Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how the policy to write off 90% of local authority SEND debs will be funded.

Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

This funding relates to money that has already been spent by local authorities. The effect of the decision referred to is to transfer the accounting for that historic spending from local to central government. Any impact will be reflected in the OBR’s upcoming forecast.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether any of the spending included by the government in its calculation of spending 2.6% of GDP on NATO qualifying defence spending by 2027 includes financial transactions.

Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

The Ministry of Defence's financial transactions support the retention of critical sovereign manufacturing capabilities and support our strategic objectives. As an integral part of the UK's national security they are included in the NATO qualifying defence spending figures.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how the cost of the additional business rates support for pubs will be funded.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

From April, every pub and live music venue will get 15% off its new business rates bill on top of the support announced at Budget, ahead of their bills being frozen in real terms for a further two years. The cost of this support will not impact other sectors’ bills.

Final costings will be confirmed at a fiscal event in the usual way.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the difference is between the 250,000 retail, hospitality and leisure businesses benefitting from business rates relief, as cited in answer to question UIN 904249, and the 750,000 businesses benefitting from the lower multiplier, as cited in answer to question UIN 111573.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

More properties will benefit from the new retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) multipliers because there is no cash cap, meaning all qualifying properties in an RHL chain will benefit.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much funding is allocated to the National Wealth Fund for each financial year from 2024-25 onward, broken down by capital spending allocations and financial transactions.

Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury

The National Wealth Fund (NWF) is capitalised with £27.8bn to make investments in support of the growth and clean energy missions. £10 billion of its capital is allocated for guarantees, £4 billion for local authority lending, and the rest is split between debt and equity.

HM Treasury has not made specific allocations of this capital to each financial year. The NWF has the target of committing all its capital by 2029/30.

Excise

Found: This led the Conservative opposition shadow chancellor, Mel Stride, to accuse the OBR of giving the