Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 11 January 2024 to Question 8220 on Inflation, what specific (a) fiscal and (b) other steps he has taken to help reduce inflation; and what the outcome of each of those steps was.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
There are four key things the government has done to reduce inflation:
The OBR confirms policies in the Autumn Statement reduce inflation next year and do not “have a material impact on the path of inflation” over the scorecard.
Inflation has more than halved, but it remains a challenge. The OBR forecasts inflation to return to the 2% target in the first half of 2025 and helping the Bank of England in its fight to do so remains a key focus.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to his Oral Statement of 22 November 2023 on the Autumn Statement, column 325, what assessment his Department has made of how much each of the steps he is taking has contributed to the reduction in inflation.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is responsible for producing forecasts for the UK economy, including making assessments of the impacts that Government policies have on inflation.
The full EFO can be seen here: Economic and fiscal outlook – November 2023 - Office for Budget Responsibility (obr.uk)
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the difference is between the amount of Government revenue collected from sources in Wales and the amount of funding provided by the Government to the Welsh Government in each of the last five financial years.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
All Government revenue collected from sources in Wales in the five years up to the financial year ending 2022 is set out in the Country and regional public sector finances revenue tables published by the Office for National Statistics[1].
Funding provided by the UK Government to the Welsh Government over the past five years is set out in the Block Grant Transparency publication. This publication is updated regularly and the most recent update was published in July 2023.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made with Cabinet colleagues of the average cost for each household of (a) taxes and (b) other levies that support net zero policies.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The energy price cap is currently set to £1,923 and is made up of different costs, for example the wholesale cost of gas and electricity, costs to supply energy on the network and VAT. This includes environmental and social costs (“green levies”) worth approximately £170 per year for the typical household.
Environmental and social costs play an important role in reducing energy costs by supporting investment in renewables and helping to reduce our exposure to global price volatility – the key driver of high energy bills.
Taxes are important in delivering our environmental policy objectives, with several taxes designed to encourage businesses and consumers to make greener choices, such as Landfill Tax and the Climate Change Levy.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent steps he has taken to close the pension benefits loophole affecting workers with net pay pension schemes who earn between £10,000 and £12,500.
Answered by Simon Clarke
At Autumn Budget 2021, the government announced that it will introduce a system to make top-up payments in respect of contributions made in 2024-25 onwards directly to low-earning individuals saving in a pension scheme using a Net Pay Arrangement. These top-ups will help to better align outcomes with equivalent savers saving into a pension scheme using Relief at Source. An estimated 1.2 million individuals could benefit by an average of £53 a year. The government will set out more detail on the implementation of this policy in due course.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much revenue has been raised in each of the last five years as a result of the pensions annual allowance tax charge from (a) defined contribution and (b) defined benefit scheme members.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
We do not hold the information requested. Annual Allowance (AA) tax charges can be reported via Accounting for Tax (AfT) returns which are completed by the scheme administrator, and via Self-Assessment (SA). Neither AfT nor SA returns require information on the type of pension scheme that the charge relates to. In addition to this, the AA applies to an individual’s pension accrual across all pensions held, which could cover both defined benefit and defined contribution schemes.
However, HMRC publish data on the number and value of AA charges reported to us through AfT and SA, as well as the value of contributions exceeding the allowance. The AfT and SA columns are not mutually exclusive, the same case could appear in both columns. Individuals are required to report AA breaches through SA returns even if their scheme pays the charge and reports the breach through AfT returns. However, in practice individuals may be reported through AfT and not report themselves through SA, or vice versa, in error. The data for the last five available tax years is below:
Tax Year | Number of Annual Allowance charges reported by the scheme through Accounting for Tax returns | Total value of Annual Allowance charges reported by the scheme through the Accounting for Tax returns (£ million) | Number of individuals reporting pension contributions exceeding their Annual Allowance through Self Assessment | Total value of pension contributions exceeding the Annual Allowance reported through Self Assessment (£ million) |
2015 to 2016 | 3,010 | 62 | 5,460 | 143 |
2016 to 2017 | 2,920 | 63 | 18,710 | 584 |
2017 to 2018 | 6,710 | 122 | 29,920 | 912 |
2018 to 2019 | 13,700 | 210 | 34,260 | 819 |
2019 to 2020 | 21,410 | 253 | 42,350 | 949 |
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has had recent discussions with relevant stakeholders on the potential merits of a temporary reduction in fuel duty.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In recognition of high prices at the pump and the fact that fuel represents a major cost for households and businesses, including the haulage sector, the Chancellor announced at the Autumn Budget 2021 that fuel duty would remain frozen for a twelfth consecutive year.
A freeze already represents a cut in real terms, providing savings for consumers worth almost £8 billion over the next five years.
All taxes, including fuel duty, remain under review.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much VAT was collected from domestic (a) electricity and (b) gas bills in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
HMRC does not hold information on VAT revenue from specific products or services because businesses are not required to provide figures at a product level on their VAT returns, as this would impose an excessive administrative burden.
Asked by: Rob Roberts (Independent - Delyn)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with relevant stakeholders on the potential merits of establishing an exemption process for freelance workers who will be subject to forthcoming IR35 legislation.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The changes to the off-payroll working rules come into effect on 6 April 2021. The changes do not introduce a new tax liability. They ensure that the current rules, which have been in place since 2000, are applied correctly and complied with as originally intended.
The rules only apply to individuals who are working like employees under the current employment status tests, and do not apply to the self-employed. It is fair that two individuals working in a similar way pay broadly the same tax and NICs, even if one of them works through their own company.
Establishing exemptions for a certain group of taxpayers, regardless of whether they are working like employees under existing employment status law, would undermine the key principle of the rules that individuals working in a similar way should pay a similar amount of tax.