Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the report by CAGE entitled Who would be affected by Capital Gains Tax reform, published in February 2024.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Substantial reforms to CGT rates and allowances would involve a number of wider policy trade-offs and so careful thought must be given to the impact that they would have on taxpayers, as well as any additional administrative burden on HMRC.
The Government will continue to keep the tax system under review.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the joint public letter from UK civil society organisations on the Household Support Fund, published on 6 February 2024, if he will publish a response.
Answered by Laura Trott - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
The Treasury carefully considers all issues raised by stakeholders. The Government continues to keep all of its existing policies and programmes under review in the usual way.
The Government has provided £842m to Local Authorities in England to deliver the Household Support Fund in England over 2023-24, and provided over £2 billion for the Fund since October 2021. Over 10 million awards were given from the last extension of the Fund, between 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the provision of funding for an infected blood compensation scheme.
Answered by Laura Trott - Shadow Secretary of State for Education
This was an appalling tragedy, and my thoughts remain with all those affected. The Government has accepted the moral case for compensation and justice must be delivered for the victims.
As such, the Government intends to respond in full to Sir Brian Langstaff’s recommendations for wider compensation following the publication of the Inquiry’s final report in May 2024.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has had recent discussions with international counterparts on a strategy to reduce debt in low-income countries.
Answered by Bim Afolami
As the Government’s lead on sovereign debt issues, HM Treasury maintains regular engagement with its international counterparts – including the IMF, World Bank, and other G7 and G20 members – to address debt vulnerabilities in low-income countries. Discussions take place bilaterally and in the relevant fora, including G7 and G20 meetings, and the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable.
For countries facing unmanageable debt burdens, the UK also coordinates with other official creditors to provide debt restructurings when needed – both at the Paris Club or as part of the G20 Common Framework.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the cost to the public purse was of his flight to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2024.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Shadow Minister (Business and Trade)
Costs for all overseas ministerial travel is regularly published in transparency returns.
These figures are scheduled to be published in due course.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of trends in the level of household debt.
Answered by Bim Afolami
The Government regularly engages with the Bank of England, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) to monitor levels of household debt and their impacts.
The Government remains committed to helping households that are struggling with debt to access the support they need and get their finances back on track. This is why the Government has maintained record levels of funding for MaPS to provide debt advice in England, bringing their debt advice budget to £92.7 million in 2023/24.
We have also taken steps to support those on low incomes, who are vulnerable to debt burdens. In response to the energy crisis, the government provided one of the largest support packages in Europe. Total Government support over 2022/23 to 2024/25 to help households with the high cost of living is worth £104 billion – an average of £3,700 per UK household.
A House of Commons research briefing on household debt can be found here: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn02885/
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many full time equivalent HM Revenue and Customs staff worked on tax compliance activity in each of the last five financial years.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The average full-time equivalents (FTE) in HMRC currently working on tax compliance activity is 17,300:
We are unable to provide the previous years of data as it is not currently available, and therefore this information would only be available at disproportionate cost.
Within Customer Compliance Group staff are deployed across a wide range of compliance risks. Internally, these are usually grouped by customer segment, tax head or specific tax risk being worked.
HMRC publishes information on the amounts spent on compliance by customer segment in our annual report and accounts at Tax by different customer groups – 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). The information for 2023/24 will be available in 2024. HMRC does not release detailed breakdowns of this information for operational reasons.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an estimate of the revenue received by the public purse through (a) compliance yield as measured for performance purposes and (b) tax revenue as measured by tax receipts raised as a result of new spending on compliance activity announced in each (i) a Budget and (ii) Autumn Statement in the last five financial years.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
At each fiscal event the Government publishes a table of the impacts of its policy and operational decisions certified by the Office for Budget Responsibility. Measures which raise tax revenue from compliance activity are generally part of our “Tackling the tax gap” package at each fiscal event. Most recently this was set out in Table 5.1 of Autumn Statement 2023, and is available for previous years on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to page 48 of his Department's publication entitled Autumn Statement 2023 Policy Costings, published in November 2023, whether the new staff recruited to operational teams will be included in existing HMRC tax compliance staffing figures.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
As announced in Autumn Statement 2023, the Government is investing £163 million to increase HMRC’s customer support and debt collection capacity. This will ensure those who can afford to pay their tax debts do so, while increasing HMRC’s ability to identify taxpayers who need additional time to pay their tax bills.
HMRC will add 700 full time equivalents to its debt management frontline team. This will significantly improve customer support for individuals and businesses: allowing more debtors to be contacted over the telephone, providing those who are struggling to pay with support, and ensuring that those who can pay their tax debts do.
The new staff recruited to operational teams are currently not included in existing HMRC tax compliance staffing figures.
These measures build on Spring Budget 2023 announcements to improve HMRC’s debt collection capabilities, which is essential to maintaining a low and stable tax gap and funding public services.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many FTE HM Revenue and Customs staff of what civil service grade worked on which category of tax compliance activity in each of the last five financial years.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
HMRC takes a flexible and dynamic approach to resourcing in order to achieve its objectives. Within Customer Compliance Group, staff are deployed across a wide range of compliance risks. Internally, these are usually grouped by customer segment, tax head or specific tax risk being worked.
To that effect, the data requested is not currently available by grade due to our systems not being able to segment data in a way that directly answers the request, and therefore this information would only be available at disproportionate cost.
HMRC publishes information on the amounts spent on compliance by customer segment in our annual report and accounts at Tax by different customer groups – 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). The information for 2023/24 will be available in 2024. HMRC does not release detailed breakdowns of this information for operational reasons.