Asked by: Mary Kelly Foy (Labour - City of Durham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will provide additional funding for charities that support women who are victims of domestic violence.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Through the Safer Streets and Safety of Women at Night Funds, the Home Office has invested over £150 million to deliver interventions to tackle violence against women and girls, anti-social behaviour and neighbourhood crime.
In 2023/24, the Ministry of Justice provided £21 million for community-based serious violence and domestic abuse services, and £38 million for Independent Sexual Violence Advisors and Independent Domestic Violence Advisors posts. In all, the Ministry of Justice is quadrupling funding for victim and witness support services by 2024/25, up from £41 million in 2009/10.
And at Autumn Statement 2023, the government announced £10 million of additional funding available in 2024/25 for projects that aim to understand the impacts of domestic abuse on the labour market, support victims of domestic abuse in the workplace or prevent victims experiencing further abuse.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many full time equivalent staff were employed in HM Revenue and Customs Customer Compliance Group for each of the last ten years for which figures are available.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government has committed to ensuring HMRC has sufficient funding to maintain its compliance performance over time, while continuing to make efficiencies. Within Customer Compliance Group, staff are deployed across a wide range of compliance risks. Internally, these are usually grouped by customer segment, tax head or specific tax risk being worked.
HMRC publishes information on the amounts spent on compliance by customer segment in our annual report and accounts at Tax by different customer groups – 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). The information for 2023 to 24 will be available in 2024. HMRC does not release detailed breakdowns of this information for operational reasons.
Asked by: Thérèse Coffey (Conservative - Suffolk Coastal)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the abolition of the furnished holiday lettings tax regime on farms.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recognises the important role that Furnished Holiday Lets (FHL), including those located on farms, have in the visitor economy. This measure does not penalise or prohibit the provision of FHLs and simply brings their tax treatment in line with other rentals.
As with all aspects of the tax system, the Government keeps the taxation of property landlords under review and any decision on future changes will be taken by the Chancellor in the context of the wider public finances.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the policy paper entitled Transforming for a digital future: 2022 to 2025 roadmap for digital and data, updated on 29 February 2024, when his Department first assessed each of the red-rated legacy IT systems in HM Revenue and Customs to be red-rated.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO), in the Cabinet Office, has established a programme to support departments managing legacy IT. CDDO has agreed a framework to identify ‘red-rated’ systems, indicating high levels of risk surrounding certain assets within the IT estate. Departments have committed to have remediation plans in place for these systems by next year (2025).
It is not appropriate to release sensitive information held about specific, red-rated systems or more detailed plans for remediation within HMRC’s IT estate, as this information could indicate which systems are at risk and may highlight potential security vulnerabilities.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Answer of 16 May 2023 to question 183900 on Sanitary Products: VAT, what steps he has taken to review whether the zero-rating for VAT on period products is being passed on by retailers to women in the last 12 months.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government monitors publicly available data to assess the extent to which reliefs are passed through after their introduction, and is keen to ensure that the savings achieved through tax reliefs reach the intended recipients. We have engaged with stakeholders over the last 12 months to ensure they commit to passing on the savings realised from the zero-rating of period products, including following the expansion of the relief to period underwear in January 2024.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many staff left his Department in each year since 2015.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The number of staff who left HMT each year since 2015 is available via Civil Service statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the policy paper entitled Transforming for a digital future: 2022 to 2025 roadmap for digital and data, updated on 29 February 2024, what steps his Department has taken to mitigate the risks of red-rated legacy IT systems.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
I refer the hon Member to the answer given on 29 November 23 to PQ UIN 3658.
Asked by: Ben Wallace (Conservative - Wyre and Preston North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, by how much (a) Resource Departmental Expenditure Limits and (b) Capital Departmental Expenditure Limits will be reduced following the cancellation of the northern leg of HS2 in each affected Department; and if he will publish in which Departments these savings will be made.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The government has committed to re-invest every penny that is saved from the cancelled phases of HS2 into alternative transport projects through Network North.
This means that every penny of the £19.8 billion committed to the Northern leg of HS2 will be reinvested in the North; every penny of the £9.6 billion committed to the Midlands leg will be reinvested in the Midlands; and the full £6.5 billion saved through our rescoped approach at Euston will be spread across every other region in the country.
Departmental Expenditure Limits in 2024-25 are published at the relevant Estimates in the usual way. Departmental budgets beyond 2024-25 will be set as part of the next Spending Review.
Asked by: Matt Hancock (Independent - West Suffolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much funding the Financial Conduct Authority provided to the Digital Regulation Cooperation Forum in the 2022-23 financial year.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
These are matters for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), which are operationally independent from Government. The FCA and the PSR will respond to the Honourable Member by letter, and a copy of the letter will be placed in the Library of the House of Commons.
Asked by: Matt Hancock (Independent - West Suffolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the pay ranges at each grade are for Payment Systems Regulator staff based (a) in and (b) outside London.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
These are matters for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), which are operationally independent from Government. The FCA and the PSR will respond to the Honourable Member by letter, and a copy of the letter will be placed in the Library of the House of Commons.