Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the consultation entitled Technical consultation - Inheritance Tax on pensions: liability, reporting and payment, published on 30 October 2024, if she will make an estimate of how much tax revenue will be raised following the extension of inheritance tax on death-in-service payments for military families in each of the next five years.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The costing for including inheritable pension wealth in the value of the estate for inheritance tax purposes from April 2027 was certified by the OBR at the 2024 Autumn Budget as ‘reasonable and central’. Additional information on the costing methodology can be found in the OBR’s Economic and fiscal outlook – CP 1169.
The specific revenue raised as part of this costing from the extension of inheritance tax to death-in-service payments for military families in each of the next five years is not available as the data does not distinguish whether a taxpayer is or was a member of the Armed Forces.
Estates of service personnel will benefit from the normal nil-rate bands, reliefs, and exemptions available. For example, the nil-rate bands mean an estate can pass on up to £1 million and the general rules mean any transfers, including the payment of death benefits, to a spouse or civil partner are exempt fully from inheritance tax. There is also a full exemption from inheritance tax when a member of the armed forces dies from a wound inflicted, accident occurring, or disease contracted on active service.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate she has made of personal remittances from the United Kingdom in each of the last five years, broken down by region.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Remittances from the United Kingdom to other countries are not taxable, as such HMRC does not hold this data.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether pupils receiving dance and drama award funding will be exempt from increases in VAT in (a) this academic year and (b) subsequent financial years.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Performing arts schools that offer full-time education to children of compulsory school age and/or 16-19 year olds for a charge are in scope of the application of VAT to private school fees. This is to ensure fairness and consistency across all schools that provide education services and vocational training for a charge. It is the government’s position, therefore, that carving these schools out of the policy would be unfair to other private schools.
The Department for Education provides means-tested bursaries for eligible families as part of the Music and Dance Scheme (MDS) if their child has a place at any one of eight MDS performing arts private schools. For this academic year 2024/25, lower income families will receive additional support to ensure the total cost of their parental contributions do not rise from January 2025 as a result of the VAT change. This means that almost half of eligible families will be receiving further support in addition to the bursary already provided.
As part of the MDS, the Department also provides a grant to the Choir Schools Association (CSA) for their Choir Schools Scholarship Scheme. This scheme provides means-tested support to choristers attending CSA member schools. Whether member schools charge VAT from 1 January 2025 on their education fee will vary, depending on whether schools are private or state-funded.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether pupils enrolled on courses covered by the Music and Dance scheme will be exempt from VAT increases in the next financial year.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Performing arts schools that offer full-time education to children of compulsory school age and/or 16-19 year olds for a charge are in scope of the application of VAT to private school fees. This is to ensure fairness and consistency across all schools that provide education services and vocational training for a charge. It is the government’s position, therefore, that carving these schools out of the policy would be unfair to other private schools.
The Department for Education provides means-tested bursaries for eligible families as part of the Music and Dance Scheme (MDS) if their child has a place at any one of eight MDS performing arts private schools. For this academic year 2024/25, lower income families will receive additional support to ensure the total cost of their parental contributions do not rise from January 2025 as a result of the VAT change. This means that almost half of eligible families will be receiving further support in addition to the bursary already provided.
As part of the MDS, the Department also provides a grant to the Choir Schools Association (CSA) for their Choir Schools Scholarship Scheme. This scheme provides means-tested support to choristers attending CSA member schools. Whether member schools charge VAT from 1 January 2025 on their education fee will vary, depending on whether schools are private or state-funded.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether pupils on the choir schools scholarship scheme will be exempt from increases in VAT in (a) this academic year and (b) subsequent financial years.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Performing arts schools that offer full-time education to children of compulsory school age and/or 16-19 year olds for a charge are in scope of the application of VAT to private school fees. This is to ensure fairness and consistency across all schools that provide education services and vocational training for a charge. It is the government’s position, therefore, that carving these schools out of the policy would be unfair to other private schools.
The Department for Education provides means-tested bursaries for eligible families as part of the Music and Dance Scheme (MDS) if their child has a place at any one of eight MDS performing arts private schools. For this academic year 2024/25, lower income families will receive additional support to ensure the total cost of their parental contributions do not rise from January 2025 as a result of the VAT change. This means that almost half of eligible families will be receiving further support in addition to the bursary already provided.
As part of the MDS, the Department also provides a grant to the Choir Schools Association (CSA) for their Choir Schools Scholarship Scheme. This scheme provides means-tested support to choristers attending CSA member schools. Whether member schools charge VAT from 1 January 2025 on their education fee will vary, depending on whether schools are private or state-funded.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 2.41 of the Autumn Budget, published on 24 October 2024, what estimate he has made of the potential cost to the public purse of the increase in the employment allowance in each year of the forecast period.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Government has protected the smallest businesses from the impact of the increase to Employer National Insurance by increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500, which means that 865,000 employers will pay no NICs at all next year, more than half of employers will see no change or will gain overall from this package, and all eligible employers will be able to employ up to four full-time workers on the National Living Wage and pay no employer NICs.
The estimated cost of the increase to the Employment Allowance is set out in the table below:
(£m) | 2025-26 | 2026-27 | 2027-28 | 2028-29 | 2029-30 |
Cost of increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500 | 3,730 | 3,555 | 3,570 | 3,600 | 3,630 |
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the official statistics entitled Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 2024, CP 1131, published on 30 July 2024, if she will publish by Department the data provided in Table 6.5.
Answered by Darren Jones - Minister for Intergovernmental Relations
Underlying data for table 6.5 will become available on 28 November when the Annual OSCAR Transparency Release is published on GOV.UK. As an alternative, economic category data based on departmental budgets (PESA table 2.1) are available from the “Public Spending Statistics (PSS) July 2024: database” webpage:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/public-spending-statistics-release-july-2024
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the cost of employer National Insurance Contributions was for (a) central Government, (b) local government and (c) the whole of government in each of the last five financial years; what estimate she has made of those costs for the (i) 2025-26 financial year and (ii) subsequent four financial years; and what proportion of the total public sector pay bill Employer National Insurance accounted for in each of last five financial years.
Answered by Darren Jones - Minister for Intergovernmental Relations
The Treasury does not collect spending information on this basis. However, as set out in the Autumn Budget, the government has set aside funding to support the public sector with employer National Insurance Contributions. The amounts are £4.7bn in 2025-26, £4.7bn in 2026-27, £4.8bn in 2027-28, £4.9bn in 2028-29 and £5.1bn in 2029-30.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the note entitled Allowance for impact on public sector organisations in Table 5.1 on page 118 of Autumn Budget 2024, published on 30 October 2024, HC 295, if she will publish this information by Department.
Answered by Darren Jones - Minister for Intergovernmental Relations
The Government will provide support for departments and other public sector employers for additional Employer National Insurance Contributions costs only. This funding will be allocated to departments, with the Barnett formula applying in the usual way.
This is in line with the approach taken under the previous Government’s Health and Social Care Levy.
The Government plans to update Parliament on allocations by department in the usual way as soon as possible.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she plans to extend the scheme making church repairs exempt from VAT beyond March 2025.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Chancellor of the Exchequer will soon set out the details of the government’s spending priorities for 25/26 in the usual way at the Spending Review on the 30 October.