Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 2.43 of the Spring Statement 2025 and pursuant to the answer of 22 October 2025 to Question 81329 on Civil Service: Redundancy, how much of the £150 million government employee exit scheme fund remains unspent for which the latest data is available.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The £150m government employee exit funding was allocated at Spending Review 2025 across 2025/26 and 2026/27. Information on how much departments have spent will be published in departmental Annual Reports & Accounts.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 21 October 2025 to Question 81881 on Coinage: Design, whether the (a) Royal Mint Advisory Committee, (b) Sub-Committee on the Selection of Themes and (c) her Department have issued guidance on reflecting diversity in coinage (i) themes and (ii) designs.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Royal Mint Advisory Committee advises the Chancellor of the Exchequer (in her capacity as Master of the Mint) and His Majesty the King on the themes and designs of new coins. Committee members are appointed for their distinguished expertise in areas including design, art, history and heritage, and apply their professional judgement when considering coin themes and designs.
Recommendations to the Master of the Mint and His Majesty the King on coin themes and designs are made collectively by the Committee and Sub-Committee, drawing on the professional judgement and expertise of their members. There is no formal policy on diversity considerations as part of this process.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to her Department's document entitled Financial relationship between HM Treasury and the Bank of England: Memorandum of Understanding, published in February 2025 and pursuant to the Answer of 14 July 2025 to Question 65148 on Bank Notes, if she will make it her policy to amend the Memorandum of Understanding to require (a) the use of historical British figures on banknotes and (b) the representation of her Department on the Banknote Imagery Advisory Group.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Bank of England is responsible for all aspects of the design, production, and issuance of banknotes, including the selection of characters, design features, and security measures. The Bank of England is required to seek HM Treasury approval only for the introduction of new denominations, as set out in section 1(1) of the Currency and Bank Notes Act 1954 and Section 9C of the Memorandum of Understanding on the financial relationship between HM Treasury and the Bank of England.
The Memorandum of Understanding is reviewed every five years and was last updated in February 2025. The current version can be found here:
Financial relationship between HM Treasury and the Bank of England Memorandum of Understanding
The Bank of England may keep HM Treasury informed of developments on a non-statutory, informal basis, but there is no requirement for consultation with HM Treasury on matters of design or character selection. As a consequence, HM Treasury is not represented on the Bank of England’s Banknote Character Advisory Committee.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Answer of 8 July 2025 to Question HL8787 on Taxation: Electronic Government, for what reason the functionality of HMRC IT systems does not allow taxpayers to submit their Making Tax Digital reporting requirements for income tax through their online (a) personal and (b) business tax accounts.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax requires users to use software to keep digital tax records, submit quarterly updates of income and expenditure and submit a tax return. HMRC’s Personal and Business Tax Accounts are not able to provide this level of functionality and ensuring that the software is digitally linked directly to a taxpayer account helps users avoid the errors that could occur when transposing figures manually.
The government is encouraging a thriving third-party software market to support the diverse range of business that will be using MTD. This will deliver flexible and tailored ways for users to manage their tax affairs, including integration with other business software and management tools as well as free and low-cost options.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 16 June 2025 to Question 59028 on Public Expenditure, what the monetary value is of the indicative (a) capital and (b) resource departmental expenditure limit settlement budgeted for Parliament over each year of the Spending Review; and whether this includes budgeted funding for the restoration and renewal programme.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Figures on the resource and capital outturns, estimates and forecasts for Parliamentary Bodies over the Spending Review period - including for the Restoration and Renewal of Parliament - are provided in the table below. The figures in future years can change. The budgets for Parliamentary Bodies are set by Parliament.
| Outturn 2023-24 (£m)* | Outturn 2024-25 (£m)* | Plans 2025-26 (£m)** | Plans 2026-27 (£m) | Plans 2027-28 (£m) | Plans 2028-29 (£m) | Plans 2029-30 (£m) |
Resource | 567.7 | 602.8 | 634.6 | 643.7 | 651.6 | 657.3 | - |
Capital | 167.1 | 187.1 | 233.7 | 257.0 | 267.2 | 278.0 | 291.3 |
*Excludes non-cash ringfence
**Main Estimate, excludes non-cash ringfence
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 8 September 2025 to Question 73352 on Government: Cryptoassets, in which accounting funds cryptocurrency assets are assigned; and whether external companies are used to hold the crypto assets.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
HMT and central government do not hold any cryptoassets.
The seizure, recovery and management of cryptoassets, under the Proceeds of Crime Act, is for independent law enforcement and the courts to consider.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when severance payments to (a) Simon Case and (b) Alex Chisholm were approved by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
HM Treasury applies rigorous scrutiny when approving special severance payments.
(a) Simon Case’s severance payment was approved by the Chief Secretary in March 2025.
(b) Alex Chisholm’s severance payment was approved by HM Treasury officials in accordance with published guidance.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, which organisation administers the defined contribution staff pension scheme for the National Wealth Fund; and what information her Department holds on the proportion of the funds are invested outside the UK.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The National Wealth Fund selected a pension provider adhering to Cabinet Office guidance. As an operationally independent body, the National Wealth Fund administers its pension scheme in accordance with its framework document and public sector pay guidance.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many times the Growth Mission Board has met; and on what dates she attended.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Chancellor of the Exchequer is the Chair of the Growth Mission Board and has attended, and chaired, all meetings of the Board. Beyond this, it is a long-established precedent that information about the discussions that have taken place in Cabinet and its committees - including mission boards - including their attendance, and how often they have met, is not normally shared publicly.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to her Department's Guidance on Public Sector Exit Payments: Use of Special Severance Payments, updated on 28 July 2025, for what reason the guidance no longer requires all special severance payments to be approved by her Department.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Departments are fully accountable for ensuring that exit payments are appropriate and proportionate. HMT scrutiny will now focus on the largest and most contentious payments.
This change supports greater departmental autonomy while maintaining strong standards of financial control.