Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, which representative bodies she intends to meet to hold preparatory discussions with on proposals to reform the business rates system in the 2026-2027 financial year.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HM Treasury releases a quarterly record of Ministers’ meetings with external individuals and organisations. This can be found online: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmt-ministers-meetings-hospitality-gifts-and-overseas-travel
At the Autumn Budget, the Government published the Transforming Business Rates Discussion Paper, which sets out priority areas for reform. This paper invited stakeholders to help co-design a fairer business rates system that supports investment and is fit for the 21st century.
On 17 February the Government published a ‘forward look’ of the expected timeline for reforms announced at Autumn Budget 2024, and how stakeholders should engage the Government. This will be updated when further information is available.
In the summer, the Government will publish an interim report that sets out a clear direction of travel for the business rates system, with further policy detail to follow at Autumn Budget 2025.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions she had had with stakeholders on proposals to reform the business rates system in the 2026-2027 financial year.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HM Treasury releases a quarterly record of Ministers’ meetings with external individuals and organisations. This can be found online: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmt-ministers-meetings-hospitality-gifts-and-overseas-travel
At the Autumn Budget, the Government published the Transforming Business Rates Discussion Paper, which sets out priority areas for reform. This paper invited stakeholders to help co-design a fairer business rates system that supports investment and is fit for the 21st century.
On 17 February the Government published a ‘forward look’ of the expected timeline for reforms announced at Autumn Budget 2024, and how stakeholders should engage the Government. This will be updated when further information is available.
In the summer, the Government will publish an interim report that sets out a clear direction of travel for the business rates system, with further policy detail to follow at Autumn Budget 2025.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Spring Statement 2025, which Departments will be impacted by the £150 million for Government employee exit schemes.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
As announced at Spring Statement the government has allocated £150 million for government employee exit schemes. Information can be found in the Spring Statement supporting documentation here:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67e3ec2df356a2dc0e39b488/E03274109_HMT_Spring_Statement_Mar_25_Web_Accessible_.pdf. This will be match-funded by a further £150 million from Departments.
Exit schemes will enable delivery of leaner, smarter, more efficient government, whilst delivering savings over the medium term.
Departments will bid for funding from this central pot in order to run exit schemes, and therefore the exact details of which departments will benefit from this and how this will be spent is not yet known.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Spring Statement 2025, whether the abolition of NHS England will be entirely funded by the £150 million included in the transformation fund.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
As announced at Spring Statement the government has allocated £150 million for government employee exit schemes. Information can be found in the Spring Statement supporting documentation here:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67e3ec2df356a2dc0e39b488/E03274109_HMT_Spring_Statement_Mar_25_Web_Accessible_.pdf. This will be match-funded by a further £150 million from Departments.
On 13 March, the Prime Minister announced that NHS England will be brought back into the Department of Health and Social Care to form a new joint centre.
Exit schemes will enable delivery of leaner, smarter, more efficient government, whilst delivering savings over the medium term.
Departments will bid for funding from this central pot in order to run exit schemes, and therefore the exact details of which Departments will benefit from this and how this will be spent is not yet known.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Spring Statement 2025, how many redundancies from NHS England will be paid for from the £150 million included in the transformation fund.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
As announced at Spring Statement the government has allocated £150 million for government employee exit schemes. Information can be found in the Spring Statement supporting documentation here:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67e3ec2df356a2dc0e39b488/E03274109_HMT_Spring_Statement_Mar_25_Web_Accessible_.pdf. This will be match-funded by a further £150 million from Departments.
On 13 March, the Prime Minister announced that NHS England will be brought back into the Department of Health and Social Care to form a new joint centre.
Exit schemes will enable delivery of leaner, smarter, more efficient government, whilst delivering savings over the medium term.
