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Written Question
Police: Workplace Pensions
Tuesday 11th February 2025

Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the McCloud judgement [2018] EWCA Civ 2844, how many outstanding police pensions cases HMRC had yet to assess on 6 February 2025; and what HMRC's timetable is for the completion of this work.

Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

HMRC is committed to providing a good customer service for individuals affected by the McCloud remedy. It is working closely with individual pension schemes to ensure they and their members have the support they need. For police, HMRC has received 662 and processed 136. HMRC has 526 police force cases which have been submitted and are yet to be processed.

HMRC checks and processes the submissions based on the information provided and has 90 days in which to process a refund where applicable.


Written Question
Aviation: Training
Wednesday 13th March 2024

Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make it his policy to introduce VAT relief for pilot training.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston

Pilot training may be exempt from VAT when provided by an eligible body which meets certain conditions (for example, when provided by a government institution or certain regulated organisations), but otherwise will be subject to the standard rate. The Government currently has no plans to remove VAT on pilot flight training courses more broadly.


Written Question
Pensioners: Tax Allowances
Monday 19th February 2024

Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the tax-free threshold for pensioners to £15,000.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston

The Government is committed to ensuring that older people are able to live with the dignity and respect they deserve. The Personal Allowance is currently set at a level high enough to ensure that those pensioners whose sole income is the full new State Pension or basic State Pension do not pay any income tax.


Written Question
Public Finance: Wales
Thursday 16th November 2023

Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much additional funding his Department provided to the block grant for Wales as a consequence of the five per cent uplift determined following the agreement between the Welsh government and the UK Government on the Welsh government’s fiscal framework, published on 19 December 2016, in each financial year since 2020-21.

Answered by Laura Trott - Shadow Secretary of State for Education

The Block Grant Transparency publication sets out a full breakdown of funding for the Welsh Government, including the impact of the 5% uplift.

This publication is updated regularly, and the most recent report was published in July 2023.


Written Question
Public Expenditure: Northern Ireland
Tuesday 14th November 2023

Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how each Barnett consequential due to the Northern Ireland Executive was accrued in the period since 1 April 2023; when each was accrued; and what the value of each consequential was.

Answered by Laura Trott - Shadow Secretary of State for Education

The UK Government provided £297 million of non-ringfenced RDEL funding to the Northern Ireland Executive at Supplementary Estimates 2022-23 to ensure the delivery of a balanced budget.

In the absence of an Executive, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland set a budget for 2023-24 via Written Ministerial Statement on 27 April 2023. This included flexibility on the repayment of the 2022-23 overspend.

The Northern Ireland Executive received £17 million non-ringfenced RDEL and £13 million general CDEL in Barnett consequentials at Mains Estimates 2023-24. Any further Barnett consequentials will be confirmed if UK Government departmental budgets change at subsequent fiscal events.

A more detailed breakdown of Barnett funding can be found in the Block Grant Transparency publication.

Block Grant Transparency: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/block-grant-transparency-july-2023


Written Question
Public Expenditure: Northern Ireland Executive
Tuesday 14th November 2023

Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the Northern Ireland Executive's overspend in the financial year 2022-23.

Answered by Laura Trott - Shadow Secretary of State for Education

The UK Government provided £297 million of non-ringfenced RDEL funding to the Northern Ireland Executive at Supplementary Estimates 2022-23 to ensure the delivery of a balanced budget.

In the absence of an Executive, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland set a budget for 2023-24 via Written Ministerial Statement on 27 April 2023. This included flexibility on the repayment of the 2022-23 overspend.

The Northern Ireland Executive received £17 million non-ringfenced RDEL and £13 million general CDEL in Barnett consequentials at Mains Estimates 2023-24. Any further Barnett consequentials will be confirmed if UK Government departmental budgets change at subsequent fiscal events.

A more detailed breakdown of Barnett funding can be found in the Block Grant Transparency publication.

Block Grant Transparency: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/block-grant-transparency-july-2023


Written Question
Public Expenditure: Northern Ireland
Tuesday 14th November 2023

Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of how much remains in the Northern Ireland Executive's 2022-23 financial year overspend following the deduction of Barnett consequentials.

