Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to his Department's press release entitled £15 million announced for flood recovery in Northern Ireland, published on 8 November 2023, whether the distribution of that funding will require his Department's approval in the absence of the Northern Ireland Executive.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
In the absence of a Northern Ireland Executive, the UK Government announced up to £15 million of support would be made available to respond to flooding in areas of Northern Ireland affected by recent storms.
This funding will be delivered by the Northern Ireland Civil Service and Accounting Officer responsibilities will rest within the appropriate officials in the Northern Ireland Civil Service; the UK Government will support them in doing so. Budget changes will formally occur at Supplementary Estimates 2023-24.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what security checks financial institutions are required to make for credit card applications in order to prevent identity fraud.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is responsible for regulating the consumer credit market. FCA rules dictate that firms (including those offering credit cards) must have adequate policies and procedures in place to counter the risk that they might be used in financial crime, such as identity fraud. Furthermore, firms must ensure that the systems and controls monitoring these are subject to regular assessment.
Firms are also required by law to verify someone’s identity when they establish a business relationship with them. This includes when opening a credit account such as a credit card. Firms are required to take a proportionate approach commensurate with their assessment of the risk. Each firm will have their own policies on identification, customer due diligence and on the circumstances in which additional security checks should be undertaken. Firms are assisted in making such policies through industry produced guidance. The government has also published a Good Practice Guide for firms on how to prove and verify someone’s identity, which can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/identity-proofing-and-verification-of-an-individual/how-to-prove-and-verify-someones-identity
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he received a report from the Financial Conduct Authority on the collapse of the Safe Hands funeral group.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Throughout the process of bringing the pre-paid funeral plan sector into regulation, the government has worked closely with the FCA to ensure that the regulation of the sector is proportionate and effective.
As part of regular engagement with HM Treasury, the FCA made officials aware in March 2022 that Safe Hands would enter administration.
The government and the FCA continue to engage regularly as we monitor the impact of regulation in this sector.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many businesses exported goods to the EU in each of the last five years.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is responsible for the collection and publication of data on imports and exports of goods to and from the UK. HMRC releases this information monthly, as a National Statistic called the Overseas Trade in Goods Statistics (OTS), which is available via their dedicated website (www.uktradeinfo.com). From this website it is also possible to access other published statistics and information related to international trade in goods.
Information about the number of businesses who exported goods to the EU in 2021 and 2022 was obtained from customs declarations and is publicly available in the Customs Importer and Exporter Population Report 2022 (see Table 2 ‘Partner by Direction’). Methodology notes about this data can be found here.
Prior to 2021, this information was obtained from the Intrastat survey and is publicly available in the Regional Trade Statistics Accompanying Tables for Q2 2021 (see Tab “CE”, Table 3: count of exporters to EU, 2018 to 2020). The applicable methodology is detailed in the published ‘Notes’ tab.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when HM Revenue and Customs plans to reply to the emails from the Rt Hon Member for Leeds Central of 12 April and 9 May about his constituent Mr MW and his pension contributions.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
HMRC aims to provide a full response to the honourable member within the next 10 working days. They will liaise directly with the Department for Work and Pensions and the Customer.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he plans to take steps to update taxpayers' personal HMRC pages to reflect the decision to extend the deadline to 2025 for voluntary pension contributions in the period between 2006 and 2018.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Individuals can access their National Insurance record through their Personal Tax Account and the ‘Check your National Insurance record’ and ‘Check your State Pension forecast’ services on the GOV.UK webiste. HMRC has updated all of these products with a statement to explain the deadline for making voluntary National Insurance contributions has been extended to 5 April 2025.
The payment date for years 2006 to 2018 will be updated to 5 April 2025 before the end of July 2023.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will place in the Library of the House a list of companies that received payments under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
HMRC’s legal duty of confidentiality applies to information about specific CJRS claims. The rules of the CJRS allowed HMRC to publish details of CJRS claims made between December 2020 to September 2021 for a 12-month period only.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the average waiting time was for answering phone calls by HMRC as of 27 April 2023; and what that average was in each of the last five years.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
I refer the Rt Honourable Member to the replies given to the Honourable Member for Enfield North on 24 April 2023, UIN 180553 and UIN 180557.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 17 April 2023 to Question 176568 on Ukraine: Humanitarian Aid, whether his Department has a planned timescale for the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation to issue a licence to allow funds from the sale of Chelsea FC to be spent on humanitarian aid in Ukraine.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
In May 2022, the Government committed that the Treasury will only issue a licence which ensures that the proceeds are used exclusively for humanitarian purposes in Ukraine.
HM Treasury does not discuss specific licence applications. The Treasury considers each application on its merits and will only issue a licence where there are grounds to do so in the relevant legislation. Whilst OFSI assesses each application on its own merits, OFSI will prioritise the assessment of humanitarian cases.
Asked by: Hilary Benn (Labour - Leeds Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department was aware of concerns about the solvency of Safe Hands funeral plan prior to that company going into administration.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
During a wide-ranging meeting with industry in July 2017 to discuss pre-paid funeral plans, some concerns about Safe Hands Plans were raised with HM Treasury.
In response, officials advised that such concerns should be reported to the Financial Conduct Authority, reflecting the fact that HM Treasury has no investigatory or enforcement powers of its own.