Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an estimate of the loss of revenue resulting from ceasing to tax business broadband upgrades for homeowners as a benefit in kind.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government’s ambition is to connect at least 85 per cent of UK premises to gigabit-capable broadband by 2025, and for nationwide connectivity (at least 99 per cent) to be realised by 2030. Project Gigabit is the government’s £5 billion programme that will ensure the whole of the UK benefits from gigabit connectivity by providing subsidy to deliver gigabit-capable connectivity to uncommercial premises, which are typically in rural or remote locations. Over 75 per cent of UK premises can now access gigabit-capable broadband, a huge leap forward from July 2019, when coverage was just 8 per cent.
Regarding the tax treatment of home broadband, under long-standing rules, payments from employers reimbursing employees for reasonable additional costs they incur while having to work from home are exempt from taxation. This includes the cost of providing broadband to an employee where a connection was not already available, the employee requires broadband to work from home, and the broadband is used mainly for business purposes.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) does not hold information on the revenue received from taxes on businesses that provide their employees with business broadband for their residential properties.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of taxing upgrades to business broadband for non-business properties.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government’s ambition is to connect at least 85 per cent of UK premises to gigabit-capable broadband by 2025, and for nationwide connectivity (at least 99 per cent) to be realised by 2030. Project Gigabit is the government’s £5 billion programme that will ensure the whole of the UK benefits from gigabit connectivity by providing subsidy to deliver gigabit-capable connectivity to uncommercial premises, which are typically in rural or remote locations. Over 75 per cent of UK premises can now access gigabit-capable broadband, a huge leap forward from July 2019, when coverage was just 8 per cent.
Regarding the tax treatment of home broadband, under long-standing rules, payments from employers reimbursing employees for reasonable additional costs they incur while having to work from home are exempt from taxation. This includes the cost of providing broadband to an employee where a connection was not already available, the employee requires broadband to work from home, and the broadband is used mainly for business purposes.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) does not hold information on the revenue received from taxes on businesses that provide their employees with business broadband for their residential properties.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has conducted a cost-benefit analysis of the impacts of treating business broadband as a benefit in kind.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government’s ambition is to connect at least 85 per cent of UK premises to gigabit-capable broadband by 2025, and for nationwide connectivity (at least 99 per cent) to be realised by 2030. Project Gigabit is the government’s £5 billion programme that will ensure the whole of the UK benefits from gigabit connectivity by providing subsidy to deliver gigabit-capable connectivity to uncommercial premises, which are typically in rural or remote locations. Over 75 per cent of UK premises can now access gigabit-capable broadband, a huge leap forward from July 2019, when coverage was just 8 per cent.
Regarding the tax treatment of home broadband, under long-standing rules, payments from employers reimbursing employees for reasonable additional costs they incur while having to work from home are exempt from taxation. This includes the cost of providing broadband to an employee where a connection was not already available, the employee requires broadband to work from home, and the broadband is used mainly for business purposes.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) does not hold information on the revenue received from taxes on businesses that provide their employees with business broadband for their residential properties.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the annual VAT revenue generated from companies installing business broadband in employee properties.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The information requested is not available. HMRC does not hold information on VAT revenue from specific products or services because businesses are not required to provide figures at a product level on their VAT returns, as this would impose an excessive administrative burden on them.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what revenues his Department received from taxes on businesses that provide their employees with business broadband for their residential properties in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) does not hold information on the revenue received from taxes on businesses that provide their employees with business broadband for their residential properties.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential financial merits of maintaining business broadband as a taxable benefit in kind.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government’s ambition is to connect at least 85 per cent of UK premises to gigabit-capable broadband by 2025, and for nationwide connectivity (at least 99 per cent) to be realised by 2030. Project Gigabit is the government’s £5 billion programme that will ensure the whole of the UK benefits from gigabit connectivity by providing subsidy to deliver gigabit-capable connectivity to uncommercial premises, which are typically in rural or remote locations. Over 75 per cent of UK premises can now access gigabit-capable broadband, a huge leap forward from July 2019, when coverage was just 8 per cent.
Regarding the tax treatment of home broadband, under long-standing rules, payments from employers reimbursing employees for reasonable additional costs they incur while having to work from home are exempt from taxation. This includes the cost of providing broadband to an employee where a connection was not already available, the employee requires broadband to work from home, and the broadband is used mainly for business purposes.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) does not hold information on the revenue received from taxes on businesses that provide their employees with business broadband for their residential properties.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much money from the public purse has been spent on the faster data flows pilots of Palantir Foundry to date; and if he will provide a breakdown of (a) spending on individual trusts’ implementation costs and (b) payments made to (i) Palantir and (ii) consultants.
Answered by Will Quince
The spend-to-date on the Faster Flows programme is £0.51 million. There are no additional costs to implement within trusts as the programme uses their existing resources and digital infrastructures. £0.15 million has been paid to Palantir within the spend-to-date. There have been no payments to external consultants for this pilot as it has been possible to support this development using Commissioning Support Unit (CSU) teams within the National Health Service. The costs of the internal consultants within the CSU are £0.36 million.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which NHS trusts have paused or suspended pilots of Palantir Foundry.
Answered by Will Quince
These National Health Service trusts have paused pilots of Palantir Foundry:
- Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust;
- East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust;
- London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust;
- Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust;
- Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust;
- Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust;
- University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Foundation Trust;
- University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust; and
- University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust.
These NHS trusts have suspended pilots of Palantir Foundry:
- Liverpool Heart & Chest Hospital; and
- University Hospital Plymouth NHS Trust.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the use of Foundry, a Palantir product, by NHS England as part of some of its pilots of the collection and dissemination of the Faster Data Flow Acute Data Set, how much money from the public purse has been spent on the elective care recovery pilots involving the use of Palantir Foundry to date; and if he will provide a breakdown of (a) spending on individual trusts’ implementation costs and (b) payments made to (i) Palantir and (ii) consultants.
Answered by Will Quince
The elective recovery programme aims to help trusts across England better plan, schedule and manage patients through the Elective pathway. The spend-to-date on the pilot is £20.2 million. This includes £11.2 million on implementation within individual trusts. The spend-to-date includes £1.2 million paid to Palantir to accelerate elective surgical waiting list validation, correctly prioritise patients awaiting treatment and improve theatre utilisation. This also includes £5.4 million to external consultants to help with the discovery stage, delivery, strategic direction, management and training within the programme. The remaining £2.4 million has been spent on internal consultant teams within the Commissioning Support Units.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will publish his Department's internal assessments of the performance of the pilots of Palantir Foundry at (a) Chelsea and Westminster, (b) the Royal Free London, (c) Barts Health and (d) Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Trusts.
Answered by Will Quince
The Improving Elective Care Coordination for Patients Programme is one of the two main Foundry pilots. It supports trusts to effectively deliver care through care coordination.
The Chelsea and Westminster pilot has so far achieved these benefits:
- 79% of patients on waiting lists have been assessed for accuracy, leading to 27,200 patients being removed for example if they no longer need their procedure;
- 3,507 patients have been reprioritised to date;
- 3,279 theatre actions have been created to manage patients through the 6-4-2 process, a model to improve operating theatre productivity, safety, and patient experience;
- 4,372 booking requests have been completed;
- waiting lists for 392 consultants have been managed through care coordination;
- there has been a 55% reduction of bookings cancelled on the day due to missing Pre-Operative Assessment from, 2.89% to 1.29%; and
- patients with suspected cancer had their first appointment on average two days sooner.
The Royal Free London, Barts Health and Milton Keynes University Hospital Trusts pilots have not yet gone live.