Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of not linking his Department's support for health care in public prisons in Wales with inflation on prisoner healthcare provision in Wales.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Healthcare in public sector prisons in Wales is delivered directly by NHS Wales. It is for the Welsh Government to decide how to allocate their resources in devolved areas, including NHS Wales.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing funding to support health care in public sector prisons in Wales.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Healthcare in public sector prisons in Wales is delivered directly by NHS Wales. It is for the Welsh Government to decide how to allocate their resources in devolved areas, including NHS Wales.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much revenue was generated by the Crown Estate in Wales by activity area in (a) 2022 and (b) 2023.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Crown Estate's revenue was £483.3 million for 2021-2022 and £738.7 million for 2022-2023 (as noted on page 116 of the 2022-2023 annual report).
Figures are not available for revenue specifically generated in Wales (or activity areas in Wales), as The Crown Estate runs a single set of accounts at an enterprise level and expenditure is incurred for the benefit of the whole portfolio.
Full annual accounts can be found in the financial statements section of the 2022-2023 annual report, with reference to the Wales review which highlights The Crown Estate’s work in Wales.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made a recent assessment of the adequacy of the granularity of data produced by the ONS for the purposes of policy decisions relating to support for businesses.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government is committed to working closely with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to ensure continued improvements to data and statistics.
In 2016, Sir Charles Bean published an independent review of economic statistics. This made several recommendations, including to make data more granular and timely through greater use of large scale datasets. The government fully supported those recommendations and has since provided the ONS with £25m to implement them, which led to improvements such as use of VAT data in National Accounts estimates, and the publication of monthly GDP.
Subsequently, at Spending Review 2021, the government funded ONS to undertake a further ambitious programme of improvements to its suite of economic statistics. This includes introducing scanner data into price statistics and further upgrades to the granularity of business statistics through greater use of administrative data.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he has taken to support pensioners with changes in their mortgage costs as a result of (a) increases in the cost of living and (b) rises in interest rates.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
We recognise this will be a concerning time for homeowners and mortgage holders. Anyone worried about making their mortgage repayments should speak to their lender as soon as possible.
The pricing of mortgages is a commercial decision for lenders in which the Government does not intervene. Where mortgage holders, including pensioners, do fall into financial difficulty, Financial Conduct Authority guidance requires firms to offer tailored support. This could include a range of measures depending on individual circumstances.
The Government has also taken a number of measures aimed at helping people to avoid repossession, including Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) loans for those in receipt of an income-related benefit, and protection in the courts through the Pre-Action Protocol.
The Government recognises the challenges facing households – including pensioners – due to elevated costs of living, so has taken action so has taken action at Spring Budget 2023 to go further to protect struggling families. Taken together, support to households to help with higher bills is worth £94 billion, or £3,300 per household on average, across 2022-23 and 2023-24 – one of the largest in Europe.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential effect of changes in the costs of the average mortgage on pensioners.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
We recognise this will be a concerning time for homeowners and mortgage holders. Anyone worried about making their mortgage repayments should speak to their lender as soon as possible.
The pricing of mortgages is a commercial decision for lenders in which the Government does not intervene. Where mortgage holders, including pensioners, do fall into financial difficulty, Financial Conduct Authority guidance requires firms to offer tailored support. This could include a range of measures depending on individual circumstances.
The Government has also taken a number of measures aimed at helping people to avoid repossession, including Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) loans for those in receipt of an income-related benefit, and protection in the courts through the Pre-Action Protocol.
The Government recognises the challenges facing households – including pensioners – due to elevated costs of living, so has taken action so has taken action at Spring Budget 2023 to go further to protect struggling families. Taken together, support to households to help with higher bills is worth £94 billion, or £3,300 per household on average, across 2022-23 and 2023-24 – one of the largest in Europe.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the number of mortgage defaults in Wales in each of the next 12 months.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
We recognise this will be a concerning time for homeowners and mortgage holders. Anyone worried about making their mortgage repayments should speak to their lender as soon as possible.
Mortgage arrears and repossessions remain below pre-pandemic levels and three times lower than the levels we inherited in 2010. However, where mortgage borrowers do fall in financial difficulty, Financial Conduct Authority guidance requires firms to offer tailored support. This could include a range of measures depending on individual circumstances.
The Government has also taken a number of measures aimed at helping people to avoid repossession, including Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) loans for those in receipt of an income-related benefit, and protection in the courts through the Pre Action Protocol, which makes it clear that repossession must always be the last resort for lenders.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 11 May 2023 to Question 183926 on Shipping: Fuels, how many marine voyages relief claims were submitted in each of the last 12 months; and how many and what proportion of those claims (a) required additional security checks and (b) were processed within 30 days.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The information requested is provided in the table below:-Claim Type | Month/Yr | Total no of claims processed for payment | Number of claims verified | Percentage of claims verified | No of claims processed within 30 days | Percentage of claims processed within 30 days |
Marine Voyages (HO50) | Apr-22 | 395 | 395 | 100 | 276 | 70% |
| May-22 | 387 | 387 | 100 | 286 | 74% |
| Jun-22 | 246 | 246 | 100 | 39 | 16% |
| Jul-22 | 434 | 434 | 100 | 89 | 21% |
| Aug-22 | 314 | 314 | 100 | 156 | 50% |
| Sep-22 | 495 | 495 | 100 | 332 | 67% |
| Oct-22 | 357 | 357 | 100 | 319 | 89% |
| Nov-22 | 184 | 184 | 100 | 132 | 72% |
| Dec-22 | 139 | 139 | 100 | 19 | 14% |
| Jan-23 | 186 | 186 | 100 | 11 | 6% |
| Feb-23 | 252 | 252 | 100 | 5 | 2% |
| Mar-23 | 198 | 198 | 100 | 1 | 1% |
| Apr-23 | 271 | 271 | 100 | 15 | 6% |
HMRC aims to pay Oils Relief Repayment claims within 30 days of receipt or as soon as possible with interest accrued outside of the 30-day period. In November 2022, an internal restructure was put in place, moving the work to a different business stream to enhance HMRC’s capacity to deal with these claims efficiently. However, the new team inherited a significant backlog of claims and, to deliver the best customer service in these circumstances, worked the oldest claims on hand first. Additional resources have now been deployed and are being trained to action claims, with a view to clearing the remaining backlog and processing all new claims received from 1st June 2023 within agreed timeframes. Customers who are concerned they have not heard from HMRC regarding their claims can contact them via their email address MorcExciseEast@hmrc.gov.uk which is monitored daily. They will receive a response to their queries within 5 working days.
All claims are checked against supporting documentation required. No records have been kept on the number of claims which require further information or security checking.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 11 May 2023 to Question 183926 on Shipping: Fuels, what percentage of Marine Voyages Relief claims which are not selected for additional security checks are processed within 30 days.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
All Marine Voyages Relief claims are reviewed to ensure they are valid. Checks include claims are made within the correct timeframes, have the correct rate of duty claimed and are accurately completed with all information required. Should anything be omitted, claimed incorrectly or is out of time, the customer will be contacted to discuss and amend if appropriate. All claims received from new customers are subject to security checks to ensure that the claim is from a legitimate person/company, and they are credible and eligible to make the claim. We aim to repay all claims within the 30 days service level agreement, discounting days where we are awaiting further information from the customer. There is no specific percentage of claims requiring further checks. All claims are reviewed on a risk basis.
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what is the average time it takes for HMRC to process applications from seafarers for relief from fuel duty for marine voyages.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) aims to process the majority of Marine Voyages Relief claims within 30 days. However, it may take longer if a claim is selected for additional security checks.