Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of VAT on defibrillators for those groups which do not qualify for an exemption; and whether they will consider removing VAT charges from sales of these devices.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Automated External Defibrillators (AED) save lives, which is why the Government has taken action to boost their provision. The Government provides support to aid the purchase of AEDs through VAT refunds on purchases made by local authorities and VAT reliefs for purchases made through voluntary contributions, where the AED is donated to eligible charities or the NHS. Otherwise, they attract the standard rate of VAT.
The Department of Health and Social Care are examining whether there are ways to further expand public access to defibrillators.
Introducing any new VAT reliefs would come at a cost to the Exchequer and any changes should be seen in the context of over £50 billion worth of requests for relief from VAT received since the EU referendum. Given this, there are no plans to change the current VAT treatment on defibrillators. However, the Government keeps all taxes under constant review.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the proposed new alcohol duty system, which is currently under consultation, on the diversity, choice and quality of wines available to consumers.
Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)
As part of the alcohol duty review, the Government has announced several reforms which aim to modernise the taxation system for wine.
By moving to a duty system where all wines are taxed in reference to their alcohol content, the Government intends to incentivise innovation of lower strength wines, providing greater choice to wine consumers. In addition, the Government has announced it will equalise still and sparkling wine rates, helping to spur innovation among British sparkling wine producers.
The Government is continuing to engage with interested stakeholders on these reforms. A consultation ran from 27 October 2021 to 30 January 2022, and the Government is now in the process of analysing responses. A tax information and impact note will be published following the consultation when the policy is final, or near final, in the usual way.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to a Freedom of Information request by Schools Week (FOI2021/11434), when they expect the Infrastructure Projects Authority to publish the full data collection of Private Finance Initiative Projects for (1) 2019, and (2) 2020.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The 2019 data will be published this Autumn. A data collection was not undertaken in 2020. The 2021 data collection will commence shortly and be published in early 2022.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether supply teachers who are registered to work with a number of different supply agencies can receive payments through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme; and if so, how.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
Where a supply teacher is supplied via an agency and paid through PAYE, they would be eligible to be furloughed and receive support through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme provided that the remaining eligibility criteria are met.
Furlough should be agreed between the agency, as the deemed employer, and the worker. It is advised that the need to furlough should be discussed with the end client involved.
Supply teachers are eligible for the Coronavirus Job Retention scheme in the same way as other employees. If they hold multiple employment contracts, they are able to receive support from the scheme from multiple employers.
Supply teachers can be furloughed by one employer and continue to work for another. If they are furloughed by more than one employer, they will receive separate payments from each employer. Each employer can claim up to 80% grant for the hours not worked by an employee, up to a maximum of £2,500 per month.
The decision to furlough an employee, fully or flexibly, is entirely at the employer’s discretion.
During this period of restricted pupil attendance, schools have remained open for vulnerable children and the children of key workers, and remote education has been in place for other pupils. Schools have continued to engage supply staff where they have been needed to support either face to face or remote education.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the annual cost to the NHS of the Apprenticeship Levy.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
In 2016, the then Chancellor, in a letter to the Treasury Select Committee, set out an estimate of the impact of the Apprenticeship Levy on the NHS Hospital and Community Health Service in England. This was estimated to be around £190m.
It is not possible to determine accurately the total annual levy payments made by all NHS trusts. This is because HMRC administrative data does not enable NHS trusts and their associated PAYE schemes to be easily identified.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the total expenditure per resident on publicly funded infrastructure projects in (1) London, (2) the North West, (3) the East of England, (4) Yorkshire and the Humber, (5) the South East, (6) the South West, (7) the East Midlands, (8) the West Midlands, and (9) the North East, in financial year 2015–16.
Answered by Lord Bates
Public expenditure on infrastructure in the English regions for 2015-16 can be found on page 75 of HM Treasury’s 2016 ‘Country and Regional Analysis’, as part of a wider dataset breaking down public spending in the UK. The figures provided in that document are:
| North East | North West | Yorkshire and the Humber | East Midlands | West Midlands | East | London | South East | South West | Total England |
Total: | 418 | 702 | 489 | 352 | 445 | 468 | 1,079 | 488 | 428 | 582 |
An explanation of the difficulties in determining spend at a regional level can be found on page 8. For example, the robustness of allocation methods varies according to the availability of data and simplifying assumptions are made in order to reduce the reporting burdens for government bodies.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government who will be responsible for the finances of UK MEPs’ pensions following the withdrawal of the UK from the EU.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
The arrangements for withdrawal from the EU, including from the budget, will be a matter for the withdrawal agreement as part of the Article 50 process.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they are planning to bring sixth form colleges in line with sixth form college academies in not having to pay VAT.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
I refer the noble Lord to the answer I gave on 25th October 2016 (Question HL2214).
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to change the rules on VAT applicable to sixth form colleges.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
The Government has no plans to change the rules on VAT applicable to sixth form colleges.
Asked by: Lord Storey (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government further to the Written Answer by Lord O’Neill of Gatley on 12 May (HL8031), how many times in (1) 2014, and (2) 2015, HM Revenue and Customs' (HMRC) specialist embassy team carried out risk assessment activities and identified individuals who had not notified their employment to HMRC, and subsequently took action to ensure they paid the tax that was due.
Answered by Lord O'Neill of Gatley
The Embassy team in 2014 and 2015 didn’t undertake any specific risk assessment activities with regards to individuals who had not notified their employment. However the team arranged for one of our Central Compliance Teams to undertake a project to review the National Insurance Contributions (NICs) position of various embassies employees using our Risk Profiling system. We reviewed 697 cases and opened checks into 258 of these. Of these 150 were found to be compliant. The checks covered the tax years 2009/10 to 2014/15.
In the current year we are expecting to open further checks in relation to both tax and NICs on a number of employees.