Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 15 October 2025 to Question 77510 on Israeli Settlements: Import Controls, how many companies have been found by HMRC to be in breach of mis-declaring goods from the Occupied Palestinian Territories as Israeli products in each financial year since 2010-11.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The UK Government has a clear position that Israeli settlements in Palestine are illegal under international law. Goods produced in these settlements are not entitled to benefit from preferential tariff treatment under the UK’s current trade agreements with the Palestinian Authority and Government of Israel.
Where there are doubts about the origin of goods that have been declared as being of Israeli origin, HMRC will undertake checks to verify the origin of those goods to ensure fiscal compliance. HMRC does not however provide specific details regarding checks as it may serve to undermine compliance activity.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department plans to send a delegation to the Third Session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on the UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation, which will be held from 10-19 November 2025 in Nairobi.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The UK is committed to working with all stakeholders to ensure inclusive and effective international tax cooperation. The UK will continue to engage actively in negotiations at the UN over a future Framework Convention, including at the next meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee in Nairobi in November.
The UK believes that a UN Tax Framework Convention has the potential to further advance international tax cooperation, but to be successful, it needs to be clear in its aims, avoid duplicating initiatives, and seek to secure the broad support and participation of members.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Autumn Budget 2024, what estimate she has made of how much revenue will be raised by changes to the rules for (a) non-domiciled tax status, (b) capital gains tax and (c) inheritance tax in the 2025-26 financial year.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Estimates of the exchequer impact of measures announced at Autumn Budget 2024 can be found in table 5.1 here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/autumn-budget-2024. This includes the revenue raised in each year of the forecast period.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the projected Official Development Assistance allocations are for the fiscal years 2025 and 2026; and whether these projections indicate a phased approach towards the planned reduction to 0.3% of Gross National Income in 2027.
Answered by Darren Jones - Minister for Intergovernmental Relations
Future ODA allocations will be decided at Phase 2 of the Spending Review and will deliver on the PM’s announcement that ODA will be reduced to the equivalent of 0.3% of GNI by 2027.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions she has had with her international counterparts on the potential merits of a UN Tax Convention.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The UK is committed to working with all stakeholders to ensure inclusive and effective international tax cooperation, and has been actively engaging with developing and developed countries in negotiations at the UN over a future Tax Framework Convention.
The UK believes that a UN Tax Framework Convention has the potential to further advance international tax cooperation, but to be successful, it needs to be clear in its aims, avoid duplicating existing initiatives, and seek to secure the broad support and participation of members.
The UK was disappointed that these principles were not fully reflected in the Terms of Reference agreed by the UN Ad Hoc Committee in August, but will continue to engage constructively in support of key principles for strengthening international tax cooperation.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people worked in HMRC's Wealthy Team in (a) 2022-23 and (b) each year since its founding.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
HMRC’s Wealthy teams were formed in April 2017, a merger of the previous High Net Worth Unit and Affluent teams.
The tax affairs of Wealthy customers can be complex and the staff in HMRC’s Wealthy unit work with teams across HMRC to tackle non- compliance.
The below table provides the correct number of FTE staff within the WMBC Wealthy Unit broken down by tax year:
FTE staff as at:
31 March 2016 to 2017 | 1,007 |
2017 to 2018 | 1,046 |
2018 to 2019 | 996 |
2019 to 2020 | 953 |
2020 to 2021 | 866 |
2021 to 2022 | 887 |
2022 to 2023 | 1,014 |
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people worked in HMRC's High Net Worth Unit in (a) 2022-23 and (b) each year since 2009.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
HMRC’s Wealthy teams were formed in April 2017, a merger of the previous High Net Worth Unit and Affluent teams.
The tax affairs of Wealthy customers can be complex and the staff in HMRC’s Wealthy unit work with teams across HMRC to tackle non- compliance.
The below table provides the correct number of FTE staff within the WMBC Wealthy Unit broken down by tax year:
FTE staff as at:
31 March 2016 to 2017 | 1,007 |
2017 to 2018 | 1,046 |
2018 to 2019 | 996 |
2019 to 2020 | 953 |
2020 to 2021 | 866 |
2021 to 2022 | 887 |
2022 to 2023 | 1,014 |
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people worked on HMRC's High Risk Wealthy Programme in (a) financial year 2022-23 and (b) each financial year since that programme was created.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
HMRC’s High Risk Wealth Programme (HRWP) is just one of a range of approaches used by HMRC to tackle non-compliance.
Alongside staff in HMRC’s Wealthy teams, colleagues across HMRC are involved in HRWP including legal and policy specialists with oversight from a cross-directorate steering group.
Further information about the HRWP can be found on the GOV.UK Website here:
Information about the High-Risk Wealth Programme - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people are employed by the Government to investigate tax evasion of people with assets worth over £10 million.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Government is committed to tackling tax avoidance, evasion, and all other forms of tax non-compliance. HMRC has considerable resources to tackle non-compliance in the tax system, including tax evasion.
Within HMRC’s Customer Compliance Group (CCG), HMRC have dedicated Wealthy Teams with responsibility for tax compliance in this customer segment. As part of their role, they are key to delivering HMRC’s compliance response to evasion.
Alongside the work of the Wealthy teams, the most serious non-compliance in the Wealthy customer segment is dealt with by specialist Offshore Corporate and Wealthy (OCW) colleagues in HMRC’s Fraud Investigation Service.
For data on the full time equivalent (FTE) employees working in HMRC's Wealthy Teams, I refer the hon member to my answer of 30 January 2023 to PQ UIN 131454 : Written questions and answers - Written questions, answers and statements - UK Parliament
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an estimate of the real terms (a) percentage change and (b) change in pounds sterling of child benefit allowance for a (a) first child b) second child since 2010.
Answered by John Glen
The Government has increased Child Benefit rates in line with inflation for four consecutive years and, from April 2023, rates were increased by the September 2022 rate of CPI (10.1%), to support families with the elevated cost of living. The Government took the difficult decision to limit increases to Child Benefit 2011 and 2019 to control welfare expenditure and to help place the public finances on a sustainable footing.
The Government publishes annual data on benefit rate changes. This includes data on the uprating history and real CPI value of Child Benefit, including rates for first children and additional children: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/abstract-of-statistics-for-benefits-national-insurance-contributions-and-indices-of-prices-and-earnings.