Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what consideration he has given to increasing the (a) mileage rate and (b) 10,000 mile threshold of the Mileage Allowance Payments available to businesses; and what assessment he has made of the potential benefit to (i) businesses; (ii) employees; and (iii) the self-employed of increasing mileage allowance payments.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Approved Mileage Allowance Payments (AMAPs) are used by employers to reimburse an employee’s expenses for business mileage in their private vehicle.
The government sets the AMAP rates to minimise administrative burdens.
Employees can claim up to 45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles and the 25p per mile for subsequent miles. The mileage thresholds reflect that the AMAP rates are designed to cover both a proportion of fixed costs, such as insurance and VED, as well as ongoing costs such as fuel.
Employers are not required to use the AMAPs rates. Instead, they can agree to reimburse a different amount that better reflects their employees’ circumstances. If an employee is paid less than the AMAP rate, they can claim Mileage Allowance Relief (MAR) on the shortfall. However, where payments exceed the relevant AMAP rate, there may be a tax and National Insurance charge on the difference.
Self-employed people can choose to use the simplified mileage rate, or they can claim tax relief using capital allowances and actual expenses.
As with all taxes, the Government keeps the AMAP rate under review and any changes are considered and announced at fiscal events.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish the key dates by which government departments need to submit future funding requirements as part of the Comprehensive Spending Review process.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
As the Chancellor announced at Spring Statement, if a deal with the EU is agreed in the coming weeks, the 2019 Spending Review will be launched before summer recess and conclude alongside an Autumn Budget. When the Spending Review is launched, we will provide guidance to departments on the key dates for submitting their requirements.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the cost to the to the public purse in (a) gross and (b) net terms of the UK's extended membership of the EU to 31 October 2019; and what estimate he has made of the per diem cost of membership of the EU post 31 October 2019.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
The settlement agreed with the EU represents a comprehensive settlement covering all of the mutual commitments between the EU and the UK. The OBR’s latest estimate is laid as part of the wider OBR Economic and Fiscal Outlook publication. The most recent estimate, £37.8bn, was published in the March 2019 Economic and Fiscal Outlook. This analysis assumes an exit date of 29 March 2019
The European Council has agreed an extension to Article 50 to the end of October. During the extension, the UK will continue to be a member of the European Union. While we remain in the EU we will uphold our commitments on the EU Budget, adjusted for the rebate. Similarly, the EU continues to have legal obligations to us as a member state, including in respect of receipts from the EU budget. We will provide an updated estimate of the value of the financial settlement once the UK has left the EU.
The UK makes two contributions per month to the EU Budget which will vary from month to month. These payments are made on the first working day and the first working day after the 19th of each month. As such, it would not be possible to calculate a daily cost of an extension to Article 50 to the end of October.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what options are available to finance strategic transport infrastructure schemes.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
The Government directly finances strategic transport infrastructure through various funds. This includes Control Period 6 (which will invest almost £48bn in the railway network over the period 2019-2024) and the second Road Investment Strategy (which will invest £25.3bn in the strategic road network over the period 2020 - 2025).
The Chancellor announced at Budget 2018 that PFI and PF2 would no longer be used for new government projects, and the Treasury will not be seeking a like-for-like replacement for these models. The Treasury remains open to private finance for government-funded projects, and is consulting on this as part of the Infrastructure Finance Review, as announced in the Spring Statement.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish the full list of the goods and services subject to the five per cent VAT rate; and how much revenue has been raised to the Exchequer from each of those goods and services in each of the last five years.
Answered by Mel Stride - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The full list of the goods and services subject to the five percent VAT rate are provided in Schedule 7A Part 1 of the Value Added Tax Act 1994. Additionally, the list can also be viewed online in the GOV.UK website: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/rates-of-vat-on-different-goods-and-services.
The information on revenue impacts is not available for all items on this list, because information at this level of detail is not requested on the VAT return.
HMRC publishes estimates, using other data sources, of the cost to the Exchequer of some of the main categories of supplies subject to the reduced rate of 5%, which can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/main-tax-expenditures-and-structural-reliefs and at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/minor-tax-expenditures-and-structural-reliefs .