Answered by Laura Trott - Shadow Secretary of State for Education

The UK Government provided £297 million of non-ringfenced RDEL funding to the Northern Ireland Executive at Supplementary Estimates 2022-23 to ensure the delivery of a balanced budget.

In the absence of an Executive, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland set a budget for 2023-24 via Written Ministerial Statement on 27 April 2023. This included flexibility on the repayment of the 2022-23 overspend.

The Northern Ireland Executive received £17 million non-ringfenced RDEL and £13 million general CDEL in Barnett consequentials at Mains Estimates 2023-24. Any further Barnett consequentials will be confirmed if UK Government departmental budgets change at subsequent fiscal events.

A more detailed breakdown of Barnett funding can be found in the Block Grant Transparency publication.

Block Grant Transparency: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/block-grant-transparency-july-2023


Written Question
Public Expenditure: Northern Ireland
Thursday 18th May 2023

Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much money has been returned from Stormont to the UK Government in un-used Financial Transaction Barnett Consequentials in each financial year from 2010-11 to 2022-2023.

Answered by John Glen

The Northern Ireland Executive receive ringfenced Financial Transactions Capital (FTC) funding. FTC funding is different to other aspects of the DEL block grant as it is treated as a financial transaction rather than spending and does not affect Public Sector Net Borrowing.

The Northern Ireland Executive Financial transaction budgets are provided with FTC funding through the Barnett formula in a consistent manner to UK Government departments. Where funding is provided on a net basis, repayments of loans can be recycled indefinitely into new loans. Where funding is provided on a gross basis, the Northern Ireland Executive is required to return funding to HM Treasury within an agreed period.

There were no underspends for the financial years 2010-11 through 2015-16. In subsequent years, the underspends were as follows:

  • 2016-17: £34.5m
  • 2017-18: £109.4m
  • 2018-19: £171.9m
  • 2019-20: £72.0m
  • 2020-21: £26.4m
  • 2021-22: £47.1m

Outturn data for 2022-23 is not yet available.

Any income from repayments of loans or underspends against the Northern Ireland Executive’s wider FTC funding can be used to reduce the amount of gross FTC repayable over time and the Executive have made use of this option. The UK Government maintains regular engagement with the Northern Ireland Executive on treatment of FTC funding.


Written Question
Block Grant: Wales
Wednesday 10th May 2023

Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much additional funding was contributed to the Welsh Block grant in each financial year between 2017-23 as the result of the 5 per cent uplift arising from the December 2016 Agreement between the Welsh Government and the United Kingdom Government on the Welsh Government’s fiscal framework.

Answered by John Glen

The Block Grant Transparency publication sets out a full breakdown of funding for the Welsh Government, including the impact of the 5% uplift.

The publication is regularly updated after each UK Budget. The next update is expected before summer recess following Spring Budget 2023.


Written Question
Cash Dispensing
Tuesday 19th April 2022

Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department has taken to protect access to cash in the last 12 months.

Answered by John Glen

The Government recognises that cash remains an important part of daily life for millions of people across the UK, and remains committed to legislating to protect access to cash.

As part of the Financial Services Act 2021, the Government made legislative changes to support the widespread offering of cashback without a purchase by shops and other businesses.

From 1 July to 23 September last year, the Government held the Access to Cash Consultation on further proposals for new laws to make sure people only need to travel a reasonable distance to pay in or take out cash. The Government’s proposals intend to support the continued use of cash in people’s daily lives and help to enable local businesses to continue accepting cash by ensuring they can access deposit facilities.

The Government received responses to the consultation from a broad range of respondents, including individuals, businesses, and charities. The Government has carefully considered responses to the consultation and will set out next steps in due course.

Following the Government’s commitment to legislate, firms are working together through the Cash Action Group to develop new initiatives to provide shared services. The Government welcomes the direction set by industry’s commitments at the end of last year and looks forward to seeing what results they deliver in protecting cash facilities for local communities across the UK.