Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of raising the personal tax-free allowance in line with the state pension on public finances.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Personal Allowance - the amount an individual can earn before paying tax - will continue to exceed the basic and full new State Pension this tax year. This means pensioners whose sole income is the full new State Pension or basic State Pension without any increments will not pay any income tax.
The previous Government made the decision to freeze the income tax Personal Allowance at its current level of £12,570 until April 2028. This Government is committed to keeping people’s taxes as low as possible while ensuring fiscal responsibility and so, at our first Budget, we decided not to extend the freeze on personal tax thresholds.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether there are any requirements for civil servants to book a desk in advance in order to attend the office in person in each of (a) their Department's office workplaces and (b) the arm’s length bodies of their Department.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HM Treasury uses office space in multi-department buildings that are managed by the Government Property Agency, who provide a desk/place booking system for staff in each of our offices.
Responsibility for any desk booking sits with each individual arm's length body, rather than HMT.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many civil servants are assigned to work in each of (a) HMRC’s and (b) the Valuation Office Agency offices; and how many desks are available in each office.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The table below sets out HMRC’s headcount and workspaces by location for September 2024.
Table 1: HMRC Locations – Headcount and workspaces for September 2024
Location | Headcount | Workspaces |
100PS | 955 | 516 |
Belfast | 2,208 | 1,030 |
Birmingham | 3,372 | 1,610 |
Bradford | 1,193 | 804 |
Bristol | 1,262 | 820 |
Cardiff | 4,208 | 2,281 |
Croydon | 2,555 | 1,469 |
Dover | 196 | 155 |
East Kilbride | 1,911 | 1,269 |
Edinburgh | 1,940 | 1,426 |
Gartcosh | 283 | 238 |
Glasgow | 2,872 | 1,447 |
Ipswich | 451 | 268 |
Leeds | 3,782 | 1,817 |
Liverpool | 5,596 | 2,753 |
Manchester | 6,014 | 3,214 |
Newcastle | 8,056 | 5,565 |
Nottingham | 4,061 | 1,855 |
Portsmouth | 994 | 913 |
Preston | 1,419 | 804 |
Reading | 101 | 78 |
Stratford | 5,112 | 2,717 |
Swansea | 127 | 140 |
Telford | 1,059 | 565 |
Washington | 2,135 | 1,944 |
Worthing | 587 | 712 |
Total | 62,449 | 36,410 |
The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) is an executive agency of HMRC and has 35 offices nationally (England, Scotland and Wales). Table 2 shows VOA’s Headcount and workspaces for September 2024
Table 2 VOA Locations – Headcount and workspaces for September 2024
Location | Headcount | Workspaces |
Aberdeen | 4 | 5 |
Birmingham | 170 | 84 |
Bristol | 102 | 60 |
Cambridge | 38 | 30 |
Canary Wharf Hub | 325 | 212 |
Cardiff | 111 | 60 |
Carmarthen | 22 | 14 |
Colchester | 56 | 54 |
Croydon | 177 | 86 |
Durham | 409 | 360 |
Eastbourne | 42 | 42 |
Edinburgh | 20 | 8 |
Exeter | 44 | 30 |
Folkestone | 26 | 32 |
Glasgow | 18 | 15 |
Hull | 54 | 50 |
Inverness | 5 | 6 |
Lancaster | 14 | 16 |
Leeds | 273 | 162 |
Liverpool | 150 | 70 |
Manchester | 180 | 84 |
Newcastle | 233 | 104 |
Norwich | 41 | 52 |
Nottingham | 127 | 80 |
Oxford | 34 | 24 |
Plymouth | 437 | 322 |
Preston | 53 | 30 |
Sheffield | 53 | 30 |
Southampton | 58 | 60 |
St Austell | 17 | 24 |
Stoke-On-Trent | 67 | 52 |
Swansea | 71 | 24 |
Wembley | 113 | 67 |
Worthing Digital Centre | 2 | 3 |
Wrexham | 51 | 24 |
Total | 3,597 | 2,376 |
Our offices have different types of workspaces which allow people to match the task to the most suitable space. We therefore use workspaces rather than the number of desks.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many cases of mis-sold Equity Release schemes have been referred to the Financial Ombudsmen in the last two years.
Answered by Tulip Siddiq
This is a matter for the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), which is an independent, non-governmental body.
The FOS will respond to the Honourable Member by letter, and a copy of the letter will be placed in the Library of the House of Commons.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much was spent on (a) new furniture and fittings and (b) other refurbishment of Ministerial offices in her Department since the dissolution of the last Parliament; and on what items this was spent.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The department has spent £2.6k on new furniture, fittings, and other refurbishment since the dissolution of the last Parliament. This spending includes the installation of an exhibition in Number 11 Downing Street from the National Maritime Museum, office furniture, fittings and maintenance.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many and what proportion of desks were occupied in each of (a) HMRC’s and (b) the Valuation Office Agency's offices in the most recent four weeks for which figures are available; and how many staff attended each office in person in the same period.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Heads of Department have agreed that 60% minimum office attendance for most staff continues to be the best balance of working for the Civil Service. Office occupancy data for the period July - September has been published, with further publications to now happen on a quarterly basis. The data is published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-hq-occupancy-data
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many civil servants are assigned to work in each of her Department's offices; and how many desks are available in each office.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HM Treasury operates a hybrid working policy, in line with other Government departments and cabinet office guidance. Employees are expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working hours in their contractual work location and work from home for the remaining time.
As of September 2024, HM Treasury had 1610 staff in London (1HGR),79 staff in Norwich (Rosebery Court), 312 staff in Darlington (Feethams House).
HMT has 1030 desks in London (1HGR) and 52 desks in Norwich (Rosebery Court). In Darlington (Feethams House), a building which operates a fully shared campus model, HMT has a proportional equivalent of 85 workspaces.
On average HMT data indicates our offices were attended 3909 times a week in the last four weeks that we hold full data for.
Based on the above figures, an average of 781 workspaces were occupied daily in the four most recent weeks we hold full data, and with 1167 workspaces, this means on average 67% of workspaces were filled daily in these four weeks.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many and what proportion of desks were occupied in each of her Department’s offices in the most recent four weeks for which figures are available; and how many staff attended each office in person in the same period.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HM Treasury operates a hybrid working policy, in line with other Government departments and cabinet office guidance. Employees are expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working hours in their contractual work location and work from home for the remaining time.
As of September 2024, HM Treasury had 1610 staff in London (1HGR),79 staff in Norwich (Rosebery Court), 312 staff in Darlington (Feethams House).
HMT has 1030 desks in London (1HGR) and 52 desks in Norwich (Rosebery Court). In Darlington (Feethams House), a building which operates a fully shared campus model, HMT has a proportional equivalent of 85 workspaces.
On average HMT data indicates our offices were attended 3909 times a week in the last four weeks that we hold full data for.
Based on the above figures, an average of 781 workspaces were occupied daily in the four most recent weeks we hold full data, and with 1167 workspaces, this means on average 67% of workspaces were filled daily in these four weeks.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to make efficiency savings in the welfare system.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
In the July Statement, the Chancellor set out that all departments will find a 2% saving against their administration budgets so that we can improve the efficiency of the public sector, and prioritise frontline services. This government is also committed to bringing down rates of fraud and error in the welfare system, ensuring support is targeted to those who need it.