Asked by: Jack Dromey (Labour - Birmingham, Erdington)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what meetings (a) Ministers, (b) special advisers and (c) civil servants in his Department had with the hon. Member for Milton Keynes North between 1 May 2020 and 31 January 2021.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information requested is not readily available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Jack Dromey (Labour - Birmingham, Erdington)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what financial payments his Department makes to its non-executive directors; how many times his departmental Board will meet in 2021-22; and what work the non-executive directors undertake.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
This information is published in the Department’s annual report and accounts, available on gov.uk.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hm-treasury-annual-report-and-accounts-2019-to-2020
The Department’s report and accounts for 2020-21 will be published in due course, in the usual way.
Departmental boards provide strategic leadership for each central government department, as well as advising on/challenging how the department is performing. Each board is chaired by the Secretary of State and includes junior ministers, the permanent secretary and non-executive board members. Non-executives are appointed to government departments from the public, private and voluntary sectors. Their role is to provide advice and bring an external perspective.
A summary of the work of non-executive directors across Government can be found in the Government Lead Non-Executive's annual report, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-lead-non-executives-annual-report-2019-to-2020
Asked by: Jack Dromey (Labour - Birmingham, Erdington)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department operates a red, amber and green rating system for categorising Freedom of Information requests according to their presentational sensitivity.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The Treasury does not operate such a system.
All FOI requests are treated exactly the same, regardless of who the request is from and their occupation.
Asked by: Jack Dromey (Labour - Birmingham, Erdington)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what comparative assessment he has made of the number of (a) additional HMRC customs agents that are required to manage the new trading rules with the EU under the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement and (b) those agents required in February 2020.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government does not employ customs agents/customs intermediaries directly, and it does not have a target for numbers of customs agents. Readiness of the customs intermediary sector relates to the capacity to make declarations, rather than numbers of staff employed. This is because the sector is varied and made up of a number of different business models including specific customs brokers, freight forwarders and fast parcel operators; all of which will require different numbers of staff to complete declarations and to provide their services. Many in the sector have innovated and brought in significant IT solutions to automate many processes which has reduced the numbers of staff they require. The Government has helped them to do this by making over £80 million of support available, including flexible grants that can be used for IT and training, as well as recruitment, depending on the needs of the business.
The Government knows the intermediary sector has used this support and increased capacity significantly. The findings of recent Ipsos Mori surveying of the sector (published on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/research-into-the-customs-intermediaries-sector-wave-2-report) show that customs intermediaries expected to increase their capacity four fold to meet additional demand. In addition, the Government has created an intermediary register on GOV.UK to help traders find an agent. This holds a list of intermediaries that traders could use and shows which are taking on new clients, and the services offered. Over 300 intermediaries have highlighted they are taking on new clients, including those that specialise in smaller traders or movements of goods subject to SPS controls.
The Government continues to monitor the situation closely and engage with the sector to understand the support it needs, keeping measures under review.
Asked by: Jack Dromey (Labour - Birmingham, Erdington)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many additional customs agents have been employed by HMRC since February 2020.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government does not employ customs agents/customs intermediaries directly, and it does not have a target for numbers of customs agents. Readiness of the customs intermediary sector relates to the capacity to make declarations, rather than numbers of staff employed. This is because the sector is varied and made up of a number of different business models including specific customs brokers, freight forwarders and fast parcel operators; all of which will require different numbers of staff to complete declarations and to provide their services. Many in the sector have innovated and brought in significant IT solutions to automate many processes which has reduced the numbers of staff they require. The Government has helped them to do this by making over £80 million of support available, including flexible grants that can be used for IT and training, as well as recruitment, depending on the needs of the business.
The Government knows the intermediary sector has used this support and increased capacity significantly. The findings of recent Ipsos Mori surveying of the sector (published on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/research-into-the-customs-intermediaries-sector-wave-2-report) show that customs intermediaries expected to increase their capacity four fold to meet additional demand. In addition, the Government has created an intermediary register on GOV.UK to help traders find an agent. This holds a list of intermediaries that traders could use and shows which are taking on new clients, and the services offered. Over 300 intermediaries have highlighted they are taking on new clients, including those that specialise in smaller traders or movements of goods subject to SPS controls.
The Government continues to monitor the situation closely and engage with the sector to understand the support it needs, keeping measures under review.
Asked by: Jack Dromey (Labour - Birmingham, Erdington)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 2 February 2021 to Question 145127 on customs: ICT, how many individuals were employed in each team in the month of (a) December 2020 and (b) March 2021.
Answered by Jesse Norman
In December HMRC had 165 FTE employed on the Customs and International Trade helpline, webchat and accompanying activity, and HMRC now have 145 FTE employed on the Customs and International Trade helpline, webchat and accompanying activity.
Asked by: Jack Dromey (Labour - Birmingham, Erdington)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the average response time to customs queries to HMRC through the CHIEF system in the most recent period for which figures are available; and what steps he is taking to improve the response time for businesses seeking customs advice from the CHIEF system.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The CHIEF system has been scaled to 360 million declarations per year as part of HMRC’s preparations for the end of the Transition Period and it continues to perform well. This equates to 111 declarations per second and a message response time of 5 seconds, which is within the service-level agreement for all transactions. HMRC continue to test the performance of the CHIEF system.
Asked by: Jack Dromey (Labour - Birmingham, Erdington)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what training on customs requirements is being provided by his Department to help companies to adhere to the provisions of the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement.
Answered by Jesse Norman
HMRC do not directly provide training for companies but provide financial support through the £20 million SME Brexit Support Fund which opened on 15 March 2021. This fund gives traders access to practical support, including training for new customs, rules of origin and VAT processes. Smaller businesses can apply for grants of up to £2,000 to help them adapt to new customs and tax rules when trading with the EU.
Asked by: Jack Dromey (Labour - Birmingham, Erdington)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what training has been provided by his Department to customs agents to help them to understand the provisions of the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement in the last three months.
Answered by Jesse Norman
HMRC do not directly provide training for customs agents, but have made over £80 million available through the Customs Grants Schemes to support IT, training and recruitment. These funds have been fully applied for and applicants are now finalising their claims by submitting evidence of training undertaken.
Asked by: Jack Dromey (Labour - Birmingham, Erdington)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the tax liability is for women who receive back payments of underpaid state pension in a single financial year; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Income tax is calculated on arrears of state pension for the tax year in which the pensioner was entitled to receive it, and not in the year in which a lump sum is paid.
Where arrears of state pension are paid, income tax will only be due on any income that exceeds the personal allowance for the respective tax year.
In addition, HM Revenue and Customs will only collect income tax for the current tax year and the four preceding tax years for arrears payments made due to DWP error. Any arrears of state pension relating to earlier years will not be subject to income tax.