Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of Oversea Scale Rates on UK long-haul airline crew and other employees who rely on these allowances for subsistence costs.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Overseas Scale Rates are an administrative easement and do not limit the amount an employee can claim for. They reduce the need to provide evidence to support an employee’s claim for tax relief.
Employees travelling overseas for work have the same entitlement to tax relief whether they use the rates or not. An employee can claim tax relief on a higher value if that is appropriate, with the only distinction being they must provide receipts.
There will be occasions where OSR may not reflect the current prices in a particular location. In these cases, the employer can choose to reimburse the full expenses incurred by their staff, if receipts are kept. Should the employer choose not to reimburse all the actual expenses, the employee may claim tax relief on the difference from HMRC.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to ensure people who could not pay their Self Assessment Tax because of the Barclays outage do not have to pay a fixed penalty.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
No Barclays customers who filed their tax return and paid their Self Assessment tax liability by 3rd February will face a penalty.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many and what proportion of all purchases of premium bonds made in the last financial year were under the value of (a) £100, (b) £1000 and (c) £10,000.
Answered by Tulip Siddiq
According to National Savings and Investments (NS&I), in the 2023/24 there were:
This does not include the value of any prizes that were reinvested into Premium Bonds.
Further information on investments received in 2023/24, across NS&I’s products, can be found in its latest Annual Reports and Accounts published earlier this year.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of rainfall levels in September 2024 on (a) Government spending and (b) the local economy in each of the 10 English counties that have had the highest levels of rainfall.
Answered by Tulip Siddiq
Economic stability is a priority for this government. The COBR Unit in the Cabinet Office operates a well-established arrangement for monitoring near-term civil contingency-type risks, including severe weather, for the purpose of ensuring the Government is prepared to respond as appropriate to the challenges they may bring.
This Government is committed to protecting communities across the country from the dangers of flooding. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has launched a Flood Resilience Taskforce to provide oversight of national and local flood resilience and preparedness ahead of and after the winter flood season, and the Secretary of State chaired its first meeting in September.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if her Department will make an (a) estimate of the potential costs and (b) assessment of the potential merits of extending inheritance tax relief to long-term cohabiting and co-dependent siblings.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
There is a longstanding inheritance tax exemption for transfers between spouses and civil partners to reflect the formal legal obligations that marriage and civil partnerships involve. As with all taxes, reforms to inheritance tax, such as the potential extension of this exemption to transfers between cohabiting siblings, will be kept under review as part of the normal policy making process and the Chancellor will announce any changes to the tax system at fiscal events in the normal way.
Asked by: Alex Mayer (Labour - Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what criteria her Department plans to use to identify locations for banking hubs; and if she will set out a timetable for rolling out hubs in constituencies affected by branch closures.
Answered by Tulip Siddiq
The Government recognises the importance of banking to communities and high streets and has committed to work closely with banks to roll out 350 banking hubs over the next five years. These will provide individuals and businesses up and down the country with critical cash and banking services.
Banking hubs are a voluntary service developed by the financial services sector in the context of legislation to protect individuals’ and businesses’ access to cash deposit and withdrawal services under the Financial Services Act 2023. Their rollout is overseen by Cash Access UK, a not-for-profit company set up and funded by the banks for the purpose of coordinating banking hub delivery. LINK, the operator of the UK’s largest ATM network, is responsible for assessing a community’s needs regarding access to cash. Where LINK considers that a community requires additional cash services, Cash Access UK will provide a suitable shared solution, such as a deposit service, or a banking hub, for cash users in that community.
So far, 147 banking hubs have been recommended and Cash Access UK expects 100 banking hubs to be open before the end of the year.