Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many claimants have been sanctioned for falsely claiming for (a) R&D expenditure credit and (b) small and medium-sized enterprise R&D tax relief.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
HM Revenue and Customs conducts both civil and criminal investigations into R&D claimants it suspects have made false claims. HM Revenue and Customs does not centrally store data regarding penalties imposed due to falsely claimed R&D. It should be noted that in both civil and criminal operations, R&D (and any related penalty) may be one part of the investigation and form an element of the subsequent penalty and/or sentence.Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Government's response to Professor Dame Angela McLean's Pro-Innovation Regulation of Technologies review, published November 2023, whether he made an assessment of the potential merits of accepting the recommendation on establishing an evidence gathering pilot.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
This recommendation referred to here is that the government should facilitate an ‘evidence gathering pilot’ where regulators may seek clarification from the government on balancing strategic risks, if needed (Cross-Cutting report, 2d).
No clear cases were presented by the regulators to the Review of where they would have used this mechanism if it had been available previously.
To better facilitate an understanding of where regulators require further support, the government has issued a call for evidence on the regulatory landscape. Within this, regulators are directly asked on whether there are “specific areas where you consider it would be beneficial to seek further steer or guidance from the government”. The call for evidence closes on 7 January 2024. The government would welcome hearing of use cases where a regulator request for guidance on risk would have changed outcomes.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to take steps to ensure that sustainable investment labels will apply to (a) institutional and (b) retail funds.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The independent Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are responsible for regulatory rules on sustainable investment levels. The FCA published a consultation paper on 25 October 2022 on Sustainability Disclosure Requirements and Investment Labels. The specific content of these rules is a matter for the FCA.
This consultation closed on 25 January this year and the FCA published a statement in March stating that it is considering feedback to the consultation and intends to publish the final rules in Q3 23.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment has he has made of the impact of allowing different voting rights for different classes of shareholder on the willingness of companies to list on the London Stock Exchange.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is responsible for determining listing rules, including those related to voting rights attached to shares.
The FCA changed its rules to allow dual class shares structures on the ‘premium’ segment of the London Stock Exchange (LSE) in 2021. They conducted a cost and benefit analysis that can be found here: https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/consultation/cp21-21.pdf
On 3 May 2023, the FCA published a consultation proposing further reforms to dual class shares, in the context of their proposed overhaul of the LSE’s market segments. The consultation closes on 28 June and also includes an indicative cost-benefit analysis of their proposed reforms. This is available at: https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/consultation/cp23-10.pdf
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 16 May 2023 to Question 184648 on National Insurance, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of the change to the national insurance credit system from a manual to automated system on the accuracy of national insurance figures distributed to recipients.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
National Insurance credits are awarded for various reasons. Those awarded because of entitlement to benefits administered by DWP are awarded using automated interfaces between DWP and HMRC systems. The award of credits on HMRC systems is governed by the data provided by DWP.
Taxpayers can view their National Insurance record on their Personal Tax Account. If they think credits are wrong or missing, they are advised to contact either DWP or HMRC, depending on the type of credit they want to query.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an estimate of the average annual amount of VAT paid by electric vehicle drivers (a) with and (b) without home charging.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
HM Revenue and Customs do not hold information on the VAT paid on specific products or services because businesses are not required to provide figures at a product level on their VAT returns. Requesting these figures will impose excessive administrative burden on businesses.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an estimate of the number and proportion of people who are unable to access their Child Trust Funds in (a) Newcastle upon Tyne Central constituency and (b) the North East.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Information on Child Trust Funds as of 5th April 2021, are available in HMRC’s Annual Savings Statistics. This includes figures on matured accounts which have been claimed and which have not been claimed.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/annual-savings-statistics-2022
Equivalent statistics up to April 2022 will be released on 22nd June 2023.
A geographical breakdown of the data for matured accounts that have not been claimed could only be provided at a disproportionate cost.
While some matured accounts have not been claimed yet, no accounts are inaccessible.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 23 March 2023 to Question 167111 on Research and Development Tax Credit, whether his Department has made an estimate of the number and proportion of SMEs claiming R&D tax credits that have R&D expenditure of between 25 and 39 per cent of their total expenditure.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
For 2023/24, it is estimated that there will be around 7,000 Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) claiming R&D tax credits that will have an R&D expenditure between 25 percent and 39 percent of their total expenditure. This is based on 2019-20 data projected forward in line with the Office for Budget Responsibilities economic forecasts, so is subject to the usual uncertainties surrounding forecast values.
To support those most impacted by the R&D tax relief rate changes announced at Autumn Statement 2022, the additional tax relief for R&D intensive SMEs announced at Spring Budget 2023 is targeted specifically at loss making R&D intensive SMEs, who are most impacted by the changes.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 23 March to Question 167105 on British Patient Capital, if he will provide a breakdown by English region of the £900 million of finance provided by the bank outside London.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The British Business Bank (BBB) has an objective to identify and help to reduce imbalances in access to finance for smaller businesses across the UK. In 2021/22 the Bank deployed £1,409m of finance, £502m of which was deployed in London.
This means that the Bank exceeded its target of deployment of regional finance outside of London for 2021/22.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether investments in 3D printers qualify for full expensing as part of the capital allowances scheme announced in the Spring Budget 2023, HC1183.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Full expensing is available for qualifying expenditure on main rate plant or machinery incurred on or after 1 April 2023 but before 1 April 2026 subject to certain conditions. A 3D printer is a machine so it would be eligible for full expensing provided the other conditions are met. For example, the expenditure must be incurred by a company within the charge to corporation tax, the plant or machinery must be new, and must not be bought to lease to someone else. More details on the conditions for full expensing are available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/full-expensing.