Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many staff in her Department are reliant on a visa for employment.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
We do not disclose the exact number of staff with visas for data privacy reasons, but can confirm that fewer than five staff members at HM Treasury are reliant on a visa for their right to work in the UK.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, on how many days in 2025 did the Pride Flag fly on the main Whitehall building operated by her Department.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
During 2025 the Pride Flag was not flown on 1 Horse Guards Road on behalf of HM Treasury
HM Treasury is only one department in GOGGS (Government Offices Great George Street, encompassing 1 Horse Guards Road and 100 Parliament Street). Flag flying is administered by DCMS and Government Property Agency.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether it is her Department's policy that (a) Ministers and (b) special advisers use the disappearing messages function on Whatsapp on Government devices.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The department’s policy is to follow the Cabinet Office’s published guidance on the use of non-corporate communication channels.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many public sector pensions have been forfeited due to convictions for violent crimes in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
HM Treasury does not administer public sector pension schemes, and does not hold this information.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much is owed in uncollected taxes from businesses that liquidated when their owed taxes were attempted to be recovered in 2025.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC publishes quarterly updates that report on the total debt balance at the end of each quarter. The most recent update was published on 8 January 2026 and can be found at www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-quarterly-performance-updates.
HMRC publishes data on individual tax heads but does not publish an aggregated dataset on business taxes.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what data her Department has regarding the amount of unpaid taxes by businesses that is awaiting recovery.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC publishes quarterly updates that report on the total debt balance at the end of each quarter. The most recent update was published on 8 January 2026 and can be found at www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-quarterly-performance-updates.
HMRC publishes data on individual tax heads but does not publish an aggregated dataset on business taxes.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will take steps to remove business rates for early years providers.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Business rates are a broad-based tax on the value of non-domestic properties, including nurseries.
To protect small businesses, the Government has frozen the small business multiplier for 2025-26. Taken together with Small Business Rates Relief, this intervention ensures that over a million properties will be protected from inflationary increases.
More broadly, in 2026-27, we expect to provide over £9.5 billion for the early years entitlements. We are investing over £1 billion more in the early years entitlements this year compared to 2025-26, to deliver a full year of the expanded entitlements, and an above inflation increase to entitlements funding rates.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what is the total cost to the public purse of money owed to HMRC in the form of unpaid (a) VAT and (b) corporation tax accrued since July 2024.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Our debt management workforce is deployed flexibly across all taxes to ensure efficient collection of debts owed and are not allocated to specific taxes. It is therefore not possible to provide a separate figure for staff working solely on VAT or corporation tax recovery.
HMRC publishes information on VAT and corporation tax losses in its Annual Report and Accounts, of which the most recent can be found here: HMRC Annual Report and Accounts 2024-25.
HMRC does not hold a separate breakdown of companies dissolved with unpaid VAT or corporation tax.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many companies owing unpaid (a) VAT and (b) corporation tax have been dissolved since July 2024.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Our debt management workforce is deployed flexibly across all taxes to ensure efficient collection of debts owed and are not allocated to specific taxes. It is therefore not possible to provide a separate figure for staff working solely on VAT or corporation tax recovery.
HMRC publishes information on VAT and corporation tax losses in its Annual Report and Accounts, of which the most recent can be found here: HMRC Annual Report and Accounts 2024-25.
HMRC does not hold a separate breakdown of companies dissolved with unpaid VAT or corporation tax.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many full time equivalent HMRC staff are working on unpaid (a) VAT and (b) corporation tax recovery.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Our debt management workforce is deployed flexibly across all taxes to ensure efficient collection of debts owed and are not allocated to specific taxes. It is therefore not possible to provide a separate figure for staff working solely on VAT or corporation tax recovery.
HMRC publishes information on VAT and corporation tax losses in its Annual Report and Accounts, of which the most recent can be found here: HMRC Annual Report and Accounts 2024-25.
HMRC does not hold a separate breakdown of companies dissolved with unpaid VAT or corporation tax.