Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when HMRC plans to respond to the email of 9 December 2024 from the office of the hon. Member for Brentford and Isleworth.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
A response to the member for Brentford and Isleworth regarding their correspondence of 9 December 2024 is being prepared and will be provided by 24 January 2025. I apologise for the delay in responding to the Honourable Member.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate she has made of the number of credit unions operating in (a) London and (b) England.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government has made clear its strong support for the credit union sector, recognising the value that credit unions bring to their members in local communities across the country in providing savings products and affordable credit.
The Chancellor announced new measures to support the growth of the credit union and mutuals sector in her Mansion House speech on 14 November. This included publishing a call for evidence on the potential to reform common bonds for credit unions in Great Britain, asking the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) to produce a report on the mutuals landscape by the end of 2025, and welcoming the establishment of an industry-led Mutual and Co-operative Business Council. Together, these actions reinforce the Government’s commitment to support the credit union and mutuals sector, and help it grow to drive innovation and economic growth across the country.
The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) publishes quarterly statistics relating to credit unions in the United Kingdom. According to this latest data, there are currently 140 credit unions operating in England. Whilst HM Treasury does not hold data on the number of credit unions operating in London, all registered mutuals are listed publicly on the Mutuals Public Register, which is managed by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to increase the number of credit unions operating in England.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government has made clear its strong support for the credit union sector, recognising the value that credit unions bring to their members in local communities across the country in providing savings products and affordable credit.
The Chancellor announced new measures to support the growth of the credit union and mutuals sector in her Mansion House speech on 14 November. This included publishing a call for evidence on the potential to reform common bonds for credit unions in Great Britain, asking the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) to produce a report on the mutuals landscape by the end of 2025, and welcoming the establishment of an industry-led Mutual and Co-operative Business Council. Together, these actions reinforce the Government’s commitment to support the credit union and mutuals sector, and help it grow to drive innovation and economic growth across the country.
The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) publishes quarterly statistics relating to credit unions in the United Kingdom. According to this latest data, there are currently 140 credit unions operating in England. Whilst HM Treasury does not hold data on the number of credit unions operating in London, all registered mutuals are listed publicly on the Mutuals Public Register, which is managed by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of HMRC's processing of refund requests for taxpayers.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC aims to process all refunds and repayments within a reasonable timeframe. The processing of these is recorded as part of HMRC’s post turnaround measure. HMRC’s service standard for post turnaround is 80% of customer correspondence cleared within 15 working days of receipt. HMRC’s performance has been 77% from April to August 2024.
Post performance is published monthly and can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-monthly-performance-reports#reporting-year-2024-to-2025.
To improve their services and meet published standards HMRC have recently deployed additional customer service advisers. They expect to meet their post service standards in the second half of 2024-25 as the new advisers are trained and up to speed.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Answer of 16 May 2023 to question 183900 on Sanitary Products: VAT, what steps he has taken to review whether the zero-rating for VAT on period products is being passed on by retailers to women in the last 12 months.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
The government monitors publicly available data to assess the extent to which reliefs are passed through after their introduction, and is keen to ensure that the savings achieved through tax reliefs reach the intended recipients. We have engaged with stakeholders over the last 12 months to ensure they commit to passing on the savings realised from the zero-rating of period products, including following the expansion of the relief to period underwear in January 2024.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 16 May 2023 to Question 183901 on Sanitary Protection: VAT, what steps his Department is taking to ascertain whether the savings of zero-rating VAT on period products are being passed on from retailers to consumers.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
As per my answer to Question 183901, the Government is looking into whether this important zero-rating is being passed on by retailers to women as intended. The Government keeps all taxes and reliefs under continuous review, considering a range of evidence, including data and research on factors like pricing, when assessing the effects of changes to the tax system. While the Government does not control prices, a VAT relief is able to contribute to the conditions for price reductions, and the Government continues to monitor the effects of this relief to aid the policymaking process. HMT and HMRC work closely together to integrate the findings of their monitoring and evaluation processes into future tax relief policy.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of trends in the number of investment products advertised online by companies not authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority to sell financial products in the UK; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
The Government is taking action to further protect consumers from potentially harmful financial promotions, through the introduction of a financial promotions gateway. This regulatory gateway, which was legislated for in the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023, aims to improve the quality of financial promotions that are made by unauthorised firms, by allowing only those authorised firms that the FCA assesses as suitable and with sufficient expertise to approve the promotions of unauthorised firms. It will also give the FCA greater oversight of the approval of financial promotions and reduce the number of authorised firms that are able to undertake such approvals.
In addition, the FCA has worked with large online platforms to ensure that paid-for advertising for UK financial services hosted on these platforms has been approved by an FCA-authorised firm. This has had the effect of significantly reducing the opportunity for fraudsters to advertise their scams online as legitimate financial products.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of changes in the levels of mortgage interest rates on (a) leaseholders and (b) people in shared ownership accommodation; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
The pricing and availability of mortgages is a commercial decision for lenders in which the Government does not intervene.
However, we recognise this will be a concerning time for all households with a mortgage, including those with leasehold properties and in shared ownership accommodation. If mortgage holders do fall into financial difficulty, Financial Conduct Authority guidance requires firms to offer tailored support. This could include a range of measures depending on individual circumstances.
The Government have also taken a number of measures aimed at helping people to avoid repossession, including Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) loans for those in receipt of an income-related benefit, and protection in the courts through the Pre-Action Protocol, which makes it clear that repossession must always be the last resort for lenders.
The Government also recognises the challenges facing households due to elevated costs of living, so has taken action at Spring Budget 2023 to go further to protect struggling families. Taken together, support to households to help with higher bills is worth £94 billion, or £3,300 per household on average, across 2022-23 and 2023-24 – one of the largest in Europe. The government’s successful economic strategy will provide further help. The Bank of England forecast that inflation will fall to 5.1% by the end of 2023, before falling close to target by the end of 2024.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 16 May 2023 to Question 183901 on Sanitary Protection: VAT, what steps he is taking to assess the potential impact of the removal of VAT on period products; and what his estimated timescale is for the completion of this review.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Government keeps all taxes under continuous review and considers a range of evidence, including data and research on factors like pricing, when assessing the effects of changes to the tax system as part of this review process.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an impact assessment of the effect that the removal of VAT on period products has had on the cost of those products.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
While the Government does not control prices, a VAT relief is able to contribute to the conditions for price reductions. Women’s period products, including tampons and pads and reusable menstrual products, were previously subject to VAT at a 5 per cent rate. The Government kept its promise to remove the VAT and zero rated these products with effect from January 2021.
This was to ensure that every woman that needs period protection during their monthly cycle has access to a variety of zero-rated products, potentially benefiting an estimated 18 million women. The Government is looking into whether this important zero-rating is being passed on by retailers to women as intended.