Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many responses were received to the consultation entitled Public Sector Exit Payments : A New Controls Process for High Exit Payments which closed on 17 October 2022; and for what reason a response has not yet been issued.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Government received 32 responses to the consultation on 'Public Sector Exit Payments: A New Controls Process for High Exit Payments'. HM Treasury will publish the government response in due course.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the total value was of (a) cigars, (b) snuff and (c) other tobacco products exported from the UK in (i) 2022 and (ii) 2023; and what were the principal countries of destination for those exports.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is responsible for the collection and publication of data on imports and exports of goods to and from the UK. HMRC releases this information monthly, as a National Statistic called the Overseas Trade in Goods Statistics (OTS), which is available via their dedicated website (www.uktradeinfo.com). From this website, it is possible to build your own data tables based upon bespoke search criteria.
Classification codes (according to the Harmonised System) are available to assist you in accessing published trade statistics data in the UK Global Tariff. Goods moving to and from the UK are identified by an eight-digit commodity code. These are publicly available from the UK Trade Tariff at https://www.gov.uk/trade-tariff.
The data on these exports and for other tobacco products can be obtained from www.uktradeinfo.com.
If you need help or support in constructing a table from the data on uktradeinfo, please contact uktradeinfo@hmrc.gov.uk.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the value of imports of (a) vapes and (b) vaping equipment was in (i) 2022 and (ii) 2023; and what proportion of the total value of those imports came from China.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is responsible for the collection and publication of data on imports and exports of goods to and from the UK. HMRC releases this information monthly, as a National Statistic called the Overseas Trade in Goods Statistics (OTS), which is available via their dedicated website (www.uktradeinfo.com). From this website, it is possible to build your own data tables based upon bespoke search criteria.
Classification codes (according to the Harmonised System) are available to assist you in accessing published trade statistics data in the UK Global Tariff. Goods moving to and from the UK are identified by an eight-digit commodity code. These are publicly available from the UK Trade Tariff at https://www.gov.uk/trade-tariff.
The data on the import for these items, including country of export can be obtained from www.uktradeinfo.com.
If you need help or support in constructing a table from the data on uktradeinfo, please contact uktradeinfo@hmrc.gov.uk.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 6 February 2024 to Question 12498 on Public Sector: Redundancy Pay, and having regard to the fact that the Whole of Government accounts for the financial years ending 2022 and 2023 will not be published until July 2024 and July 2025, if he will provide the information requested for those years.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Whole of Government Accounts provide the most complete overview of exit payments in any given year. In advance of them, reference can be made to individual departments’ Annual Report and Accounts, where information on the usage of exit payments for the financial years 2021/22 and 2022/23 is available. These can be found online using the following link:
Annual Report and Accounts for Central Government Departments
Data on exit payments made by Local Authorities between 2014 and 2023 is available under the heading ‘exit payments’ using the following link: Statistical Data Sets Local Government Finance
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the consultation entitled Public Sector Exit Payments: a new controls process for high exit payments, which closed on 17 October 2022, for what reason his Department has not yet responded to that consolation; and when he plans to respond.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Government is considering the responses to this consultation and will publish a response in due course.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of levels of public sector productivity in each financial year between 2018-19 and 2022-23; and what his planned timetable is for publication of the Public Service Productivity Review.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
ONS publish annual National Statistics on public service productivity up to 2020. The next annual statistic for 2021 will be published in March. ONS also publish estimates of annual public service productivity for 2021 and 2022. An experimental estimate for 2023 will come after the Spring Budget. This information is available online
There will be an update on the Public Sector Productivity Programme at Spring Budget.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many public sector exit payments were made in excess of £95,000 in the financial years ending 31 March (a) 2017, (b) 2018, (c) 2019, (d) 2020, (e) 2021, (f) 2022 and (g) 2023; and what the total cost was of those payments in each of those years.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
information on the number and costs of exit payments over £100,00 is published in the Whole of Government Accounts.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make representations to the Royal Bank of Scotland on its refusal to approve a credit card for the British-American Parliamentary Group on the grounds that the three signatories on the group's bank account are hon. Members who are deemed to be politically exposed persons; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The issue of Politically Exposed Persons’ (PEPs) access to essential banking services is one that we are taking extremely seriously. The case the Hon Member raises sounds concerning.
The Government’s position is clear that financial institutions’ must not deny services to PEP customers solely on the basis of their PEP status. The recently passed Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 commits the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to conduct a review into financial institutions’ adherence to their guidance on PEPs, and the appropriateness of that guidance, within twelve months of Royal Assent. This review will assess the extent to which lower-risk PEPs are being denied access to services in an inappropriate and disproportionate manner, and the FCA will take action where it identifies serious failures.
The Government has also taken action through the Financial Services and Markets Act to commit the Treasury to amend the Money Laundering Regulations to explicitly distinguish between domestic and non-domestic PEPs in law. This amendment will make clear that, in the absence of other high-risk factors, domestic PEPs must be treated as lower risk than non-domestic PEPs and have a lesser degree of enhanced due diligence applied to them.
Earlier this month, I wrote to the FCA to underline the importance of the FCA’s review and make clear that the Government expects it to be prioritised over the coming months. I am clear that the FCA’s review and the Government’s amendment to the Regulations should lead to a more proportionate and appropriate treatment of PEPs in future.
My Treasury colleague, Baroness Penn, has also written to the FCA to emphasise the Government’s expectation that their review should consider to what extent financial institutions are taking a blanket approach and refusing to offer services to customers solely due to their PEP status.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what reason HMRC has not provided a substantive response to the letter from the Hon. Member for Christchurch dated 18th April, HMRC Ref 0013913 PSA.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The correspondence of 18 April 2023 was redirected by HM Treasury to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) on 19 April 2023.
HMRC replied to the Hon Member on 12 May and 19 May 2023 to provide updates and to advise that they are unable to provide a substantive response until their investigations into the complaint have been completed.
HMRC will contact the member again when these investigations have been completed.
Asked by: Christopher Chope (Conservative - Christchurch)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what reason HMRC does not permit complaints against it to be made by email.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The main risks associated with using email that concern HMRC are: