Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many tax free childcare accounts were set up within the seven working day timeframe communicated to parents during the application process in each of the last six months.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The quarterly and monthly Tax-Free Childcare accounts data, available on the GOV.UK, could serve as a useful reference:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tax-free-childcare-statistics-december-2023
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tax-free-childcare-quarterly-statistics
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many major infrastructure projects in the Government Major Projects Portfolio have (a) received final approval since April 2021 and (b) had their summary business cases published.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government publishes a range of information on all major projects on the Government Major Projects Portfolio online as part of the IPA’s annual report. This includes project narratives, whole-life costs and monetised benefits where available. Further information on major projects and published business cases for relevant projects and programmes can be found on Gov.uk.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he is taking steps to update the Analysis of the National Infrastructure and Construction Pipeline 2021, published in August 2021.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The IPA's National Infrastructure and Construction Pipeline is a key publication outlining planned and projected investment in UK major infrastructure and construction over the next 10 years. The 2023 Pipeline will be published in due course.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of reducing the level of VAT applied to children’s (a) swimming lessons and (b) other sports.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
VAT has been designed as a broad-based tax on consumption, and the twenty per cent standard rate applies to the majority of goods and services. While there are exceptions to the standard rate, these have always been strictly limited by both legal and fiscal considerations; one exception being certain supplies of education, which are generally exempt from VAT when certain conditions are met.
VAT is the UK’s third largest tax forecast to raise £161 billion in 2022/23, helping to fund key spending priorities such as important public services, including the NHS, education and defence. Nevertheless, the Government keeps all taxes under review.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential impacts of temporarily closing the Self-Assessment hotline on individuals needing advice prior to submitting information relating to their tax returns.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
This quarter is the quietest for Self-Assessment (SA) queries. HMRC is piloting the temporary and time-limited closure of the SA helpline so that c.350 advisers can be moved to other work, including clearing post items, which experience heavier demand at this time of year.
The SA helpline will reopen on 4 September, five months prior to the SA filing deadline of 31 January.
Around two-thirds of all Self-Assessment calls can be resolved online by customers; piloting a seasonal Self-Assessment helpline is about positively encouraging people to use these services when they can.
This will free up HMRC advisors to help those with more urgent queries or who cannot access digital services, and to work on correspondence.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the budget allocated for public service innovation is in the (a) Department for Health and Social Care, (b) Department for Education, (c) Home Office, (d) Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, (e) Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, (f) Department for Work and Pensions and (g) Department for Justice.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
There is no single budget specifically allocated to “public service innovation” across government as a whole or within individual departments. The Government has funded a range of initiatives that could be considered public service innovation, but ultimately budgets are not measured in this way.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will review changes to the Research and Development Expenditure Credit scheme to help incentivise small and medium sized enterprises to invest in research and development in the UK.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
As part of the ongoing research and development (R&D) tax reliefs review, the Government is reforming the R&D tax reliefs to ensure taxpayer’s money is spent as effectively as possible, to improve the competitiveness of the Research and Development Expenditure Credit (RDEC) scheme, and as a step towards a simplified, single RDEC-like scheme for all.
Generous spending support will continue: direct funding for R&D will reach £20 billion a year by 2024-2025 as planned. This is a cash increase of around a third compared to 2021-2022, and the largest-ever increase over a Spending Review (SR) period.
The Government also remains committed to the increasing focus on innovation set out at SR 2021 and the £2.6 billion allocation to Innovate UK over the SR period. From 2021-2022 to 2024-2025, this represents a 54 per cent cash increase in Innovate UK’s budgets and 70 per cent of Innovate UK’s grants to businesses go to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the £500 cap on payments received every three months under the Tax-Free Childcare scheme in the context of increased childcare costs.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) provides financial support for working parents with their childcare costs. For every £8 parents pay into their childcare account, the Government adds £2 up to a maximum of £2,000 in top up per year for each child up to age 11 and up to £4,000 per disabled child until they’re 17. Take-up of Tax-Free Childcare has continued to increase and is on a steady upward trajectory: at the end of September 2022 (the most recent data) an estimated 401,000 families used Tax-Free Childcare for 478,000 children, compared to 391,000 families for 468,000 children in June 2022. The Government spent £44 million on TFC top-up for families in September 2022.
Additional childcare support is available: all three- and four-year-olds can access 15 hours of free childcare per week, regardless of circumstance. Eligible working parents of three- and four-year-olds can also access an additional 15 hours of free childcare per week, also known as 30 hours free childcare. Moreover, Universal Credit (UC) claimants are able to claim up to 85% of their childcare costs.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of regulation of crypto-currencies.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government believes that having robust and effective regulation will boost innovation - by giving people and businesses the confidence they need to use new technologies safely
A consultation on the future financial services regulatory regime for cryptoasset activities was published here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/future-financial-services-regulatory-regime-for-cryptoassets on Wednesday 1 February.
In addition to this, the Financial Services and Markets Bill ensures that the Treasury can establish the legislative framework for regulating cryptoassets and stablecoins.
The government has already taken steps to bring certain cryptoasset activities into the scope of UK regulation. Since January 2020, cryptoasset firms operating in the UK have been subject to the Money Laundering Regulations. To protect consumers, on 18 January 2022, the Government set out its intention to legislate to bring certain cryptoassets into financial promotion regulation and published a further policy statement here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/cryptoasset-promotions on Wednesday 1 February.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has considered the potential merits of increasing the Approved Mileage Allowance Payment from 45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Approved Mileage Allowance Payments (AMAPs) are used by employers to reimburse an employee’s expenses for business mileage in their private vehicle.
The government sets the AMAP rates to minimise administrative burdens.
Employees can claim up to 45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles and the 25p per mile for subsequent miles. The mileage thresholds reflect that the AMAP rates are designed to cover both a proportion of fixed costs, such as insurance and VED, as well as ongoing costs such as fuel.
Employers are not required to use the AMAPs rates. Instead, they can agree to reimburse a different amount that better reflects their employees’ circumstances. If an employee is paid less than the AMAP rate, they can claim Mileage Allowance Relief (MAR) on the shortfall. However, where payments exceed the relevant AMAP rate, there may be a tax and National Insurance charge on the difference.
Self-employed people can choose to use the simplified mileage rate, or they can claim tax relief using capital allowances and actual expenses.
As with all taxes, the Government keeps the AMAP rate under review and any changes are considered and announced at fiscal events.