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Written Question
Mortgages: Refugees
Thursday 22nd June 2023

Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the accessibility of mortgages for Ukrainian refugees with a time limited permission to stay in the UK.

Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The pricing and availability of mortgages is ultimately a commercial decision for lenders in which the Government does not intervene. However, there is a wide variety of mortgage products available in the market for prospective buyers.

Arrivals from Ukraine have full recourse to public services, including schools and the NHS, and local authorities are provided with unringfenced funding to support their arrival and integration into the local community. The Ukraine visa schemes are some of the most generous humanitarian schemes in the world, and the UK has already welcomed over 170k people.


Written Question
Dental Services: VAT
Friday 21st October 2022

Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of removing VAT on dental care products in the context of the rising cost of living.

Answered by Richard Fuller

Under the current VAT rules, dental care products such as toothpaste, toothbrushes, and dental floss, are subject to the standard rate of VAT. However, when specified dental products such as dentures, crowns, and artificial teeth are supplied by a dentist or dental technician, they may be exempt from VAT, meaning no VAT is charged to the final consumer

The Government has no plans to change the VAT treatment of dental care products. However, all taxes are kept under constant review and the Government welcomes representations to help inform future decisions on tax policy, as part of the tax policy making cycle and Budget process.

The Government recognises the pressures that families across the UK are currently facing with the cost of living. The Government’s Energy Price Guarantee will reduce the unit cost of electricity and gas so that a typical household in Great Britain pays, on average, around £2,500 a year on their energy bill, for the next 2 years, from 1 October 2022. The consumer saving will be based on usage, but on average usage a household will save £1,000 a year (based on current prices from October). This comes in addition to the £37 billion cost of living support previously announced, which will provide millions of the most vulnerable households with £800 support through the £150 Council Tax rebate and one-off £650 Cost of Living Payment, with additional support for pensioners and those claiming disability benefits.


Written Question
Hygiene: VAT
Friday 21st October 2022

Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of total annual VAT income is derived from personal hygiene products.

Answered by Richard Fuller

The information is not available. HM Revenue and Customs does not hold information on VAT revenue from specific products or services, including VAT on dental care products or personal hygiene products. This is because businesses are not required to provide figures at a product level within their VAT returns, as this would impose an excessive administrative burden.


Written Question
Dental Services: VAT
Friday 21st October 2022

Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of annual VAT income is derived from dental care products.

Answered by Richard Fuller

The information is not available. HM Revenue and Customs does not hold information on VAT revenue from specific products or services, including VAT on dental care products or personal hygiene products. This is because businesses are not required to provide figures at a product level within their VAT returns, as this would impose an excessive administrative burden.


Written Question
Hygiene: VAT
Friday 21st October 2022

Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of removing VAT on personal hygiene products in the context of the rising cost of living.

Answered by Richard Fuller

A zero rate of VAT has applied to women’s sanitary products since 1 January 2021. This applies to those products which were previously subject to the reduced rate of 5 per cent, for example, tampons and pads, and to reusable menstrual products, such as keepers.

Although there are currently no plans to remove VAT on all personal hygiene products, the Government keeps all taxes under review and welcomes representations to help inform future decisions on tax policy, as part of the tax policy making cycle and Budget process.

The Government recognises the pressures that families across the UK are currently facing with the cost of living. The Government’s Energy Price Guarantee will reduce the unit cost of electricity and gas so that a typical household in Great Britain pays, on average, around £2,500 a year on their energy bill, for the next 2 years, from 1 October 2022. The consumer saving will be based on usage, but on average usage a household will save £1,000 a year (based on current prices from October). This comes in addition to the £37 billion cost of living support previously announced, which will provide millions of the most vulnerable households with £800 support through the £150 Council Tax rebate and one-off £650 Cost of Living Payment, with additional support for pensioners and those claiming disability benefits.


Written Question
High Rise Flats: Taxation
Tuesday 20th April 2021

Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of making leaseholders of high-rise buildings with unsafe cladding who are required to complete a self-assessment tax return exempt from any taxes due as a result of that assessment.

