Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what evidence was used to inform his Department's recent changes to the Green Book methodology; and if he will publish that evidence.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The review of the Green Book was informed by extensive consultation with a wide range of stakeholders, including academics, the National Audit Office, the National Infrastructure Commission, analytical experts and users of the Green Book both in Whitehall and in the Devolved Administrations, the Northern Powerhouse and regional and local government. HM Treasury also reviewed past policy development to understand how appraisal was being applied in practice.
The process and findings of the review are outlined in detail in the Final Report of the 2020 Green Book Review published on the 25th of November on the Government website.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of the ineligibility of wholesalers for Business Rates Relief on the integrity of public sector supply chains.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The Government has provided unprecedented levels of support for workers and businesses to protect, as much as possible, against the current economic emergency. Food and drink wholesalers have been eligible for a number of these support schemes, with the most relevant likely to include:
Food and drink wholesalers have also benefited from the Eat Out to Help Out Scheme which provided over 100 million half price meals during August and helped to protect the livelihoods of the 1.8 million people working in the hospitality sector.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the number of redundancies that may have been avoided if the announcement on the extension of the coronavirus job retention scheme had been made earlier.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Government had always made clear that economic support would continue past the end of October and had announced the Job Support Scheme to do just that. Extending the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to the end of March 2021 instead responds to the latest economic conditions.
We have set out that employees that were employed and on an employers’ payroll on 23 September 2020 (the day before the Job Support Scheme announcement) who were made redundant or stopped working afterwards can be re-employed and claimed for under the CJRS extension.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what financial support the Government plans to provide to people who have become self-employed since March 2020.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The practical issues that prevented the Government from being able to include the newly self-employed in 2019-20 in the original Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS), namely that HMRC will not have access to their self-assessment returns in order to be able to verify their eligibility, still remain. The latest year for which HMRC have tax returns for all self-employed individuals is 2018/19. 2019/20 returns are not due until the end of January 2021.
Unlike for employees, self-employed income is not reported monthly, but at the end of each tax year on the individual’s Income Tax Self Assessment return. This means that the most reliable and up-to-date record of self-employed income is from the 2018-19 tax returns.
The SEISS continues to be just one element of a comprehensive package of support for individuals and businesses. This package includes Bounce Back loans, tax deferrals, rental support and other business support grants. The Government has also temporarily increased the Universal Credit standard allowance for 2020-21 by £20 per week and relaxed the Minimum Income Floor meaning that where self-employed claimants' earnings have significantly reduced, their Universal Credit award will have increased to reflect their lower earnings.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the reason is for not including UK tax paying limited company directors in the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme Grant Extension.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The practical issues that prevented the Government from being able to include company owner-managers in the original Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS), namely not being able to verify the source of their dividend income without introducing unacceptable fraud risks, still remain.
Income from dividends is a return on investment in the company, rather than wages. As with the previous SEISS grants, it is not possible for HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to distinguish between dividends derived from an individual’s own company and dividends from other sources, and between dividends in lieu of employment income and as returns from other corporate activity.
This means, unlike the SEISS grants that use information HMRC already hold, targeting additional support would require owner-managers to make a claim and submit information that HMRC could not efficiently or consistently verify to ensure payments were made to eligible companies for eligible activity.
The SEISS continues to be just one element of a comprehensive package of support for individuals and businesses. This package includes Bounce Back loans, tax deferrals, rental support,?increased levels of Universal Credit, mortgage holidays, and other business support grants.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what support his Department will provide for childminders who did not qualify for the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government is providing extra security to nurseries and childminders that are open by ‘block-buying’ childcare places for the rest of 2020 at the level the Government would have funded before coronavirus, regardless of how many children are attending.
This means that even if providers are open but caring for fewer children, as a result of low demand from parents or due to public health reasons, they can continue to be funded for the autumn term at broadly the levels they would have expected to see in the 2020 autumn term had there been no coronavirus outbreak. This gives another term of secure income to nurseries and childminders that are open for children who need them.
Early years settings will continue to benefit from £3.6 billion of planned funding in 2020-21 to create free early education and childcare places for children.
The SEISS is one element of a comprehensive package of support for individuals and businesses. This package includes Bounce Back loans, tax deferrals, rental support, mortgage holidays, and other business support grants. More information about the full range of business support measures is available at www.gov.uk/government/collections/financial-support-for-businesses-during-coronavirus-covid-19.