Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if her Department permits civil servants employed in the UK to work from overseas on a regular basis.
Answered by Rachel Blake - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
HM Treasury employees may only request temporary overseas working for personal reasons in very limited circumstances. Such requests are considered on a case-by-case basis, fully taking account of operational requirements and risk.
Any approved arrangements are time‑limited, with employees able to work overseas for up to two weeks at a time and no more than four weeks in any rolling 12‑month period, and always subject to prior senior approval.
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 permits (1) Ministers, (2) Special advisers and (3) officials to use (a) Chat GPT, (b) Google Gemini, (c) Claude, (d) Deepseek and (e) Grok as part of their official duties.
Answered by Rachel Blake - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Ministers, special advisers, and officials in HM Treasury have access to HMT-GPT, our internal AI tool which is built on Claude and ChatGPT, and Copilot, which have been assured to the appropriate security standards and approved for official use.
The use of publicly available or consumer versions of generative AI tools, including those named in the Question, for official business is not permitted. Approved enterprise tools are configured so that departmental data is held securely and is not used to train publicly available AI models.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much her Department has spent on advertising on podcasts in each of the last three years.
Answered by Rachel Blake - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The department has spent £0 on advertising on podcasts over the last three years.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent steps she has taken to help support people with the cost of living in South Holland and the Deepings constituency.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to improving living standards for everyone, in every part of the UK. Our strategy for improving living standards is through growing the economy, which is the only way to sustainably increase wages, and through tackling inflation, which erodes people's pay checks
Through action taken at Budget, the Government has eased cost of living pressures for households. From reducing energy bills and freezing rail fares and NHS prescription fees, to increasing the National Living Wage, extending the pensions Triple Lock and removing the two child limit in Universal Credit, the Government has consistently acted to put more money in people's pockets — with further commitments on free breakfast clubs and expanded free school meals ensuring families with children feel the difference too
The government has recently set out further action to continue easing cost of living pressures through a new package of temporary and targeted support. The Chancellor has announced a funded, time-limited Great British Summer Saving package supporting families and businesses with rising costs through a temporary cut in the rate of VAT on summer attractions and children’s meals in restaurants and cafes from 20% to 5% over the summer holidays, and free bus travel across England for children aged between 5 and 15 throughout August. The government has confirmed that there will be no rise to fuel duty this year, with targeted support for those most exposed, including farmers. We have also suspended tariffs on 125 product lines, reducing prices on staple goods, and provided targeted sectoral support including chemicals and ceramics.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the absence of in-person banking services in (a) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire on blind and partially sighted people.
Answered by Rachel Blake - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Banking is changing, with many customers benefitting from the convenience and flexibility of managing their finances remotely. However, the Government recognises that these changes may have resulted in detriment for some customers, particularly those who rely on in person banking services.
The Government recognises the importance of access to in person banking services for blind and partially sighted people, including in South Holland and the Deepings and in Lincolnshire, and across the United Kingdom. We are committed to ensuring that people who need in person banking services, including vulnerable and disabled customers, can continue to access essential services.
The Government is working closely with industry to support the roll out of 350 banking hubs by the end of this Parliament. Over 275 hubs have been announced so far, and more than 235 are already open. Banking hubs provide everyday counter services, including cash withdrawals and deposits, bill payments and balance enquiries, and also offer space for customers to meet community bankers from their own bank to carry out additional banking services.
The Government continues to engage with industry to improve the consistency, accessibility and range of services available in banking hubs so that they meet the needs of people and communities.
In addition, the Government has commissioned an independent Review into Access to Banking Services to assess whether changes in the provision of in person banking services are causing consumer detriment, including to specific groups such as disabled customers. The findings of the Review will inform any further action that may be needed.
Alongside this, the Government intends to include a power in forthcoming financial services legislation to enable it to act to protect access to banking services, should this be necessary.
More widely, the Government published its Financial Inclusion Strategy last year which sets out a range of ambitious measures for government and industry to improve financial inclusion for underserved groups across the UK. This includes a focus on access to banking and accessibility, with interventions to make it easier for individuals to access a bank account and to make financial products more accessible through an inclusive design working group.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to support economic growth in Lincolnshire.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The government’s focus is in making Britain better off. There is excellence right across the country and this government is backing it: lifting living standards and putting more money in people’s pockets.
The Greater Lincolnshire Combined County Authority have been awarded £155m through the Local Transport Grant enabling the local authority to deliver transport improvements including bus lanes, cycleways and congestion improvement.
Autumn Budget 2025 meant GLCCA benefited from coverage under the Local Growth Fund. GLCCA also benefited from a brownfield housing allocation over the SR period of £34m, and will benefit from visitor levy powers.
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 provide a list of training programmes used by civil servants in her department since 2020.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The diverse nature of roles in HM Treasury means training is often provided at team-level rather than being centrally managed. As such, a list of all training courses is not readily available centrally and the information requested cannot be obtained without disproportionate cost.
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 reduce the number of illegal tobacco and vaping products on sale in South Holland and the Deepings constituency.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to reducing the number of illicit tobacco and vaping products on sale nationally.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has a robust strategy to tackle the illicit tobacco trade ‘Stubbing Out the Problem’.
HMRC works closely with National and Local Trading Standards to disrupt the illicit tobacco trade at retail level through Operation CeCe, which has since it began in January 2021removed more than 74 million illicit cigarettes, 19,750kg of hand-rolling tobacco and almost 175kg of shisha products from sale.
HMRC has also introduced a strengthened sanctions regime for breaches of the UK Tobacco Track and Trace System to combat illicit tobacco sales. This granted new powers to Trading Standards, enabling them to refer cases to HMRC where they find evidence of high street retailers selling tobacco products that do not comply with the System. HMRC can then then investigate and issue civil sanctions, including penalties of up to £10,000.
£100 million of new ‘smokefree’ funding has been allocated over 5 years to boost existing HMRC and Border Force enforcement capability.
Between April 2023 and March 2024, HMRC and Border Force seized 1.36bn cigarettes and 92,435kg of hand-rolling tobacco.
As with tobacco, there is a cross-government approach to reducing the number of illegal vapes. The vaping equivalent of Operation CeCe - Operation Joseph led to the seizure of over 1 million illegal vapes in 2023-24, the last full year for which statistics are available.
HMRC are working closely with both Trading Standards and Border Force to develop a robust compliance approach for the introduction of Vaping Products Duty (VPD) on 1 October 2026.
VPD is a new excise duty on vaping products, which will introduce additional compliance powers and controls across the vaping supply chain. This includes the introduction of a Vaping Duty Stamps (VDS) scheme, which will require highly secure stamps to be placed on all duty paid goods, supporting enforcement agencies and customers to identify illegal products.
HMRC are recruiting over 300 staff to strengthen this compliance approach and deliver VPD.
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 has used artificial intelligence to assist with drafting (a) legislation and (b) policy in the past 12 months.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
AI is not used by the department to draft legislation.
Officials use AI tools in combination with a range of evidence, collaboration, challenge and technology to deliver policy drafts. They use their judgement and a variety of data sources to apply a critical lens to their advice and analysis to ensure high quality.
Officials use HMT-GPT, the department’s internal AI tool, and Copilot, which are both secure and quality assured for civil service use. Guidance and training for responsible AI usage is provided to staff, making it clear that tools are designed to assist with work, not to replace colleagues in decision making processes.
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 has paid for followers on social media platforms it uses.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
HM Treasury does not pay for followers on any social media platforms.