Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate her Department has made of the cost to an average self-employed person of the reduction in the self-reporting threshold in the rollout of Making Tax Digital to £20,000 by 2028.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Costs will differ from business to business and are influenced by factors including size and complexity of the business, degree of digital capability and cost and functionality of chosen software.
HMRC has published assessment of the potential impact of MTD for Income Tax on taxpayers joining from April 2028, and it is available at:
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate her Department has made of the average annual vehicle downtime and associated productivity loss per fleet vehicle arising from the mileage estimation, reporting and reconciliation requirements of the proposed eVED framework; and what assessment she has made of the cumulative financial impact on the vehicle rental and leasing sector.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The proposed approach to electronic Vehicle Excise Duty (eVED) is designed to minimise administrative burdens by integrating mileage estimation, reporting and payment into the existing VED system, with most users expected to interact with the system once per year.
Mileage data from cars is currently collected at annual MOTs. The Government intends to use this data to ensure that user-supplied mileage is consistent and up to date. If a car is already subject to an MOT, there will typically be no additional steps for checks.
Cars under three years old are not currently required to have anannual MOT. In the eVED consultation published at Budget 2025, the Government set out the intention for these cars to attend an additional mileage check at an accredited provider around their first and second anniversary at no cost to the motorist, but welcomed views on whether these additional checks should be required.
The Government also recognised that fleets, rental and leasing businesses may require specific arrangements and sought evidence on the impact on the sector. DVLA are considering options to minimise the administrative burdens of mileage estimation and payments for these businesses, similar to VED, where bulk licensing options are available.
The Government is continuing to assess consultation responses, including those relating to the administration of eVED. In line with usual practice, the Government will publish an assessment of the administrative impact of eVED in a Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) alongside the relevant legislation.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent progress she has made on establishing the future entity for open banking.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The government committed has committed to bring forward a statutory instrument this year to support the delivery of a long-term regulatory framework for Open Banking, ensuring continued growth and innovation in the sector.
The Future Entity will be an important part of this framework and act as the standards-setting body for UK open banking. The FCA has commissioned a consultancy to assess proposals from organisations proposing to lead the establishment a body that is capable of becoming the Future Entity. The process will finish in April.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of staff in her Department have flexible working arrangements; and how many of those work compressed hours.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMT is committed to enhancing the working lives of all employees by supporting a healthy balance between professional responsibilities and personal commitments. To support this, HMT offers a Flexible Working Hours Scheme (FWHS), which allows employees to vary their start and finish times across the working week to achieve a balance between the demands of their jobs and personal commitments.
As at the end of financial quarter 1 for 2025/26 (30th June 2025), there were 160 active staff at HMT working full-time compressed hours.
Asked by: Ashley Fox (Conservative - Bridgwater)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of staff in her Department did not meet the minimum office attendance target in the latest period for which data is available; and what sanctions her Department issues to staff who do not meet this target.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The department collects data via an access control system to allow monitoring of office attendance. This system does not provide this data at individual level.
Managers are required to ensure employees meet the minimum office attendance targets and they have a number of management tools at their disposal to ensure compliance including both our formal and informal disciplinary procedures. We do not hold central records on the usage of such procedures.
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 - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
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 - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
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 - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
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 - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
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.