Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department has set a target for the impact of the Office for Value for Money on Government expenditure in each of the next three financial years.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Office for Value for Money has two primary roles. First, to provide targeted interventions, working with Treasury and departments, so that value for money governs every decision government makes. Second, to recommend system reforms to ensure any changes support the government’s missions and deliver value for money.
The Office for Value for Money will be a time-limited team. Following the conclusion of the Spending Review, the Office will evaluate the effectiveness of systems reforms, and its impact on the wider spending architecture.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate her Department has made of the potential impact of the Office for Value for Money on Government expenditure in each of the next three financial years.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Office for Value for Money has two primary roles. First, to provide targeted interventions, working with Treasury and departments, so that value for money governs every decision government makes. Second, to recommend system reforms to ensure any changes support the government’s missions and deliver value for money.
The Office for Value for Money will be a time-limited team. Following the conclusion of the Spending Review, the Office will evaluate the effectiveness of systems reforms, and its impact on the wider spending architecture.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many staff in the Office for Value for Money have a salary over £100,000.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Office for Value for Money has one member of staff with a salary of over £100,000. This is within the pay range for Senior Civil Service Directors across government.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to support (a) pubs and (b) breweries in (i) Richmond Park constituency and (ii) the United Kingdom.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Pubs make an enormous contribution to our economy and society, and this is recognised in the tax system.
At the Autumn Budget, the Chancellor cut alcohol duty on qualifying draught products – approximately 60% of the alcoholic drinks sold in pubs. This represents an overall reduction in duty bills of over £85m a year and is equivalent to a 1p duty reduction on a typical pint. This reduction increased the relief available on draught products to 13.9%.
The Chancellor also confirmed her intention to introduce permanently lower business rates for high street retail, hospitality, and leisure (RHL) properties, including pubs, from 2026-27, and in the interim extend the current RHL relief for 1-year at 40%, up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing citizens with a breakdown of what proportion of their tax payments are invested into each sector of the economy.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government regularly publishes a breakdown of total public tax receipts and total public sector spending. The most recent of these can be found in Annex B of the Spring Budget 2024 document, which is published on gov.uk here: Spring Budget 2024 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). Citizens can also see how this breakdown applies to their tax contributions via the Annual Tax Summary service which can be accessed here: Annual Tax Summary - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
A more detailed breakdown of current receipts, public sector current expenditure (PSCE) and public sector gross investment (PSGI), is set out in the Economic and Fiscal Outlook (EFO) published by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). The most of recent of these can be found in Tables A5 and A7 in the EFO published in March 2024, alongside the Spring Budget. This can be found on the OBR’s website here: EFOs - Office for Budget Responsibility (obr.uk).
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many staff in his Department work on child benefit.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
HMRC has a dedicated team of trained staff members available to support and assist customers with queries related to Child Benefit. The staffing numbers are regularly reviewed and adjusted based on demand throughout the year. The Department has the capability to train existing colleagues from outside the Child Benefit team as needed to address priority areas.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many (a) basic, (b) higher and (c) additional rate taxpayers there were in Richmond Park constituency in the most recent financial year for which data is available.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
HMRC’s Personal Income Statistics by tax year contain a constituency-level breakdown of taxpayer numbers for the tax year 2021 to 2022. This is the latest outturn data available and can be found in Table 3.15 below:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65de1b17cf7eb10015f58036/Table_3.15_2122.ods
The parliamentary constituency breakdowns published in these statistics are consistent with those used at elections since 2010 and do not contain the new boundaries that will be in place at the next election.
Further breakdowns of this information are not routinely published.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 26 February 2024 to Question 14168 on Taxation, if he will produce a table for the (a) 2021-22 and (b) 2022-23 financial year.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
HMRC’s Personal Income Statistics by tax year now contain a constituency-level breakdown of taxpayer numbers for the tax year 2021 to 2022. This is the latest outturn data available and can be found below:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65de1b17cf7eb10015f58036/Table_3.15_2122.ods
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an estimate of the number and proportion of higher rate taxpayers by parliamentary constituency in the last financial year.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
HMRC’s Personal Income Statistics by tax year contain a constituency-level breakdown of taxpayer numbers for the tax year 2020 to 2021. This is the latest outturn data available and can be found in Table 3.15 below:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6402022ad3bf7f25f5948f90/Table_3.15_2021.ods
The parliamentary constituency breakdowns published in these statistics are consistent with those used at elections since 2010 and do not contain the new boundaries that will be in place at the next election.
Further breakdowns of this information are not routinely published.
For projection years, HM Revenue and Customs does not publish this information at constituency level.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish his latest estimate of the annual cost to the Exchequer of the Rural Fuel Duty Relief scheme.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Shadow Financial Secretary (Treasury)
The Government estimates that Rural Fuel Duty Relief had an Exchequer cost of £5m in 2020/21 (the latest year of estimation).
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/main-tax-expenditures-and-structural-reliefs