Answered by Jesse Norman

The Government is investing over £5 billion in building safety, which will help protect leaseholders from cladding remediation costs in high-rise residential buildings. On 10 February 2021, the Government announced a 5-point plan for investment in building safety, with £3.5 billion earmarked for the removal of unsafe cladding on high-rise residential buildings, as well as a new finance scheme for cladding removal on buildings between 11 and 18 metres where no leaseholder will ever pay more than £50 a month. In addition, the Government has proposed a new ‘Gateway 2’ industry levy and residential property developer tax to ensure developers contribute to costs. These measures will provide certainty to residents and lenders, boosting the housing market and helping to ensure that developers, investors and building owners who have the means make a fair contribution to costs of remediation, without passing on costs to leaseholders.

No consideration has been made for a self-assessment exemption for leaseholders of high rise buildings with unsafe cladding.


Written Question
Self-employment Income Support Scheme: Maternity Leave
Monday 8th March 2021

Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department has taken to ensure that women who previously took maternity leave are not unfairly treated in their applications to the Self Employed Income Support Scheme.

Answered by Jesse Norman

The Government is aware that some people’s eligibility for SEISS was affected if they had taken time out of their trade while pregnant or to care for their new-born or newly adopted child, and so had not submitted a tax return for 2018-19 or had trading profits in 2018-19 that were less than their other income and were therefore ineligible for the SEISS.

Taking parental leave does not mean that the trade has ceased and should not therefore affect a person’s eligibility for SEISS if they intend to resume trading after the leave is taken.

In June 2020 the Government announced that HMRC would determine the eligibility and grant amount for people in this situation using either their 2018-19 self-assessment return or the average of their 2016-17 to 2018-19 returns. Claimants still had to meet the other standard eligibility criteria for support under the SEISS.

The Government has now announced a fourth and fifth round of SEISS. HMRC now have tax returns covering 2019-20, and will include these returns when calculating eligibility for the SEISS and the grant amount. The arrangements that ensured that people were not made ineligible for previous rounds of the SEISS as a result of parenthood have been replicated for the fourth and fifth rounds.

For those who had a new child in 19/20 which either affected their trading profits or total income or meant that they did not submit a Self-Assessment tax return in 2019/20, they may still be able to make a claim.

If new parents are in this position and are applying for SEISS 4, their eligibility will be determined based on either their 2018-19 self-assessment return or an average of their 2016-17 to 2018-19 returns, to determine both their eligibility and grant calculation. They will also need to meet the other standard eligibility criteria for support under the SEISS.

The amount of the SEISS grant is determined based on the applicant’s average profits from self-employment in the previous four tax years, as reported through their tax returns. By calculating the grant on a four-year average of profits, the SEISS supports individuals who may have had fluctuating profits for any reason and gives the best average of an individual's usual trading profits.


Written Question
Business: Insurance
Tuesday 16th February 2021

Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the insurance industry promptly settles claims for business interruption caused by the covid-19 pandemic.

Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) rules require insurers to handle claims fairly and promptly and settle claims quickly once settlement terms are agreed. The FCA has said that, in light of COVID-19, insurers must consider very carefully the needs of their customers and show flexibility in their treatment of them.

The Government is pleased that a final judgment has been reached by the Supreme Court in the FCA Business Interruption test case and trust that this will provide the legal clarity urgently sought by policyholders. The FCA has set out its expectation that insurers should move quickly to resolve claims as determined by the judgment, making interim payments wherever possible.


Written Question
Economic Growth and Employment
Tuesday 2nd July 2019

Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)

Question to the HM Treasury:

What fiscal steps he is taking to increase (a) jobs and (b) economic growth.

Answered by Robert Jenrick

We have worked hard to build a stronger, fairer economy – dealing with the deficit, helping people into work, and cutting taxes for people, families, and businesses.

The economy has grown continuously for the past nine years, employment is currently at a record high, unemployment is currently at the joint lowest rate since 1975, and real wages are rising.


Written Question
Apprentices: Taxation
Wednesday 30th January 2019

Asked by: Royston Smith (Conservative - Southampton, Itchen)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much the apprenticeship levy has been raised since its introduction.

Answered by Mel Stride - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

Receipts data for the Apprenticeship Levy is published online at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hmrc-tax-and-nics-receipts-for-the-uk

As of December 2018, a total of £4.3bn of levy receipts had been collected.