Asked by: Anne McLaughlin (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many small and medium sized enterprises were unsuccessful in securing research and development tax relief (a) in 2024 to date and (b) between 1 January and 2 May 2019.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC publish R&D statistics annually, the latest publication can be found on Gov.uk at Research and Development Tax Credits Statistics: September 2023.
Previous statistics are archived and can be found at The National Archives website.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to consult on proposed changes to the Furnished Holiday Lets tax regime.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Draft legislation will be published in due course and the Government will consult on it in the usual way.
The Government keeps all aspects of tax policy under review and any decisions on future changes will be taken by the Chancellor in the context of the wider public finances.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he expects the pilot No Interest Loan Scheme run by Fair4AllFinance to be launched in Northern Ireland before the end of the calendar year.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government funded No Interest Loan Scheme (NILS) is being run by Fair4AllFinance, in conjunction with their partners. The pilot is designed to test the impact that NILS could have on addressing the needs of vulnerable consumers across the UK.
Fair4AllFinance have now rolled out the pilot in England, Scotland and Wales. Fair4AllFinance will continue to engage closely with stakeholders, including the Northern Ireland Executive, in an effort to deliver our shared ambition to launch a pilot site in Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Wendy Chamberlain (Liberal Democrat - North East Fife)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent estimate he has made of when the online system for (a) checking the completeness of National Insurance records and (b) paying top ups will be launched.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
After a period of internal testing, we launched the service in private beta on 22nd April 24 to a small number of users. Over the period 22nd April 24 until the 29th April 24 we have gradually increased number of users in private beta. We made the service available to everyone in a public beta on 29th April 2024.
Asked by: Bill Wiggin (Conservative - North Herefordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what his policy is on open finance.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The financial services sector is currently at the forefront of Smart Data, through a combination of Open Banking and the HM Treasury-funded Centre for Finance, Innovation and Technology (CFIT), which recently published recommendations for driving Open Finance forward in the UK.
HM Treasury has worked closely with the Department for Business and Trade as it developed its Smart Data roadmap, which sets out the government’s ambition for future Smart Data scheme development across seven different sectors, including finance, and is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-smart-data-roadmap-action-the-government-is-taking-in-2024-to-2025.
As set out in the roadmap, HM Treasury will carefully consider CFIT’s recommendations for Open Finance, alongside wider industry engagement, as it develops its strategy for Open Finance.
In April 2024, HM Treasury also announced the launch of an industry-led taskforce, which will identify and prioritise Open Finance use cases and data-sets that could be unlocked to improve SME access to credit.
Asked by: Baroness Kennedy of Cradley (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their latest estimate of the amount of income tax lost to fraud each year.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC does not publish a stand-alone estimate of the Income tax gap arising from fraud.
However, ‘Measuring tax gaps 2023 edition’, published in June 2023, shows a reduction in the Income Tax, National Insurance contributions and Capital Gains Tax gap as a percentage of the theoretical tax liability from 4.5% in 2005-2006 to 3.0% in 2021-2022. The publication also provides illustrative estimates for fraud that are included in the criminal attacks and evasion components, plus a proportion of hidden economy and non-payment.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have with the Competition and Markets Authority on the recent increases in car insurance premiums and access to car insurance for motorists on lower incomes.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Treasury Ministers and officials have regular meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors, including the financial services regulators, on an ongoing basis.
The Government does not prescribe the terms, conditions or price that insurance companies set when offering insurance. Insurers make commercial decisions about the pricing of insurance following their assessment of the relevant risks. The Government does not intervene in these decisions as this could damage competition in the market.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is the independent regulator responsible for supervising the insurance industry. Alongside the Competition and Markets Authority, the FCA can enforce against breaches of competition law for the provision of financial services.
The FCA also requires firms to ensure their products offer fair value (i.e. if the price a consumer pays for a product or service is reasonable compared to the overall benefits they can expect to receive). The FCA has been clear that it will be monitoring firms to ensure they are providing products that are fair value, and, where necessary, it will take action.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Prime Minister’s speech in Warsaw on 23 April 2024, whether the commitment to spend 2.5% of gross domestic product on defence by 2030 will be require additional funding streams other than through reductions to (a) the civil service and (b) research and development budgets.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
We have made a commitment to steadily increase defence spending, reaching 2.5% of GDP in 2030. We have also set out how we are fully funding this increase in defence spending.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Prime Minister’s speech in Warsaw on 23 April 2024, whether his Department has (a) conducted an assessment of costings and (b) developed proposals for how to fund the commitment to spend 2.5% of gross domestic product on defence by 2030.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
We have made a commitment to steadily increase defence spending, reaching 2.5% of GDP in 2030. We have also set out how we are fully funding this increase in defence spending.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to allocate at least £3 billion for military support to Ukraine in each year between 2024 and 2030.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Government remains committed to supporting Ukraine to defend itself in response to Putin’s illegal invasion. This year we are providing an additional £500 million to Ukraine, on top of the £2.5 billion we have already announced. Our fully funded increase in defence spending enables us to commit to providing support to Ukraine at the current level for as long as required.