Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department (1) uses and (2) is taking steps to install rooftop solar panels on its premises.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with HM Treasury)
HM Treasury occupies office accommodation alongside other government departments which is provided and managed by the Government Property Agency (GPA). Responsibility for building operations, estate management and sustainability measures rests with the GPA, an executive agency, sponsored by the Cabinet Office.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of overpayments under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme have been recovered since 2020.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The final estimate of the error and fraud rate across the lifecycle of the three HMRC Covid-19 support schemes; Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) and Eat Out to Help Out is between 3.3 per cent and 7.4 per cent, corresponding to a value between £3.3 billion and £7.3 billion, with a most likely estimate of £5.0 billion.
HMRC’s compliance effort on the COVID-19 schemes has prevented the payment of or recovered the overpayment of over £1.7 billion worth of grants, which is made up of £430 million prevented from being paid out and £1.3 billion recovered from overpayments.
Of the overall £1.3 billion recovered from overpayments, up to the end of March 2026 £928.94 million relates to CJRS recoveries.
Additional details on the methodology and approach to error and fraud within the schemes has been published previously and can be found here:
Error and fraud in the COVID-19 schemes: methodology and approach (an update for 2023) - GOV.UK
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department monitors the amount of food waste generated by its offices each month.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with HM Treasury)
Since October 2021, the management of HM Treasury's buildings has been the responsibility of the Government Property Agency (GPA). As a result, HM Treasury does not monitor the amount of food waste generated by its offices on a monthly basis, though does receive waste management information from the GPA each quarter quarterly basis.
Information on waste arising from HM Treasury's operations is published annually in the Department's Sustainability Report within the Annual Report and Accounts.
Annual Report and Accounts of HM Treasury 2025
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many and what proportion of civil servants in his Department were on permanent home working contracts in 2025.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with HM Treasury)
As an office-based organisation, HM Treasury do not offer homeworking contracts and therefore there were no Civil Servants working at HM Treasury on permanent home working contracts in 2025.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much his Department spent on activities relating to Pride Month 2026.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with HM Treasury)
HM Treasury had no expenditure on activities relating to Pride Month 2026.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many banks have closed in (a) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire in last five years.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government does not hold official data on the number of bank branch closures in individual constituencies or counties. Decisions on opening and closing bank branches are commercial decisions for individual firms. However, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) guidance expects firms to carefully consider the impact of planned branch closures on their customers' everyday banking and cash access needs and put in place alternatives where reasonable.
This seeks to ensure that branch closures are implemented in a way that treats customers fairly. Where firms fall short of expectations, the FCA may ask for closures to be paused or other options to be put in place.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many agency staff were employed by her Department in each of the last five years.
Answered by Rachel Blake
Please see the table below for the number of agency staff at HM Treasury over the past five financial years. These figures represent year-end headcount, defined as the number of agency workers in post during March of each financial year.
Financial Year | Count of Agency Staff |
2025-26 | 15 |
2024-25 | 11 |
2023-24 | 11 |
2022-23 | 4 |
2021-22 | 7 |
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, other than special advisers if her Department has appointed anyone from outside the civil service since July 2024.
Answered by Rachel Blake
Candidates that have been successfully appointed to a public appointment (whether regulated or unregulated) are announced on the Public Appointments Service announcements page and HM Treasury News and Communications Page. Candidates that have been successfully appointed to a direct ministerial appointment are announced on the Direct Ministerial Appointments Announcement portal and HM Treasury News and Communications Page.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her department uses numerical reasoning tests as part the recruitment process for its graduate recruitment scheme.
Answered by Rachel Blake
HM Treasury’s graduate entry programme was paused for the 2025–26 cycle so that the department could undertake a procurement exercise for a new provider to run a replacement programme for September 2027 entry. The numerical reasoning test was removed from the previous graduate process in 2020, in line with similar changes made to most Fast Stream recruitment. Decisions on the new assessment process, including whether numerical reasoning tests will be used, have not yet been taken
The department is committed to recruiting the brightest and best talent through a rigorous, merit-based process.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many political appointees have been made by her department since July 2024.
Answered by Rachel Blake
We have taken ‘political appointees’ to mean special advisers. A list of special advisers by department is published each year in the Annual Report on Special Advisers which is laid in parliament. The Annual Report on Special Advisers 2026 will be published in due course.