Asked by: Patricia Ferguson (Labour - Glasgow West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she plans to change the proportion of pensioners' tax-free lump sums that are exempt from tax.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government wishes to encourage pension saving to help ensure that people have funds to draw on throughout retirement. Up to 25 per cent of an individual’s pension can be taken-tax free, subject to a cap of £268,275 for most.
Although the Government keeps all tax rules under review, there are no current plans to make changes to the tax-free lump sum.
Asked by: Patricia Ferguson (Labour - Glasgow West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much funding the Scottish Government will receive through Barnett consequentials as a result of highway maintenance funding being provided to England and Wales.
Answered by Darren Jones - Minister for Intergovernmental Relations
At Phase 1 of the 2025 Spending Review, the UK Government allocated an additional £500 million to the Department for Transport for local highways maintenance in 2025-26. The Barnett formula was applied in the usual way to changes in the Department for Transport’s Delegated Expenditure Limit (DEL) budget.
At Spending Reviews, the Barnett formula is applied to changes to each UK Government department’s overall DEL budget, not to individual programmes.
The Scottish Government is receiving over £47.7 billion in 2025-26 following Phase 1 of the Spending Review 2025. This is the largest in real terms of any settlement since devolution and ensures that the Scottish Government continue to receive at least 20% more per person than equivalent UK Government spending in the rest of the UK.
The Block Grant Transparency publication breaks down all changes in the devolved governments’ block grant funding from the 2015 Spending Review up to and including Main Estimates 2023-24. The most recent report was published in July 2023. An update to Block Grant Transparency to include Autumn Budget 2024 changes will be published in due course:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/block-grant-transparency-july-2023
Asked by: Patricia Ferguson (Labour - Glasgow West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will (a) review and (b) update the Overseas Scale Rates.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
As with all taxes and allowances, the Government keeps flat rates expenses, including Overseas Scale Rates, under review.
Any decisions on future changes in this area will be taken in the context of the wider public finances.
Asked by: Patricia Ferguson (Labour - Glasgow West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what guidance her Department will issue to non-agricultural businesses on the changes to Inheritance Tax announced in the Autumn Budget 2024.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Government published information about the reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief at www.gov.uk/government/publications/agricultural-property-relief-and-business-property-relief-reforms.
As with other tax changes, HM Revenue and Customs will update its guidance in due course in the usual way.