Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the long-term sustainability of the financial settlement provided to Northern Ireland under the Barnett formula.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The independent Northern Ireland Fiscal Council calculated that the relative need in Northern Ireland is 24% more per head than the rest of the UK for equivalent spending.
As part of the 2024 restoration of the Northern Ireland Executive (NIE) the UK Government and Northern Ireland Executive agreed to add a 24% needs-based factor into the Barnett Formula from 2024-25. This is part of a financial package worth over £3.3 billion.
Including this additional funding, the Northern Ireland Executive is being funded above its relative need in 2024-25. The UK Government will continue to work with the Northern Ireland Executive to agree a final Fiscal Framework.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he (a) has had and (b) plans to have discussions with (i) Cabinet colleagues and (ii) relevant stakeholders on the potential merits of increasing the tax free childcare allowance.
Answered by Laura Trott - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
HM Treasury work closely with other Government departments and relevant stakeholders on all elements of childcare policy, including Tax-Free Childcare.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he is taking steps to ensure access to ATMs in rural locations.
Answered by Bim Afolami
The government recognises that cash continues to be used by millions of people across the UK, including those who may be in vulnerable groups.
The government legislated through the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 to establish a new legislative framework to protect access to cash. This establishes the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as the lead regulator for access to cash and provides it with responsibility and powers to seek to ensure reasonable provision of cash withdrawal and deposit facilities.
Following this, the government published a Cash Access Policy Statement, which the FCA must take into account in exercising its powers. This sets out that the vast majority of people in predominately rural areas of the UK should have access to cash deposit and withdrawal services within a maximum of 3 miles of where they live. The government’s policy statement is available on gov.uk: Cash Access Policy Statement
Regarding ATM provision specifically, LINK (the scheme that runs the UK's largest ATM network) also has commitments to protect the broad geographic spread of free-to-use ATMs. It is held to account against these commitments by the Payment Systems Regulator.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made a recent assessment of the impact of increased (a) car and (b) home insurance on the cost of living.
Answered by Bim Afolami
Insurers make commercial decisions about the pricing of insurance based on their assessment on the likelihood and expected cost of a claim. The Government does not intervene in these commercial decisions by insurers as this could damage competition in the market.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is the independent regulator and responsible for supervising the insurance industry. The FCA have introduced several reforms, including the Consumer Duty rules, to ensure consumers are treated fairly in regard to pricing. The FCA can and does act in appropriate cases where firms are breaching its rules.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what safeguards HMRC has in place to ensure the authenticity of digital signatures on paperwork provided by third-party businesses acting on behalf of their clients in exchanges with HMRC.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
HMRC operates a risk-based approach to the verification of signatures upon receipt into their systems. Where there are reasons to doubt that the taxpayer has provided the signature themselves HMRC seeks assurances from the agent, intermediary or taxpayer directly to validate the authorisation and, if required, request further information about the processes that the agent uses to obtain authorisation and/or signatures.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the Barnett consequential arising from the pay settlement for NHS workers in England is.
Answered by John Glen - Shadow Paymaster General
The Barnett formula is applied when departmental budgets change – not when departments announce how they are spending their budgets.
Discussions between HMT and DHSC on the funding implications, should a pay deal be agreed, are ongoing.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of extending the Energy and Trade Intensive Industry scheme to include primary agricultural production.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
As part of the Energy Bills Discount Scheme (EBDS), we have taken a consistent approach to identifying the most energy and trade intensive sectors, with all sectors that meet agreed thresholds for energy and trade intensity eligible for Energy and Trade Intensive Industries (ETII) component of the scheme. These thresholds have been set at sectors falling above the 80th percentile for energy intensity and 60th percentile for trade intensity, plus any sectors eligible for the existing energy compensation and exemption schemes. We have also published further information on the methodology which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-bills-discount-scheme-factsheet/energy-bills-discount-scheme-energy-and-trade-intense-industries-assessment-methodology
All other eligible businesses, except for those experiencing low energy costs, will automatically receive a unit discount on their bills of up to £19.61/MW for electricity, and £6.97/MW for gas.
We remain committed to supporting our farmers to produce high quality food and to increase the productivity, resilience, and sustainability of their businesses. That is why we have maintained farm budgets across this Parliament as promised, each year providing an average of £2.4 billion in England, £621m in Scotland, £340m in Wales, and £330m in Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much revenue has accrued to the Treasury from fuel duty in each of the last three years.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
The Office for Budget Responsibility holds Government receipts from all taxes and duties for each year. Revenue accrued from fuel duty receipts in each of the last three years can be viewed online in their Public Finances Databank:
Data - Office for Budget Responsibility (obr.uk)
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much money the Government has recouped from child benefit claimants due to overpayment as a result of the High-Income Child Benefit Charge in each of the last three years.
Answered by Richard Fuller - Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC) is a tax charge which applies to anyone with an adjusted net income of over £50,000 who receives Child Benefit, or whose partner receives it. HICBC is calculated on an individual rather than a household basis, in line with other income tax policy. The charge increases gradually for those with incomes between £50,000 and £60,000 and is equal to one per cent of a family’s Child Benefit for every extra £100 of income that is over £50,000 each year. Where income exceeds £60,000, the tax charge is equal to the amount payable in Child Benefit.
The total value of HICBC revenue in relation to the year of liability is published on gov.uk at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/high-income-child-benefit-charge-data/high-income-child-benefit-charge.
The figures for the last three years for which data is available are shown in the table below.
| 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 |
HICBC revenue (£million) | 423 | 437 | 416 |
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress has been made in the wider pilot of the No Interest Loan Scheme.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
Progress on the pilot of the No-Interest Loan Scheme is good and over 60 no-interest loans have now been issued at the proof-of-concept site in South Manchester, providing real world impact for recipients.
Fair4All Finance (who are delivering the scheme) are now finalising contracts with the lenders chosen to take part in the wider pilot and the government expect three pilot locations to have started lending by the end of November and a further pilot location to start lending in January, so that full-scale rollout will have commenced by early 2023. Fair4All Finance expects to deliver tens of thousands of no-interest loans over the course of the pilot.