Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he accepts the recommendation from the Office for Value for Money to conduct thematic value for money reviews and publish the terms of reference of these reviews in 2026.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
I refer the Hon Member to the answer provided on on 5 January 2026 in response to Question HL13130.
The terms of reference for these reviews were published on gov.uk in January 2026.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the cost and the impact of the Great British Summer Savings scheme.
Answered by James Murray - Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General
From 25 June to 1 September the Government introduced a temporary reduced rate of VAT on eligible family days out, known as Great British Summer Savings.
The temporary reduced rate is estimated to have cost about £300m. All costings will be subject to certification by the OBR at the next Budget in the usual way.
The Government has published a Tax Information and Impact Note concerning the temporary reduced rate, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/temporary-reduced-rate-of-vat-for-childrens-meals-tickets-and-family-attractions
The reduced rate of VAT under the Great British Summer Savings Scheme applies to all supplies within its scope. HM Treasury and HMRC do not hold information on the number of businesses making such supplies. This is because businesses are not required to provide information at a product level in their VAT returns, as this would impose an excessive administrative burden.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish analysis of the usage of structural and non-structural tax reliefs in force during 2024-25.
Answered by James Murray - Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General
HMRC recognises around 1,200 tax reliefs. Of these, 340 are non-structural and the remaining are structural.
The most recent HMRC statistical publication covering costings and usage of structural and non-structural reliefs, where available, is the annual Tax Relief Statistics publication. The latest publication was released on 22 January 2026, and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tax-reliefs
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many Tax Reliefs are in force.
Answered by James Murray - Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General
HMRC recognises around 1,200 tax reliefs. Of these, 340 are non-structural and the remaining are structural.
The most recent HMRC statistical publication covering costings and usage of structural and non-structural reliefs, where available, is the annual Tax Relief Statistics publication. The latest publication was released on 22 January 2026, and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tax-reliefs
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish the bespoke departmental efficiency targets and plans.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Yes. The Government accepted the recommendation from the Office for Value for Money, to publish bespoke efficiency targets and plans biennially, embedding a culture of continuous improvement backed up by greater confidence in delivery. Previous Departmental Efficiency Plans and targets were published on Gov.uk at Spending Review 2025.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what take-up there has been of the Mortgage Guarantee Scheme since July 2025 and how take-up compares with the predecessor scheme.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The new Mortgage Guarantee Scheme is designed to support and sustain the availability of low deposit mortgage products for credit-worthy borrowers. 95% loan-to-value mortgage products can be particularly important for first-time buyers who may struggle to raise larger deposits, and the scheme aims to support this segment of the UK mortgage market.
The Scheme launched in July 2025 and will now remain permanently available to lenders. Properties of any value are eligible for the mortgage guarantee, and the scheme is available in all regions of the UK.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
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.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
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.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
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.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
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:
Month | P85 iForms |
May 2025 | 4,500 |
June 2025 | 4,500 |
July 2025 | 4,900 |
August 2025 | 5,200 |
September 2025 | 6,300 |
October 2025 | 6,700 |
November 2025 | 6,500 |
December 2025 | 5,800 |
January 2026 | 7,800 |
February 2026 | 6,300 |
March 2026 | 6,600 |
April 2026 | [x] |
May 2026 | 5,100 |
June 2026 | 5,500 |
July 2026 | 5,500 |
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.