Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what guidance his Department has issued to the (a) Valuation Office Agency and (b) District Valuer Service on assessing the market conditions for developing new GP practices in the last five years.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The District Valuer Service (DVS) is the specialist property arm of the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), providing independent, impartial, valuation and professional property advice across the entire public sector, and where public money or public functions are involved.
HM Treasury has not issued any guidance to the VOA. The VOA uses recognised valuation approaches in line with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) guidance.
The VOA provides the current market rent to enable the NHS to assess the financial value for money of newly proposed developments. This then enables the NHS to determine access to reimbursements. The role of the DVS is set out in the NHS Premises Cost Directions 2013, which is publicly available online: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6520111caea2d0000d219939/nhs-general-medical-services-premises-costs-directions-2013.pdf
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many employment tribunal cases have been held involving HMRC staff in each of the last five years; and if he will provide a breakdown by type of dispute heard for each of those years.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
HMRC's Raising and Resolving Concerns and Upholding our Standards of Conduct guidance aligns to the ACAS codes of practice. However, there will always be occasions where employees and ex-employees are dissatisfied with the outcome of the process.
Individuals have the right to submit a claim to an Employment Tribunal where the merits of the case will be considered.
HMRC will consider whether to defend the claim. However, if based on legal advice our chances of successfully defending a claim appear to be limited then HMRC will negotiate with the individuals’ legal representatives and aim to reach a settlement that provides value for money and protects the public purse. In all cases any settlement is in line with HMT’s Managing Public Money guidance.
If HMRC is unable to reach a settlement, then the case will proceed to a full hearing before the Tribunal.A hearing is held in a public forum and the outcome is freely available to members of the public and media via the Gov.uk site.
In the last 5 financial years HMRC has received an average of 149 Employment Tribunal cases per year.
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the efficiency of the Respect at Work programme in HMRC.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
HMRC published an independent review about what it’s like to work at HMRC, Respect at Work Review in 2019. The review made a series of recommendations that HMRC implemented including significant changes to departmental policy, processes and practice.The programme closed at the end of March 2023 and ongoing work was absorbed into business as usual. As reported (on page 50) of HMRC’s Annual Report and Accounts HMRC’s activities in 2022-23 included ‘delivering the remaining aspects of the Respect at Work Programme’.
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many and what proportion of employees in each regional centre of the Criminal Investigations Unit of HMRC have declared their ethnic origin as Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
HMRC requests that staff voluntarily and confidentially record their ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief, gender identity and carer details.
The recording of diversity information is not mandatory, but we ask all HMRC employees to consider the reasons why diversity information is important for individuals and the Organisation.
As a responsible employer, HMRC need to make sure that their policies and procedures do not discriminate against any particular group.
HMRC do not publish the information in the form requested. The ethnicity data that HMRC do publish is available in the Public Sector Equality Duty annual compliance report HMRC: Public Sector Equality Duty compliance 2021 to 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and in the Annual Report & Accounts HMRC annual report and accounts: 2021 to 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a price stability mechanism, such as a contracts-for-difference scheme similar to that used in wind power generation, to encourage the production of sustainable aviation fuel production in the UK.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The government is committed to supporting the uptake of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF). The UK’s SAF programme is one of the most comprehensive in the world, that includes the £180 million Advanced Fuels Fund and an ambitious SAF mandate which other low carbon technologies do not have.
On 17 April, we published a government response to an independent report on a UK SAF industry. It sets out how we are already taking action to address many of the report’s recommendations. We have committed to continue working with industry to consider the case for broader support alongside the AFF and the SAF mandate from 2025 (that will provide a long-term investment signal and price support), with a focus on industry funded intervention, to increase revenue certainty for UK SAF plants. If required following that work, we will launch a formal consultation this summer.
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential value of the sustainable aviation fuel sector to the UK economy.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The government is committed to supporting the uptake of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF). The UK’s SAF programme is one of the most comprehensive in the world, that includes the £180 million Advanced Fuels Fund and an ambitious SAF mandate which other low carbon technologies do not have.
On 17 April, we published a government response to an independent report on a UK SAF industry. It sets out how we are already taking action to address many of the report’s recommendations. We have committed to continue working with industry to consider the case for broader support alongside the AFF and the SAF mandate from 2025 (that will provide a long-term investment signal and price support), with a focus on industry funded intervention, to increase revenue certainty for UK SAF plants. If required following that work, we will launch a formal consultation this summer.
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department made an assessment of the average proportion contributed to the income of hospitality venues by (a) wines and (b) spirits when formulating plans for the draught relief introduced on 1 August 2022.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Government consulted extensively and took account of evidence from a wide range of stakeholders and a variety of data sets as part of the tax policy making process on the alcohol review, including on the design of Draught Relief.
The Government has committed to evaluating the policy and its impacts after implementation.
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing measures to assist (a) producers and (b) importers supplying the off trade in alcoholic drinks following the increases in alcohol duty announced in the Spring Budget 2023.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The new alcohol duty system will provide a simpler and more consistent duty regime for producers and importers supplying the off trade and on trade.
The Government is also introducing specific measures that will benefit produces and importers. The approval, return and payment processes for domestic producers of alcoholic products are being harmonised. Small Producer Relief reforms and extends the relief currently enjoyed by small breweries to all producers of other alcoholic products under 8.5% abv. Temporary arrangements for producers and importers of wine in place until 1 February 2025 will help them manage the transition to the new method of calculating the duty on their products.
The Government has also committed to evaluating the policy and its impacts after implementation.
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of planned wine duty increases on (a) elasticity of demand and (b) forecast levels of future revenue to the Exchequer from alcohol duty.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) published its latest Economic and Fiscal Outlook report in March 2023. The publication contained an alcohol duty revenue forecast up to and including 2027-28 and was inclusive of all planned changes to alcohol duties including wine duty increases.
Table 2.12 in the supplementary tables published alongside the Economic and Fiscal Outlook report contains separate clearance and receipt forecasts by type of alcohol.
Asked by: Graham Brady (Conservative - Altrincham and Sale West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions his Department has had with the Department for Transport on using fiscal measures to support the aviation industry's plans to decarbonise.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The Treasury remains in close dialogue with other government departments, including the Department for Transport, in designing policies to support decarbonisation.
The government keeps fiscal policies under review and changes are made at fiscal events. The Chancellor confirmed at the Summer Economic Update that the next Budget will take place in the Autumn.