Asked by: Lord Redwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the tax cost of train operators using red diesel instead of paying full fuel tax.
Answered by Lord Pitt-Watson - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Qualifying locomotives for passenger and freight trains, and rail maintenance vehicles can use red diesel for propulsion. The Treasury does not hold information on the cost of rebated fuel used specifically by train operators.
To assist the Noble Lord, I can point to the most relevant published statistics available. HMRC’s non-structural tax reliefs publication sets out the overall estimated Exchequer cost of the rebate for red diesel (and kerosene used as fuel in an engine), while DESNZ’s Digest of UK Energy Statistics provides data on petroleum products consumed by the rail sector.
Although these publications do not provide a separate official estimate for train operators, they provide the best available published information on the overall cost of the relief and the scale of rail-sector fuel use.
Asked by: Lord Redwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the annual VAT loss from zero-rating rail fares.
Answered by Lord Pitt-Watson - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC’s published statistics on the cost of tax reliefs[1] provide an estimate of the cost of the VAT Zero Rate for domestic passenger transport of £5.8 billion in 2025-26. This includes other public transport such as buses; a breakdown for rail fares is not available.
Asked by: Lord Redwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the annual tax cost of exempting rail operators from the climate change levy on their purchase of electricity.
Answered by Lord Livermore
Energy supplies used in certain forms of transport are exempt from the main rate of Climate Change Levy (CCL). This includes electricity used to electrify rail lines, light a railway carriage transporting passengers and light the cab interior of a freight train transporting goods.
Information on the estimated cost of tax reliefs, including CCL exemptions, is published on GOV.UK and can be found in the annual statistics on tax reliefs. However, it is not possible to provide the annual tax cost of exempting rail operators from CCL, as HMRC does not collect this information.
Asked by: Lord Redwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the total tax they receive, including carbon levies and windfall taxes, on each kilowatt-hour of delivered retail electricity generated by gas at current prices.
Answered by Lord Livermore
Whilst Carbon Price Support and Emissions Trading Scheme comprise the total carbon price applied to electricity generators, this does not translate into a single per kilowatt-hour tax rate on delivered retail electricity. It is therefore not possible to provide a single figure for the total tax received per kWh of delivered retail electricity generated by gas from carbon levies.
Asked by: Lord Redwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the UK’s economic performance compared to the EU and USA, considering GDP per capita.
Answered by Lord Livermore
The latest data from the ONS show that GDP per capita rose by 1.1 per cent in 2025, the fastest of any European G7 economy. Over the same period, GDP per capita rose 1.6 per cent in the United States and 1.3 per cent in the EU.
UK GDP per capita has grown by 1.0 per cent since the start of the Parliament, whereas it declined by 0.2 per cent during the previous Parliament.
Asked by: Lord Redwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what are the losses by the Bank of England on holding its bond portfolio that the Treasury has had to reimburse so far in the 2023-24 financial year.
Answered by Bim Afolami
Data on these quarterly cash transfers between HM Treasury and the Bank of England are made publicly available by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in their monthly Public Sector Finances publication. The data is available at the following link under the ONS series ID MF7A in worksheet PSA9B:
Asked by: Lord Redwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what his Department's forecast is for the cost of indexation of the index linked debt on the debt interest charge for the 2024-25 financial year.
Answered by Bim Afolami
The Office for Budget Responsibility is the UK’s official forecaster, a breakdown of debt interest costs including the interest payable on index-linked gilts is available in the OBR’s detailed aggregates table 6.16 which is published alongside their March 2024 Economic and Fiscal Outlook.
Asked by: Lord Redwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to increase public sector productivity.
Answered by Laura Trott - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
The government has a relentless focus on getting the most out of every pound spent by boosting public sector productivity and by focusing spending on the government’s priorities.
In June, the Chancellor announced the Public Sector Productivity Programme as a means of assessing how productivity can be improved and to ensure the long-term sustainability of our public services.
The programme has focused on embracing the opportunities presented by Artificial Intelligence, reducing the amount of time our key frontline workers spend on administrative tasks and strengthening preventive action to reduce demand on public services.
Asked by: Lord Redwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of trends in public sector productivity since 2019.
Answered by Laura Trott - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
ONS publish annual National Statistics on public service productivity up to 2020. The next annual statistic for 2021 will be published on 26 March. ONS also publish estimates of public service productivity which currently include annual estimates for 2021 and 2022 and quarterly estimates up to 2023 Q3. These are official statistics in development.
Asked by: Lord Redwood (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what ministerial involvement there is in (a) setting budgets, (b) preparing annual reports and (c) approving annual reports for arms length public bodies.
Answered by Laura Trott - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
How budgets are set and the process for preparing and approving annual reports for arm’s length bodies (ALBs) are dependent on their classification status and their source of income.Further information on the reporting requirements for ALBs can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/657b04390467eb001355f84d/MASTER_FINAL_DRAFT_2024-25_FReM___1_.pdf Further information on the accounting process for each type of ALB can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a74d700e5274a59fa715592/Classification-of-Public_Bodies-Guidance-for-Departments.pdf