Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that allocated funding is disbursed in a timely way.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
HM Treasury works closely with departments to ensure that allocated funding is distributed in a timely and efficient way.
Departments are given freedom to exercise commercial judgement within appropriate delegated authority arrangements. Project and programme spending outside of departments' Delegated Authority Limits is scrutinised by HM Treasury to ensure it reflects the government's priorities and meets the criteria for the use of public funds: regularity, propriety, value for money and feasibility.
HM Treasury reviews Delegated Authority Limits on an annual basis to ensure scrutiny is focused and proportionate. HM Treasury has taken forward various initiatives to strengthen approval and decision-making processes across government, including updating the Treasury Approval Process in 2022 to support faster and higher quality spending approvals.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions has he had with the Levelling Up Secretary of State on his Department's access to local authority registers to investigate (a) current and (b) historic unpaid revenue.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
In line with the practice of successive administrations, details of internal discussions are not normally disclosed. The Chancellor and his officials are in regular contact with the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and his officials on matters pertaining to local government finance.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of good quality childcare on levels of economic productivity.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Investing in high quality childcare can support economic growth and productivity, through its impact on parental participation in the labour market and children’s future success in education and in the labour market.
At Spring Budget 2023, the government announced that it will expand the free childcare hours offer so that eligible working parents in England will be able to access 30 hours of free childcare per week for 38 weeks of the year. HM Treasury does not prepare formal forecasts for the UK economy, including assessments of the impact of the Budget, which are the responsibility of the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). As a result of this policy, the OBR estimated around 60,000 to enter employment by 2027-28, as well as increase the hours worked by mothers already in work. The OBR judged this policy to have the largest impact on potential output in this Budget. Further details can be found in the OBR’s latest Economic and Fiscal Outlook published in March 2023: https://obr.uk/efo/economic-and-fiscal-outlook-march-2023/
The government also announced a substantial uplift to the hourly rate paid to providers to deliver the existing free hours offers, providing £204 million in 2023-24, paid from September 2023, and £288 million in 2024-25. This will help providers manage cost pressures, develop the necessary capacity to deliver the new free hours offers, and raise the quality of provision. According to the IFS, attending high quality early years settings has a positive impact on children’s future success in education and in the labour market, with higher lifetime earnings.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many Universal Credit claimants have paid voluntary national insurance contributions to cover their time claiming Universal Credit because those credits are not automatically transferred to the electronic National Insurance Recording System in the last year.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
HMRC does not hold information about the number of customers who have paid voluntary national insurance contributions (NICs) due to their National Insurance record not being updated with the credits they were due while claiming Universal Credit. If customers have paid voluntary NICs unnecessarily, they can be refunded once their record has been updated with their periods of Universal Credit. HMRC is aiming to have all customer NI records for years up to April 2023 updated by the end of the 2023-24 tax year.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the Valuation Office Agency's requirements for signage in designating places of worship.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Schedule 5 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 sets out what conditions must be met for a religious building to be exempt from business rates. The main requirements are that the building should be a place of public religious worship which either belongs to the Church of England, the Church in Wales, or is certified as a place of religious worship by the General Register Office. It must also be used for the conduct of public religious worship.
The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) recognises that not all places of public religious worship will be in buildings that have traditionally been considered places of worship, such as purpose-built churches, temples, or chapels. The assessment of whether a property is used for the conduct of public religious worship is considered on a case-by-case basis, according to the facts. This includes consideration of any signage that is in place inviting public worship.
Should a ratepayer be unhappy with the VOA’s assessment of their property, they can formally challenge the decision through the Check, Challenge, Appeal (CCA) process.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps he is taking with the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to increase the number of social houses built, in addition to the Affordable Homes Programme.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The government is committed to delivering social and affordable housing and is investing £11.5 billion in the Affordable Homes Programme from 2021 to 2026. This is the largest investment in affordable housing in a decade and includes investment in supported housing, social and affordable rent and shared ownership. In addition to support local authorities to deliver council housing, in March 2021 the government announced a package of reforms to give councils more freedom in how they can spend the money they receive from Right to Buy sales on replacement homes; and at Spring Budget 2023 we announced a discounted Public Works Loan Board borrowing rate for Housing Revenue Accounts.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps he is taking to support the building of more affordable housing.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The government is committed to delivering social and affordable housing and is investing £11.5 billion in the Affordable Homes Programme from 2021 to 2026. This is the largest investment in affordable housing in a decade and includes investment in supported housing, social and affordable rent and shared ownership. In addition to support local authorities to deliver council housing, in March 2021 the government announced a package of reforms to give councils more freedom in how they can spend the money they receive from Right to Buy sales on replacement homes; and at Spring Budget 2023 we announced a discounted Public Works Loan Board borrowing rate for Housing Revenue Accounts.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the Valuation Office Agency's process for assessing non-traditional buildings which are places of worship.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Schedule 5 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 sets out what conditions must be met for a religious building to be exempt from business rates. The main requirements are that the building should be a place of public religious worship which either belongs to the Church of England, the Church in Wales, or is certified as a place of religious worship by the General Register Office. It must also be used for the conduct of public religious worship.
The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) recognises that not all places of public religious worship will be in buildings that have traditionally been considered places of worship, such as purpose-built churches, temples, or chapels. The assessment of whether a property is used for the conduct of public religious worship is considered on a case-by-case basis, according to the facts. This includes consideration of any signage that is in place inviting public worship.
Should a ratepayer be unhappy with the VOA’s assessment of their property, they can formally challenge the decision through the Check, Challenge, Appeal (CCA) process.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential benefits of direct government investment in (a) multi-purpose development sites and (b) businesses.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Treasury has not made a general assessment on the potential benefits of direct government investment in “multi-purpose development sites” but is committed to spreading opportunity and making the UK the best place in a world to start and grow a business.
Alongside providing generous tax incentives for investment and pushing forward with regulatory reform to support the UK’s high growth sectors, Spring Budget announced targeted measures to drive sustainable growth everywhere across the UK.
This includes measures to deliver change for all parts of the UK through the creation of investment zones to attract new private sector investment, support high-quality regeneration with the rollout of new Levelling Up Partnerships and further devolution to empower local leadership and decision-making.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he had discussions with relevant stakeholders on the long-term health risks and the effects of prices on alcohol use in advance of the Spring Budget 2023.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Chancellor regularly engages with stakeholders on a range of issues.
As part of the Alcohol Duty Review, my officials and I have had meetings with relevant stakeholders, including public health representatives, to understand the implications of the new alcohol duty system for their sector.