Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when any Minister in his Department last held a meeting with representatives of the Women Against State Pension Inequality campaign; and when they next intend to do so.
Answered by Simon Clarke
HM Treasury does not hold records of any recent meetings ministers have held with representatives of the Women Against State Pension Inequality campaign. There are currently no confirmed dates for such a meeting.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to help ensure the National Savings and Investments website is compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines; and what his Department's timetable and plan is for meeting that compliance.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The National Savings & Investments’ (NS&I) website is designed to be used by as many people as possible. NS&I uses the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines to test how accessible its websites and mobile applications are, as well as the Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) approach to decide on a sample of web pages to test.
NS&I website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. NS&I is working hard to address areas that do not meet this standard. NS&I has recently worked with the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to identify the changes required for full compliance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. The changes recommended by EHRC were implemented on 22 May 2022, and further changes are expected to be made in June 2022.
NS&I is currently procuring a new outsourced service delivery partner and it is expected that its website and mobile apps will be fully compliant by 2024 with regular reviews throughout.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of increasing the minimum wage for licensed security workers.
Answered by Simon Clarke
The minimum wage applies to all sectors of the UK economy, including the security industry. Each year, the independent Low Pay Commission (LPC) produces recommendations to the Government on the National Living and Minimum Wage rates. The LPC draws on labour market and pay analysis and stakeholder evidence from business, employee and academic communities when recommending rates.
The Government has accepted the LPC’s recommendations on the main rates and on 1 April 2022, increased the NLW by 6.6% to £9.50 an hour for workers aged 23 and over. This is consistent with the Government’s target for the NLW to reach two-third of median earnings by 2024.
We encourage employers to pay their workers more than the statutory minimum where they can afford to, but recognise the ability to do so will vary across businesses and sectors. It is for the individual employer to set wages, hours, and other such terms of employment.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of removing VAT on (a) fire door sets and (b) work undertaken to fit those doors.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The supply of fire safety equipment, under qualifying circumstances, is already eligible for VAT relief when provided alongside the construction and renovation of residential or charitable buildings.
Although all taxes are kept under constant review, the Government has no plans to expand these reliefs further.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what further steps he plans to take to help support average to low-income households with fuel costs.
Answered by Simon Clarke
The government understands that many households are facing additional pressure on their finances due to higher fuel and energy costs. At Spring Statement, the Chancellor announced significant steps that will help low-income households with the cost of living. These measures ensure work pays and help people keep more of what they earn to provide support through the challenge ahead:
These measures follow the £9.1 billion package announced in February 2022 to help households with rising energy bills this year, the expansion of the Warm Homes Discount to 3 million households and £3bn confirmed supported for households to improve their energy efficiency since 2021.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of removing VAT on reusable period underwear.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
A zero rate of VAT has applied to Women’s Sanitary Products since 1 January 2021 and applies to those products which were previously subject to the reduced rate of 5 per cent.
The relief specifically excludes articles of clothing, including “period pants”. Such exclusions are designed to ensure that the relief is properly targeted, since difficulties in policing the scope of the relief create the potential for litigation, erosion of the tax base, and a reduction in revenue. Under existing rules “period pants” may already qualify for the zero rate if they have been specifically designed to be worn by a child, meet the sizing criteria, and are for sale specifically for use by girls under the age of 14 years old.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to improve the National Savings and Investments website's accessibility for blind users of that website.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
NS&I’s website is designed to be used by as many people as possible, including users with visual impairments. NS&I uses the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines to test how accessible its websites and mobile applications are, as well as the Website Accessibility Conformance Evaluation Methodology (WCAG-EM) approach to decide on a sample of web pages to test
NS&I’s websites and mobile applications are currently partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. NS&I is working hard to address areas that do not meet this standard. NS&I is also making improvements to two-factor authentication on its website. As part of making these changes, NS&I conducted accessibility testing with users, including those with visual impairments, and implemented additional accessibility support measures.
If a customer with a visual impairment requires information on the website in a different format such as large print, audio recording or braille, then they can contact NS&I’s call centre teams for assistance.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of extending the 12.5 per cent hospitality VAT rate to the end of 2022.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The temporary reduced rate of VAT was introduced on 15 July 2020 to support the cash flow and viability of around 150,000 businesses and protect over 2.4 million jobs in the hospitality and tourism sectors. As announced at Spring Budget 2021, the Government extended the 5 per cent temporary reduced rate of VAT for the tourism and hospitality sectors until the end of September 2021. On 1 October 2021, a new reduced rate of 12.5 per cent was introduced for these goods and services to help ease affected businesses back to the standard rate. The sector can continue to benefit from this relief until 31 March 2022.
The Government has been clear that the reduced rate of VAT for tourism and hospitality is a temporary measure designed to support the sectors that have been severely affected by COVID-19. It is appropriate that as restrictions are lifted and demand for goods and services in these sectors increases, the temporary tax reliefs are first reduced, and then removed, in order to rebuild and strengthen the public finances.
This relief has cost over £8 billion and, whilst all taxes are kept under review, there are no plans to extend the 12.5 per cent reduced rate of VAT.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to ensure that NHS doctors will not incur increased tax liabilities due to pension contributions with the result that they would be financially worse off for working longer hours.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government increased in April 2020 the thresholds for the calculation of the tapered annual allowance in pensions tax by £90,000 to support delivery across public services, and in particular the NHS. Raising the tapered annual allowance thresholds means that no-one with a net income before tax below £200,000 is now affected by the tapered annual allowance. It was estimated that this would take up to 96% of GPs and up to 98% of NHS consultants outside the scope of the tapered annual allowance.
This allows savers to continue to make significant amounts of pension savings tax-free, while ensuring incentives to save are targeted across society.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of increasing the lifetime ISA property limit in line with inflation.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Lifetime ISA is intended to support younger people saving for their first home or for later life by offering a generous government bonus of 25% on up to £4,000 of savings each year. These funds, including the government bonus, can be used to purchase a first home up to the value of £450,000.
The Government considers that the £450,000 price cap is suitable to support the majority of first-time buyers across the UK, who typically purchase less expensive properties than other buyers, while ensuring sustainable public finances. The most recent Office for Budget Responsibility forecast stated that bonus payments will have an exchequer cost of £3.7 billion between 2021 and 2027. The price cap ensures that this significant investment of public money is more precisely targeted towards households that may find it more difficult to get onto the property ladder.
First-time buyers who can purchase a home valued over £450,000 are likely to have an income significantly above that of the average household in the UK and are therefore more likely to be able to purchase a first home without the support of this scheme.
However, the Government continues to keep all aspects of savings policy under review.