Asked by: Lord Botham (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to differentiating between independent schools with (1) fewer than 200 pupils, and (2) more than 200 pupils, with regard to the imposition of VAT.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Ending tax breaks for private schools will secure additional funding to help the government deliver its commitments to the 94% of children who attend state schools.
The Government has published a detailed response to the consultation conducted between July and September. The Government carefully considered over 17,000 responses from a range of stakeholders including schools, school associations, and parents. This was published online and can be found on gov.uk.
Asked by: Lord Botham (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to phasing in the introduction of VAT for independent schools.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Ending tax breaks for private schools will secure additional funding to help the government deliver its commitments to the 94% of children who attend state schools.
As a result of the January start date, the VAT policy is forecast to raise £460 million in 2024/25.
The government will use this funding to help deliver its commitments relating to education and young people, where the government has announced at Budget a £2.3 billion increase to the core schools budget for financial year 2025/26, increasing per pupil funding in real terms.
Since the announcement on 29 July, HMRC has taken action to support private schools through the change: providing detailed guidance; and allocating additional resource to process VAT registration applications. HMRC continues to engage with schools and the organisations that represent them.
Asked by: Lord Botham (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to making independent schools eligible for transitional relief for business rates.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Ending tax breaks on VAT and business rates for private schools will secure additional funding to help deliver the government’s commitments relating to education and young people. Where a school in England has charitable status, the government will remove their eligibility to business rates charitable rates relief from April 2025.
Transitional relief limits how much ratepayers’ bills can change each year as a result of changes to a property's rateable value and changes to the multiplier at a revaluation. As such, support provided through transitional relief is unaffected by changes in other business rates reliefs and their eligibility.
Asked by: Lord Botham (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many people aged (1) 20–30, (2) 31–40, (3) 41–50, (4) 51–60, (5) 61–75, and (6) 76 and over, were prosecuted in (a) 2021, (b) 2022, and (c) 2023, for non-payment of their TV licences.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Shadow Minister (Digital, Culture, Media and Sport)
The requirement to hold, and pay for, a television licence is set out in the Communications Act 2003 and the Communications (Television Licensing) Regulations 2004. Under the Communications Act 2003, the BBC is responsible for the collection and enforcement of the TV licensing system.
The Ministry of Justice currently publishes the number of prosecutions, convictions, and sentencing outcomes for the non-payment of TV licence fees annually as part of its quarterly criminal justice statistics, which can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-justice-statistics-quarterly
The figures are not broken down in the exact age groups requested. A breakdown of people proceeded against for TV licence evasion in England and Wales broken down by the age groups provided in the Ministry of Justice’s figures is below:
21-29
2021 - 9,767
2022 - 7,498
2023 - 5,705
30-39
2021 - 18,635
2022 - 16,273
2023 - 13,139
40-49
2021 - 12,804
2022 - 11,712
2023 - 9,790
50-59
2021 - 8,337
2022 - 8,050
2023 - 6,927
60-69
2021 - 3,042
2022 - 3,071
2023 - 2,931
70+
2021 - 269
2022 - 279
2023 - 266
Asked by: Lord Botham (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of carbon emissions caused by wildfires in each of the last five years; and how these emissions are accounted for in UK carbon budgets.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Shadow Minister (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. I will correspond directly with the noble Lord.