Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will consider extending the 20% business rates relief for pubs and music venues to post offices.

Answered by James Murray - Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General

The Government recognises the important contribution that post offices make to local economies and communities through the services they provide to residents and businesses.

Businesses continue to benefit from the Government's wider business rates reforms, including permanently lower multipliers for qualifying retail, hospitality and leisure properties and the £4.3 billion support package introduced to support those ratepayers facing large increases in bills following the 2026 revaluation.

In addition, Rural Rate Relief aims to ensure that key amenities are available and community assets protected in rural areas. It provides 100 per cent rate relief for eligible properties in rural areas with populations below 3,000, including post offices that are the only such facility in a village and have a rateable value of up to £8,500.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what capital budget allocations are available to Worcestershire County Council to accommodate future (a) primary and (b) secondary school places in the current financial year.

Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

The statutory duty to provide sufficient school places sits with local authorities. The department provides capital funding through the Basic Need grant to support local authorities to provide school places, based on their own pupil forecasts and school capacity data.

Worcestershire County Council was allocated a total of just over £16.5 million across the 2023/24, 2024/25 and 2025/26 financial years to support it to provide new mainstream primary and secondary school places. It was not allocated funding in 2026/27 and 2027/28 because its pupil forecasts and school capacity data, gathered in Summer 2024, indicated there was no need to fund further places by September 2028.

This is in addition to housing developer contributions that Worcestershire can, and does, secure to create new places where demand is driven by new housing.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what demographic projections her Department holds to model future (a) primary and (b) secondary school places in the Worcestershire County Council area over the next five years.

Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)

As part of the school capacity survey 2025, Worcestershire Local Authority submitted information on school capacity and forecasts of the number of pupils that the local authority expects to provide a mainstream school place for. This data is published at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-capacity/2024-25.

As part of this release, modelled estimates of future school place demand at planning area and Local Authority level are also published. This data is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-capacity/2024-25.

The department estimates that in the 2029/30 academic year, there will be 8,364 spare primary places and 5,665 spare secondary places in Worcestershire. Please note that viewing surpluses at local authority level data may mask shortfalls in planning areas within the local authority.

It is for local authorities, in collaboration with academy trusts and other local partners, to balance the supply and demand of school places in line with changing demographics.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the impact of the reduced rate of VAT on renovating empty residential properties.

Answered by James Murray - Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General

To support the Government’s housing delivery targets, the Government maintains several VAT reliefs for the construction of homes. This includes a reduced rate of VAT of five per cent for the renovation of properties that have been empty for two or more years.

Reduced VAT on services in relation to conversions, renovations and alterations is included in the ongoing evaluation of tax reliefs to support housebuilding. The evaluation report will be published in due course.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many P85 forms have been submitted to HMRC in each month since May 2025.

Answered by James Murray - Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General

The table below shows the number of P85 forms submitted to HMRC electronically from May 2025 to July 2026:

Figures are rounded to 100. Counts of submitted P85 forms in April 2026 are labelled as [x] due to incomplete data.

Individuals can use the online system to submit a digital P85 or fill in a paper form and submit it by post. The counts provided in the table above are for digital forms only. Postal form data for this period is not available.

P85 forms are submitted by taxpayers who are not intending to submit a self-assessment tax return. Individuals who file through Self-Assessment do not need to submit a P85 form.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of changes to the taxation of Non-Domiciled taxpayers on taxes received.

Answered by James Murray - Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General

The Government is committed to addressing unfairness in the tax system, so that everyone who makes their home in the UK pays their taxes here.

That is why the Government removed the outdated concept of domicile status from the tax system from April 2025 and replaced it with a new internationally competitive residence-based regime, focused on attracting the best talent and investment to the UK.

The OBR certified at Autumn Budget 2026 that the reforms are expected to raise £39.5bn by 2030-31. Further detail on the approach to costing the reforms was published by the OBR in January 2025, and is available here: https://obr.uk/docs/dlm_uploads/Non-doms-supplementary-release-Jan-2025.pdf

HMRC will continue to monitor the impacts of the reforms as they do in all cases.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he can list the names of the firms HMRC uses for Debt Collection as at today's date.

Answered by James Murray - Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General

Information on the debt collection agencies currently used by HMRC is publicly available on Gov.uk at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/what-will-happen-if-you-do-not-pay-your-tax-bill

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he plans to request an updated OBR Assessment of the impact on the UK economy of ending Tax Free Shopping.

Answered by James Murray - Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General

In March 2024, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) conducted a review of the previous government’s 2020 costing of removing tax-free shopping. The OBR’s updated estimate is that the withdrawal of the VAT Retail Export Scheme will save the Exchequer around £540 million per year by 2025-26. 
 
The Government has noted recent external data, which shows that tourism numbers and spending for the UK has recovered at a similar rate following the pandemic to other European economies that offer tax-free shopping.

Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the budget allocations made by the Science and Technology Facilities Council in the area of astronomy and space science, and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Chris McDonald - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The Government is committed to maintaining a world-leading astronomy and space science programme. The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), as part of UK Research & Innovation (UKRI), has recently completed an evidence-based prioritisation exercise to ensure its portfolio remains financially sustainable and focused on the highest-priority scientific opportunities.

The outcome is a focused portfolio built around the world's most ambitious astronomy facilities such as the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (which will be headquartered in the UK at Jodrell Bank) and the European Southern Observatory, ensuring UK scientists remain at the forefront of international collaboration and major discoveries in astronomy. The portfolio also protects key research capability, including PhD studentships and fellowships and protects funding for grant-funded postdoctoral researchers in particle physics, astronomy and nuclear physics at 2025/26 levels. STFC will also continue to operate world-leading facilities that support space science such as RAL Space, the UK’s National Space Laboratory.

Alongside this, the UK Space Agency, which has been allocated a £2.8 billion budget over the Spending Review period, will support the scientific missions, technologies and capabilities that enable UK researchers and industry to participate in cutting-edge international space science. Together, these investments will ensure that the UK remains a leading global centre for astronomy and space science research and discovery.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the amount of forestalling that occurred with Capital Gains Tax in the 2024-25 financial year.

Answered by James Murray - Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General

The independent Office for Budget Responsibility will publish its estimates of Capital Gains Tax in 2024-25 in the upcoming Economic and Fiscal Outlook

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people have lost access to Tax-Free Childcare when their income reached £100,000 in each tax year since the scheme was introduced.

Answered by Emma Reynolds - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

HMRC does not hold this information. Many families who lose eligibility for Tax-Free Childcare as a result of their income exceeding the £100,000 threshold will simply choose not to re-apply for the scheme, and are not required to report this to HMRC.

Found: Current membership Dame Meg Hillier (Labour; Hackney South and Shoreditch) (Chair) Dame Harriett Baldwin

Found: Current membership Dame Meg Hillier (Labour; Hackney South and Shoreditch) (Chair) Dame Harriett Baldwin

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Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Dame Meg Hillier (Chair); Dame Harriett Baldwin; Chris Coghlan; Bobby

Found: assisted dying services in public bill committee following an amendment (PDF) tabled by Dame Harriett Baldwin