Asked by: Alyn Smith (Scottish National Party - Stirling)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking with HMRC to help ensure taxpayers receive (a) prompt and (b) accurate responses to queries.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
HMRC strives to answer all queries promptly and accurately. HMRC is also encouraging more customers to use its online services which are accessible 24/7 and regularly score satisfaction scores of over 80%.
The details requested by the Hon. Member are published monthly by HMRC at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmrc-monthly-performance-report-february-2024
Asked by: Alyn Smith (Scottish National Party - Stirling)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will allow British National (Overseas) visa holders to back pay voluntary National Insurance contributions.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
British National (Overseas) visa holders who live or work abroad (or have previously) are usually able to pay voluntary National Insurance contributions for the previous six tax years where they have either previously lived in the UK for three years in a row or paid at least three years of contributions.
For the tax years 2016 to 2017 and 2017 to 2018 the government has extended the deadline for paying voluntary contributions to 5 April 2025.
The deadline has also been extended to 5 April 2025 for eligible customers to pay voluntary contributions for the tax years 6 April 2006 to 5 April 2016. Further guidance on eligibility and deadlines for paying voluntary contributions, including for those living or working abroad is published online at: https://www.gov.uk/voluntary-national-insurance-contributions.
Asked by: Alyn Smith (Scottish National Party - Stirling)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the impact of increases in the cost of living on rural households.
Answered by Laura Trott - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
The Government is committed to helping people who need it the most, wherever they are. Distributional analysis published at Autumn Statement 2023 shows that low-income households will receive the largest benefit as a percentage of income from government decisions.
Taken together, cost of living support to households is worth £104 billion, or £3,700 per household on average, across 2022-25.
Asked by: Alyn Smith (Scottish National Party - Stirling)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent steps his Department has taken with the Financial Conduct Authority to tackle mis-sold holiday timeshares.
Answered by Bim Afolami
Timeshare arrangements are direct investments in property and are expressly carved out of regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Activities that are outside the remit of the FCA are also outside the compulsory jurisdiction of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).
However, both lenders that provides credit to purchase a time share, and firms that make introductions to a lender, need to be authorised by the FCA and comply with relevant FCA rules. The FCA requires firms to have a complaints process in place for regulated activities, which customers should use in the first instance. If they are not satisfied with the firm’s response to their complaint, they may raise a complaint with the FOS.
There are no plans for timeshare investment schemes to be brought within the scope of FCA regulation.
Asked by: Alyn Smith (Scottish National Party - Stirling)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has had recent discussions with the (a) Financial Ombudsman and (b) Financial Conduct Authority on mis-sold time shares.
Answered by Bim Afolami
Timeshare arrangements are direct investments in property and are expressly carved out of regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Activities that are outside the remit of the FCA are also outside the compulsory jurisdiction of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).
However, both lenders that provides credit to purchase a time share, and firms that make introductions to a lender, need to be authorised by the FCA and comply with relevant FCA rules. The FCA requires firms to have a complaints process in place for regulated activities, which customers should use in the first instance. If they are not satisfied with the firm’s response to their complaint, they may raise a complaint with the FOS.
There are no plans for timeshare investment schemes to be brought within the scope of FCA regulation.
Asked by: Alyn Smith (Scottish National Party - Stirling)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the consistency of decision-making processes at the (a) Financial Conduct Authority and (b) Financial Ombudsmen Service.
Answered by Bim Afolami
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) are independent non-governmental bodies.
Both the FCA and the FOS operate within the framework set by Parliament, and they are directly accountable to Parliament for how they discharge their statutory functions.
This accountability includes a requirement for the FCA and the FOS to produce annual reports and accounts which are laid before Parliament by the Treasury. Both bodies are subject to full audit by the National Audit Office and to scrutiny through committee hearings, including the Public Accounts Committee and the Treasury Committee.
Both organisations maintain arrangements for the independent investigation of complaints against them.
The FOS regularly commissions independent reviews of its service. Most recently, a review carried out by Oaklin Consulting in 2021 found that the FOS is widely respected and viewed as reaching fair and impartial outcomes in the majority of cases.
The FOS and the FCA are operationally independent from one another, but engage extensively on a range of issues through the Wider Implications Framework. The Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 introduced a statutory duty for the FCA, the FOS and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme to co-operate on issues which have or are likely to have significant implications for each other, or for the wider financial services market.
Asked by: Alyn Smith (Scottish National Party - Stirling)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what HMRC's target response times are for (a) public enquiries and (b) Member of Parliament enquiries; and if he will provide details of performance against those targets for each of the last six months.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
HMRC publishes monthly and quarterly performance data on the GOV.UK website links below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-monthly-performance-reports
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-quarterly-performance-updates
HMRC aims to reply to 80 per cent of Ministerial correspondence within fifteen working days.
The Cabinet Office asks all Government departments to reply to 80 per cent of Ministerial correspondence within 20-working days and publishes data on responses to correspondence from MPs and peers on an annual basis this can be found on the GOV.UK website here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/data-on-responses-to-correspondence-from-mps-and-peers