Asked by: Alyn Smith (Scottish National Party - Stirling)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the role of National Insurance numbers was in the delivery of the Coronavirus Job Retention scheme.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
In the context of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, National Insurance Numbers (NINO) were, and are, used for additional verification of employees, including to help protect against fraud.
Employers were required to provide the NINO of an employee they wished to place on furlough at the stage of making a claim.
In exceptional cases where an employee did not need or have a NINO, employers were able to contact HMRC to claim for them. Further exception procedures were applied to larger employers.
Asked by: Alyn Smith (Scottish National Party - Stirling)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people have Government Gateway accounts for (a) personal and (b) business use.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
There are currently 73.1 million active credentials/accounts registered with Government Gateway; a single unique user may hold several accounts for use in interactions with HMRC and/or other Government departments.
69.4 million credentials are linked to HMRC services and are profiled across the user types below:
The remaining 3.7 million credentials are associated to OGDs (not HMRC) and HMRC do not hold a record as to whether these are used for personal or business use.
Asked by: Alyn Smith (Scottish National Party - Stirling)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has plans to establish an independent quality assurance review of RBS Global Restructuring Group's treatment of SMEs.
Answered by John Glen
It would be inappropriate for the Government to comment on or intervene in the independent redress process overseen by Sir William Blackburne.
The Government believes that the financial services industry has changed significantly since the challenging period leading up to and following the financial crisis. For example, all of the major SME lenders have signed up to the Standards of Lending Practice (SLP), which are overseen by the independent Lending Standards Board and contain clear guidance on best practice.
The Government has always been clear that the fact that there were areas of widespread inappropriate treatment of firms by RBS GRG is unacceptable. RBS has rightly apologised for these mistakes and as stated above, has set up a scheme to compensate victims. The redress scheme has paid out over £130 million so far and the Government continues to monitor how much redress is being paid out.
There are currently no plans to undertake a review of RBS Global Restructuring Group's treatment of SMEs.
Asked by: Alyn Smith (Scottish National Party - Stirling)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to ensure (a) Trading 212, (b) Robinhood and (c) other stock trading companies protect consumer rights to buy and sell stocks.
Answered by John Glen
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is the UK’s financial markets conduct regulator and is responsible for protecting consumers, ensuring market integrity and promoting effective competition. As set out in the FCA’s statement of 29 January, broking firms are not obliged to offer trading facilities to clients and may withdraw or suspend services if it is necessary or prudent to do so. The FCA’s statement also said that they would take appropriate action wherever they see evidence of UK firms or individuals causing harm to UK consumers or markets.
The Government recognises that the pace and creativity of innovation in UK financial services creates new opportunities for businesses and consumers to participate in markets through technologies such as app-based platforms. However, investors should be aware that investing in securities comes with risks. The FCA’s statement of 29 January warned consumers that any losses that result from such investments are unlikely to be covered under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
Asked by: Alyn Smith (Scottish National Party - Stirling)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, which debt collection agencies are being used to send final opportunity letters on his Department's behalf.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
As part of their overall collections strategy, debt collection agencies (DCAs) provide HMRC with additional capacity. The department keeps under review the cost effectiveness and value for money that using DCAs provides to the Exchequer and UK citizens. There are no current plans to move away from using agencies to send final opportunity letters.
The table below sets out the total expenditure on DCAs by HMRC and the amount spent instructing them to issue final opportunity letters.
| Total spend | Final opportunity letter spend |
2017/18 | £ 32,099,756.77 | £1,714,901.62 |
2018/19 | £ 26,021,351.78 | £1,302,490.63 |
2019/20 | £ 26,163,245.08 | £1,242,984.66 |
Final opportunity letters are sent on HMRC’s behalf by some of the debt collection agencies that the department works with. These are:
The full list of debt collection agencies that HMRC work with can be found on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/if-you-dont-pay-your-tax-bill/debt-collection-agencies.