Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the answer of 23 January 2026, to Question 105913, on Revenue and Customs: Social Media, if she will name the social media influencers who were used, including their social media handles.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The social media influencers used across all of these campaigns were commissioned and managed by a specialist agency, who identify, contract and oversee creators on HMRC's behalf based on the objectives set for reaching and engaging with specific audiences.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many HMRC investigations into the potential underpayment of stamp duty land tax are ongoing.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC are unable to provide the current number of ongoing Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) investigations because live case data isn’t routinely released. This is due to the way in which enquiries are handled and categorised, as they have not been through the end of year assurance process.
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the answer of 16 January 2026, to Question 103793, on Cabinet Office: Electronic Purchasing Card Solution, if she will place in the Library a copy of the invoice and receipt from TasteThatLove.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Government Procurement Card spend data is declared in relevant transparency publications.
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the answer of 21 January 2026, to Question 105915, on Katie Martin, for what reason her adviser is unpaid.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
I refer the hon member to my answer of 3 March 2026, to PQ UIN 114888.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the work to fit tokenised collateral into existing financial market regulation frameworks; and what discussions they are having with the Financial Conduct Authority and the Bank of England about ensuring those frameworks support innovation and financial stability.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Last July, the Government published the Wholesale Financial Markets Digital Strategy, which sets out its commitment to establishing a regulatory and legislative framework that enables new digital solutions, such as tokenisation, to be taken forward.
The Strategy notes that current use cases demonstrate that English and Welsh law, alongside UK financial services legislation is, in many cases, sufficiently flexible to accommodate digital assets. However, the Strategy commits the Government to providing legal clarity where it is needed to accommodate distributed ledger technology and we are working closely with the financial services regulators to identify where such clarifications may be necessary.
As part of this, the Government has established the Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS). This addresses priority areas where existing requirements can create barriers to adopting new technology. The DSS allows participating entities to be subject to modified legislative requirements, to facilitate new digital infrastructures in the UK market.
Asked by: Lord Walker of Broxton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on household budgets of the reduction of the rate of inflation from 3.4 per cent in December to the current rate of 3 per cent.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Inflation fell to 3 per cent in January 2026. Wages rose faster than inflation in Q4 2025, indicating that real wages are growing, which will support household purchasing power and ease pressure on household budgets.
The Government welcomes the fall in inflation and is committed to improving living standards for everyone, in every part of the UK. We recognise that the cost of living remains too high, which is why, at the last Budget, we took action to bear down on prices and help ease the cost of living pressures for people by targeting everyday expenses. This includes taking on average £150 of costs off household energy bills from April 2026, expanding the £150 Warm Home Discount to 6 million lower income households, freezing rail fares and NHS prescription fees, and extending the 5p fuel duty cut until the end of August 2026.
Asked by: Lord Walker of Broxton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on household budgets of the Bank of England's decision in January to reduce the base rate to 3.75 per cent.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
In December 2025, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) at the Bank of England announced its decision to reduce the Bank Rate to 3.75%. The MPC has the government's full support as it acts to return inflation to the 2% target sustainably. This was the sixth interest rate cut since the election. Those interest rate cuts will save households over £1,300 a year on a typical new 2-year fix for a £215,000 mortgage over a 29-year term.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what information they have on the quantity and value of UK industrial hemp exported to France for house construction.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is responsible for the collection and publication of data on imports and exports of goods to and from the UK. HMRC releases this information monthly, as an Accredited National Statistic called the Overseas Trade in Goods Statistics (OTS), which is available via their dedicated website at the following link: http://www.uktradeinfo.com/.
Commodity Codes are used to identify the goods being imported and exported and these can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/trade-tariff. However, there is not a commodity code specifically covering industrial hemp used in the construction industry.
Hemp is classified to several commodity codes within headings 1404 (vegetable products note elsewhere specified or included), 5302 (true hemp) and 6808 (panels, board, tiles, blocks of vegetable fibre) of the Tariff. Whilst none of these are specific to hemp used in construction, 6808 includes hempcrete used as an insulation material with hemp fibres mixed with lime and water and made into, for example, insulating panels and boards. This may be the most appropriate heading containing the information requested.
The value and net mass in kilograms for the headings that may contain hemp for the years 2023 to 2025 are as follows:
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Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what criteria the Government uses to determine whether payments made under a Government compensation scheme are exempt from (a) income tax and (b) inheritance tax.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Some payments made under Government established compensation schemes will not give rise to an income tax liability. This is because payments intended to compensate individuals for personal injury would generally fall within established tax principles that treat compensation for personal injury as non-taxable. If payments are made which specifically represent loss of earnings, they will be subject to income tax under miscellaneous income rules.
Beyond this, tax exemptions for individual schemes will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Given the historic nature of the Infected Blood Scandal and the reduced life expectancy of Infected Blood recipients, many individuals will have passed away before they could receive their compensation. This means that concerns around the impacts of secondary transfers are particularly acute in the case of Infected Blood compensation. For this reason, we have taken steps to extend the inheritance tax relief for this scheme.
Asked by: Matt Vickers (Conservative - Stockton West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Government plans to apply the same inheritance tax treatment used for the infected blood compensation scheme to future comparable schemes.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Some payments made under Government established compensation schemes will not give rise to an income tax liability. This is because payments intended to compensate individuals for personal injury would generally fall within established tax principles that treat compensation for personal injury as non-taxable. If payments are made which specifically represent loss of earnings, they will be subject to income tax under miscellaneous income rules.
Beyond this, tax exemptions for individual schemes will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Given the historic nature of the Infected Blood Scandal and the reduced life expectancy of Infected Blood recipients, many individuals will have passed away before they could receive their compensation. This means that concerns around the impacts of secondary transfers are particularly acute in the case of Infected Blood compensation. For this reason, we have taken steps to extend the inheritance tax relief for this scheme.