Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make it her policy to introduce VAT relief for pilot training.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
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. VAT-registered businesses paying for training will be able to recover any VAT they pay.
The Government currently has no plans to remove VAT on pilot flight training courses more broadly.
Asked by: Gavin Robinson (Democratic Unionist Party - Belfast East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the tax-free threshold for pensioners.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to making sure older people can live with the dignity and respect they deserve in retirement. The State Pension is the foundation of the support available to them. Over the course of this Parliament, the yearly amount of the full new State Pension is currently projected to go up by around £1,900 based on the Office for Budget Responsibility's latest forecast.
The Government is also committed to keeping people’s taxes as low as possible while ensuring fiscal responsibility, and so, at our first Budget, we decided not to extend the freeze on personal tax thresholds.
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.
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 - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
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.
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 - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
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.
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.
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
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
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
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:
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.