Asked by: Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government when the terms of reference for the next review of the Sovereign Grant in April 2026 will be prepared; who will be responsible for preparing them; and what input will be invited from parliamentarians.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The requirements for the 2026 review of the Sovereign Grant have been set by Parliament in the Sovereign Grant Act 2011. This requires the Royal Trustees to consider what percentage of Crown Estate profits should be used in the calculation of the Sovereign Grant for the period from 2027, once Buckingham Palace reservicing works are completed. The Act requires that the Royal Trustees report is laid in Parliament, and any change in the percentage used given effect by Statutory Instrument agreed by the House of Commons. In addition, the government has committed to bring forward legislation to reset the Grant to a lower level from 2027-28, which will enable further parliamentary debate on this issue.
Asked by: Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to reset the level of the Sovereign Grant once the reservicing works in Buckingham Palace have been completed.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
As required by the Sovereign Grant Act 2011, the next review of the Sovereign Grant will take place in 2026. The government has committed to bring forward legislation to reset the Grant to a lower level from 2027-28 once Buckingham Palace reservicing works are completed.
Asked by: Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the gift aid review launched in their policy paper Summary of tax administration and maintenance: Spring 2023, published on 27 April, how many meetings they have had with charities in the past six months as part of that review.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
As part of the Government’s review of the administration of Gift Aid processes, and to fully understand the current Gift Aid Service and associated processes and challenges, HMRC has conducted in-depth research interviews with officials responsible for Gift Aid from 17 charities across the country, ranging in size from micro to large. These represented charities across a range of different sectors and included some that claim Gift Aid, don’t claim or partially claim, to help understand the reasons, challenges and needs.
HMRC also conducted internal user research with members of its charities operations team to understand the challenges and to inform its research with charity officials.
Prior to the announcement, HMRC met with 6 charity officials responsible for Gift Aid at their respective charities to test changes to the charities online service. This followed research conducted with 5 charities in November 2022.
In total, there have been 28 research sessions with distinct, individual charities, and two sector meetings. 18 of these meetings have been in the past 6 months, with the remaining 12 having happened in the past 12 months.
This review of existing processes and research into challenges and possible improvements is still ongoing.
Asked by: Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the gift aid review launched in their policy paper Summary of tax administration and maintenance: Spring 2023, published on 27 April, what progress they have made so far in that review.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The Government is undertaking a review of the administration of Gift Aid. It is considering areas for improvements suggested by representatives of charities. Since the announcement HMRC has undertaken analysis of its systems that administer Gift Aid and also undertaken research on charities use of Gift Aid. HMRC has not completed this review of existing processes and research into challenges and possible improvements.
HMRC works closely and regularly with representatives from across the charity sector reviewing Gift Aid, as well as raising awareness amongst donors. It places a high priority on this collaborative work and is always interested in ideas to improve the administration, take-up and awareness of Gift Aid.
Asked by: Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to investigate whether Scottish Government spending on independence campaigning is appropriate.
Answered by Baroness Penn
The Government is concerned by the First Minister’s decision to appoint a Minister for Independence. This decision is out of step with the real priorities of the public, which include continuing to tackle the cost of living, growing Scotland’s economy, tackling NHS waiting lists, ensuring energy security and improving transport links.
The Government is committed to uphold the reputation and impartiality of the civil service in Scotland and appreciates that this is a matter for the Scottish Government Permanent Secretary who has been asked to consider this matter.
Asked by: Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps, if any, they intend to take to review whether any money allocated to the Scottish Government for a particular purpose has been spent on a different area without agreement with His Majesty's Government.
Answered by Baroness Penn
The Treasury are in regular contact with each of the devolved administrations to discuss the funding arrangements set out in the Statement of Funding Policy.
It is for the Scottish Government to decide how to spend their Barnett-based block grant in areas of devolved responsibility. However, ringfenced funding provided by the UK Government can only be spent for the purposes it was given and any underspends must be returned to HM Treasury.
The devolved administrations provide regular updates to HM Treasury on their spending through existing reporting channels. This includes spending against ringfenced funding.
Asked by: Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of whether the United Kingdom insurance markets are promoting competition and the best price for customers.
Answered by Lord O'Neill of Gatley
The Government fully recognises the importance of promoting competition in insurance markets so that customers can get the best price possible. That is why we have given the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) an objective to promote effective competition in the interest of consumers. The FCA regulates the conduct of financial markets so that they work well and consumers get a fair deal.
We have also created the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to oversee competition in markets including the insurance industry. The CMA promote competition for the benefit of consumers, both within and outside the UK and their aim is to make markets work well for consumers, businesses and the economy.