvements to the service.

Performance in the PISA ranking system has remained stable in England and Northern Ireland since 2006.

As of May 2019, the Department has funded Citizens Advice Scotland with £2,343,378 to provide the Help to Claim service for Universal Credit claimants in Scotland.

DWP staff also have discretion to signpost benefit claimants to local support services where appropriate.

The Government already do much to support our brave veterans and their families, but for the first time we are mapping out a 10-year strategy to give greater clarity on how we want that support to develop.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) are responsible for the assessment of Child Maintenance payments, including the verification of the absent parent’s income. Upon request from DWP, HMRC provide information held on their National Insurance and PAYE Service, or their Self-Assessment Service. The information is made available under a Memorandum of Understanding, and is for the latest completed tax year.

Offshore wind is supported under the Renewables Obligation (RO) and Contracts for Difference (CfD). The RO was available to all eligible generators^[1]. Since 2015 onwards, support has been awarded on a competitive basis using Contracts for Difference (CfD). The offshore wind capacity brought forward in Scottish waters through RO and CfD since 2010 is approximately 2.3 GW^[2].

The costs of these schemes are paid for through consumers’ energy bills and managed by Ofgem and the Low Carbon Contracts Company. From 2010 to 2017/18, the last financial year for which spend figures are available, there has been £355.6 million of spending under the RO on offshore wind in Scotland. No CfD payments were made in respect of offshore wind generation in Scotland during the same period.

Innovation has been key in bringing down the costs of offshore wind. The work of the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, based in Glasgow and Levenmouth, has been, and will continue to be, important, in this. For example in June 2018 the ORE Catapult announced a £1.3 million programme of technology innovation projects designed to advance Scotland’s offshore wind sector[i]. In 2018, the Government also announced a further £73.5 million, five-year funding plan for the ORE Catapult.

[1] The RO closed to new capacity on 31 March 2017 (with exceptions that extended the deadline to 31 March 2018 for certain offshore wind stations). Accredited capacity will receive support for 20 years or until the final closure of the scheme on 31 March 2037, whichever is the earlier.

[2] CfDs awarded for 2,062 MW; under RO total installed at the end of 2017/18 was 218.5 MW.

[i] https://ore.catapult.org.uk/press-releases/innovation-funding-boost-scottish-offshore-wind/

Electric car batteries are classified as industrial batteries and covered under the Waste Batteries and Accumulators Regulations 2009. This bans the disposal to landfill of such batteries and their incineration. It also establishes take-back and recycling obligations for industrial battery producers.

The UK’s £246 million Faraday Battery Challenge is playing a leading role in promoting the reuse and recycling of battery components. One of the eight technical challenges set is to be able to recycle 95% of an electric vehicle battery pack by 2035.

A number of live projects are exploring this area including a £10 million Faraday Institution research project. This is developing the technological, economic and policy framework that would allow high percentages of the materials in lithium-ion batteries at the end of their first life to be reused or recycled. In addition, several collaborative research and development projects are looking at reusing, remanufacturing or recycling end-of-life, automotive lithium-ion batteries.

The independent Prudential Regulatory Authority (PRA) is responsible for the regulation of the underwriting of buy-to-let mortgages. Under the PRA’s Supervisory Statement of September 2016, firms are required to conduct: an interest coverage ratio test which compares expected rental income to the monthly interest cost of mortgage repayments; and/or an income affordability test. Lenders must also take into account future changes to interest rates over a minimum period of five years. The purpose of this is to prevent lenders taking excessive risk by ensuring that the borrowers have the ability to repay the loan.

Beyond the requirements set out in the regulations, decisions concerning how lenders assess mortgage applications are commercial decisions for banks and building societies. I hope you can appreciate that it would be inappropriate for the Government to intervene in these decisions.

I refer my Hon. Friend for Ochil and South Perthshire to the answer I gave to the Hon. Member for Midlothian on 26 February 2019, UIN 224362.

The Secretary of State engages regularly with Cabinet colleagues, including the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and the Secretaries of State for the territorial offices. We will use Brexit as an opportunity to strengthen the Union, and we will engage directly with the devolved Administrations and local government across the UK. For instance, the Secretary of State for Scotland recently met the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities.