Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the oral contribution of the Chief Secretary to the Treasury in the urgent question on the resignation of the chair of the OBR at column 991, 3 December 2025, whether special advisers have been required to provide access to the leak inquiry to communications on personal and government issued mobile devices and computers.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
On 9 February, the Government published its Review of Budget information security. This includes the outcomes and recommendations of the Cabinet Office’s leak inquiry. All individuals and organisations in government who had access to the relevant information were in scope, including special advisers.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the oral contribution of the Chief Secretary to the Treasury of 3 December 2025 on OBR: Resignation of Chair, Official Report, column 991, if she will provide an update on the progress of the leak inquiry.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
On 9 February, the Government published its Review of Budget information security. This includes the outcomes and recommendations of the Cabinet Office’s leak inquiry. The recommendations will be implemented in full.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the answer of 20 January 2026 to Question 104669 on Business Rates, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the increases in Rateable Values for (a) hotels and (b) pubs from the 2026 revaluation on the liability of those businesses for business rates from the BID levies.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Business Improvement District (BID) levies are set locally through ballot approved proposals and are not automatically affected by revaluations or new multipliers. Therefore, any adjustment is a matter for the individual BID under its governing arrangements.
The Government recognises the important role that BIDs play in improving the local trading environment in high streets and town centres. Through the Pride in Place strategy, the Government has committed to strengthening BIDs by modernising existing arrangements, raising standards, and granting new powers for the establishment of property owner BIDs throughout England.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of changes to electric Vehicle Excise Duty on the use of internal combustion engine vehicles.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
As announced at Budget 2025, the Government is introducing Electric Vehicle Excise Duty (eVED) from April 2028, a new mileage charge for electric and plug-in hybrid cars, recognising that electric vehicles (EVs) contribute to congestion and wear and tear on the roads but pay no equivalent to fuel duty.
The Government is also committed to ensuring that driving an electric vehicle is an attractive choice for consumers; the eVED rate paid by electric car drivers will therefore be half the equivalent fuel duty rate paid by the average petrol/diesel driver, meaning that it will still be cheaper to own and run an EV for the majority of EV drivers, with a reduced rate for plug-in hybrid drivers.
The Government has set out the expected impacts of eVED and other Budget measures, including Exchequer and behavioural impacts, in the Budget 2025 Policy Costings document at GOV.UK.
There are uncertainties, but the number of internal combustion engine cars is still expected to fall over time as electric car sales increase; EV sales are forecast to more than triple from nearly 0.5 million sales in 2025/26 to around 1.6 million by 2030/31.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus and Perthshire Glens)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of increases in employer National Insurance contributions on the recruitment of young workers in Scotland.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
A detailed assessment of the policy has been published by HMRC in their Tax Information and Impact Note. The TIIN sets out the impact of the policy on the exchequer, the economic impacts of the policy, and the impacts on individuals, businesses, and civil society organisations, as well as an overview of the equality impacts.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) also published the Economic and Fiscal Outlook (EFO), which sets out a detailed forecast of the economy and public finances. Accounting for policies that will materially affect the forecast, the OBR expect that employment levels will rise in every year of the forecast, and that they will be higher in every year compared to March, reaching 35.5m in 2030-31.
The UK Government is committed to providing young people with the best start to their working lives. That is why we have committed to a Youth Guarantee to support young people across Great Britain to earn or learn. This includes a Jobs Guarantee, which will provide a six-month paid work placement for every eligible 18- to 21-year-old who has been on Universal Credit and looking for work for 18 months.
Asked by: Lord Freyberg (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether recording and visual arts studios will be included within the forthcoming business rates revaluation process; if so, how; and when this will be implemented.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Valuation Office Agency independently value all non-domestic properties, including recording and visual arts studios, every three years at a revaluation.
We are reforming the business rates system by introducing permanently lower tax rates for over 750,000 retail, hospitality and leisure properties, funded by a higher rate on the most valuable properties. Where a recording studio forms part of a single property with a qualifying hospitality or retail business and the hospitality or retail aspect is the main purpose of the property, it will qualify for the lower multipliers.
Following concerns raised after the Budget, the Government has also launched a review of the methodology used to value both pubs and hotels for business rates purposes. As part of this, the Government will engage extensively with valuation experts, businesses and their representatives and will report in time for any decisions that follow to be implemented for the 2029 revaluation.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking maximise the public sharing of evidence on which assertions by the VOA are made; and how the VOA's duty to taxpayer confidentiality will be used when responding to queries.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Valuation Office Agency publishes valuation information for transparency while ensuring the protection of taxpayer confidentiality in line with its duty under the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005. The VOA published draft valuations from the 2026 Revaluation of Business Rates alongside Autumn Budget, so ratepayers can see the Rateable Values on which their bills will be based from 1 April 2026. To increase transparency, VOA also provided customers with information on comparable properties to help them understand how their rateable value has been determined.
Asked by: Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat - Cheadle)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to ensure transparency in the work of the VOA.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Valuation Office Agency publishes valuation information for transparency while ensuring the protection of taxpayer confidentiality in line with its duty under the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005. The VOA published draft valuations from the 2026 Revaluation of Business Rates alongside Autumn Budget, so ratepayers can see the Rateable Values on which their bills will be based from 1 April 2026. To increase transparency, VOA also provided customers with information on comparable properties to help them understand how their rateable value has been determined.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent progress she has made on establishing the future entity for open banking.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government committed has committed to bring forward a statutory instrument this year to support the delivery of a long-term regulatory framework for Open Banking, ensuring continued growth and innovation in the sector.
The Future Entity will be an important part of this framework and act as the standards-setting body for UK open banking. The FCA has commissioned a consultancy to assess proposals from organisations proposing to lead the establishment a body that is capable of becoming the Future Entity. The process will finish in April.
Asked by: Damian Hinds (Conservative - East Hampshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 27 January 2026 to Question 102744 on Hospitality Industry and Retail Trade: Business Rates, what estimate she has made for the total business rates liability for the current set of properties in category 159 (Local Authority Schools) in (a) 2025/6 (b) 2026/7, and (c) 2027/8.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Valuation Office Agency is responsible for assessing non-domestic properties and determining their rateable value (RV). Local authorities are responsible for calculating business rates bills using the RV, the multiplier set by parliament, and any appropriate reliefs.
The government has published guidance for estimating a property’s business rates for 2026-27: Estimate your business rates - GOV.UK.