Asked by: Lord Mackinlay of Richborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government how increasing filing obligations through Making Tax Digital from one to five filings per year will reduce the tax gap.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Quarterly updates required by Making Tax Digital (MTD) are not the same as tax returns. They are simple, unadjusted summaries of income and expenditure, acting as a snapshot of quarterly trading activity. They will be populated automatically through software and can be submitted easily. This process has been designed to be simple for users and quick to complete.
Quarterly updates will support taxpayers to get their tax right by ensuring timely and accurate record keeping, enabling tailored digital prompts and to view estimates of their emerging tax liability throughout the tax year, making it easier to submit their end of year return.
MTD is intended to address parts of the tax gap caused by unintentional taxpayer error and failure to take reasonable care. By preventing common taxpayer errors, MTD for income tax helps address the small business Tax Gap, adding £1.95bn to the public finances through to 2029/30.
Asked by: Lord Mackinlay of Richborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the quality of pre-application advice, and what steps they are taking to ensure the quality of pre-application advice.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The government strongly encourages local planning authorities to utilise best practice guidance for pre-application engagement and Planning Performance Agreements published by the Planning Advisory Service. This is available here. Most local planning authorities will offer some form of pre-application advice service, but we have no plans to make this a mandatory function.
Asked by: Lord Mackinlay of Richborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to make pre-application advice a compulsory service offered by local planning authorities.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The government strongly encourages local planning authorities to utilise best practice guidance for pre-application engagement and Planning Performance Agreements published by the Planning Advisory Service. This is available here. Most local planning authorities will offer some form of pre-application advice service, but we have no plans to make this a mandatory function.
Asked by: Lord Mackinlay of Richborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the use of National Listed Building Consent Orders for alterations such as (1) secondary glazing, (2) roof re-tiling, including full strip and re-tile, and (3) any other routine works.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Listed Building Consent Orders are a useful mechanism to allow for streamlining in the decision making process for regular works unlikely to cause harm to heritage assets. We are aware of examples across the country where local authorities have introduced these, including for secondary glazing and other routine works. A national listed building consent order has not yet been introduced.
Asked by: Lord Mackinlay of Richborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to encourage the sympathetic conversion of historic buildings into new homes to support their housing targets.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The National Planning Policy Framework is already supportive of bringing heritage assets back into use, putting them to viable uses consistent with their conservation. We will continue to consider this matter as we develop our approach to heritage policy including through the creation of a suite of national policies related to decision making.
Asked by: Lord Mackinlay of Richborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of empty listed buildings; and how they can be brought back into use.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The National Planning Policy Framework is already supportive of bringing heritage assets back into use, putting them to viable uses consistent with their conservation. We will continue to consider this matter as we develop our approach to heritage policy including through the creation of a suite of national policies related to decision making.
Asked by: Lord Mackinlay of Richborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have considered applying deemed consent to listed building consent applications.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The government has no plans to apply deemed consent to listed building consent applications when a local planning authority has failed to determine such application within the statutory time period given the potential impacts of any proposed work to listed buildings. Applicants can appeal to the Planning Inspectorate if local planning authority has not determined a listed building consent application on time.
Asked by: Lord Mackinlay of Richborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Merron on 1 May (HL Deb col 144GC), when the review of the clinical commissioning policy relating to multi-grip hand and upper limb prosthesis is expected to be published.
Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England has commissioned Solutions for Public Health (SPH) to complete a compliance audit report of the Multi-grip prosthetic hand (all ages) clinical commissioning policy, a copy of which is attached. The audit report from SPH will be available to commissioners by the end of October 2025.
NHS England will use the audit report to inform the evidence base for any proposed changes to the current commissioning policy.
Asked by: Lord Mackinlay of Richborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Livermore on 8 July (HL8787 and HL8788), how requiring users to submit quarterly updates of income and expenditure in addition to submitting a tax return will (1) reduce errors, and (2) save time.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Making Tax Digital (MTD) quarterly updates support taxpayers in getting their tax right by ensuring timely and accurate record keeping, enabling tailored digital prompts and allowing taxpayers to see estimates of their emerging tax liability throughout the tax year.
This will help to reduce errors, and the time taxpayers need to spend managing their tax affairs. Software will automatically draw data for the updates from the digital records. With income and expenditure already categorised, the end-of-year return will also become quicker and easier, as all the information will be readily available in the software to submit.
Asked by: Lord Mackinlay of Richborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to extending permitted development rights on listed buildings to include (1) electric vehicle chargers, (2) small garden sheds, (3) small garden ponds and (4) fences.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The government continues to keep permitted development rights under review.