Departments will bid for funding from this central pot in order to run exit schemes, and therefore the exact details of which Departments will benefit from this and how this will be spent is not yet known.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to her Oral Statement of 26 March 2025 on the Spring Statement, Official Report, column 945, what proportion of the £150 million included in the transformation fund will be spent on the abolition of NHS England.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
As announced at Spring Statement the government has allocated £150 million for government employee exit schemes. Information can be found in the Spring Statement supporting documentation here:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67e3ec2df356a2dc0e39b488/E03274109_HMT_Spring_Statement_Mar_25_Web_Accessible_.pdf. This will be match-funded by a further £150 million from Departments.
On 13 March, the Prime Minister announced that NHS England will be brought back into the Department of Health and Social Care to form a new joint centre.
Exit schemes will enable delivery of leaner, smarter, more efficient government, whilst delivering savings over the medium term.
Departments will bid for funding from this central pot in order to run exit schemes, and therefore the exact details of which Departments will benefit from this and how this will be spent is not yet known.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions she has had with HMRC on the potential impact of flexible working arrangements on (a) length of call wait times, (b) stability of phone and WiFi connections, (c) privacy and (d) ease of call escalation for customers.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC supports flexible working. HMRC expects most colleagues to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in the office. They can spend up to 40% of their time working at home if they wish, provided they can do their job effectively from home and this fits with the department’s needs.
Analysis shows that HMRC customer advisers are similarly productive at home and in the office. Advisers answered 15.9 calls on average per day at home, compared to 16.3 in the office (based on data between October 2022 to December 2022).
Staff working from home connect to the HMRC Network via wi-fi (or a wired connection), using a secure and performant VPN Connection. Robust monitoring is in place that provides full visibility of both the connection performance and call quality, for all HMRC devices and calls.
HMRC colleagues are held to the same performance expectations whether they are working in the office or at home, and receive the same induction and mandatory learning around data protection and security.
Escalations/ call transfers can take place between a variety of HMRC teams in multiple locations. The systems used by colleagues working from home have the same functionality as those used when working in the office. Therefore there is no impact on call escalation for customers.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has had discussions with Cabinet colleagues on using funding reallocated from the Overseas Development Assistance budget to fund the Chagos settlement.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
FCDO and the MOD are the lead departments for the Chagos agreement, and must balance any commitments under an agreement against wider priorities in their budgets – and in line with the Managing Public Money framework. OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) guidelines on ODA eligibility will continue to be applied in the usual way to any financial obligations arising from an agreement. The Prime Minister recently announced that the UK will spend 2.5% of GDP on defence by the 2027/28 financial year, funded by a reduction in ODA spending to the equivalent of 0.3% of GNI.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the finding of the Adam Smith Institute millionaire tracker.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to making sure the wealthiest in our society pay their fair share of tax. That is why the Chancellor announced a series of reforms at Autumn Budget 2024 to help fix the public finances in as fair a way as possible, while ensuring the UK tax system remains internationally competitive.
As part of this, the Government is increasing the main rates of Capital Gains Tax (CGT) to 18 and 24 per cent. The Government also confirmed its plans to remove the outdated concept of domicile status from the tax system and to replace it with a new residence-based regime from 6 April 2025. This will ensure that everyone who makes their home in the UK pays their taxes here.
These and other decisions announced at the Budget will help repair the public finances and fund public services such as the NHS and education.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of the revenue (a) raised by changes to employee national insurance contributions and (b) announced for the NHS at Autumn Budget 2024 will be allocated to fund non employee national insurance contribution related NHS activity.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
At Autumn Statement, the Chancellor outlined the Government’s commitment to ensuring the sustainability and productivity of the NHS. As part of this, HM Treasury have allocated £22.6 billion to the NHS to support productivity improvements, upgrade IT systems, enhance working conditions for staff, and address the maintenance backlog.
The Government will provide support for departments and other public sector employers for additional Employer National Insurance Contributions cost, in line with the approach taken under the previous Government’s Health and Social Care Levy. The Government will update Parliament on allocations in due course.