Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 8 of the forty-ninth report of the Committee of Public Accounts entitled Managing tax compliance following the pandemic, published on 3 May 2023, HC 739, what recent steps he has taken to increase productivity among HMRC staff.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government is considering the Committee’s recommendations and will respond in a Treasury Minute in due course.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to conclusion 5 of the forty-ninth report of the Committee of Public Accounts entitled Managing tax compliance following the pandemic, published on 3 May 2023, HC 739, what recent steps he has taken to estimate the level of errors that HMRC makes when measuring its compliance yield.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government is considering the Committee’s recommendations and will respond in a Treasury Minute in due course.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Forty-ninth report of the Committee of Public Accounts entitled Managing tax compliance following the pandemic, published on 3 May 2023, HC 739, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of HMRC's resources for preventing the growth of the tax gap.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government is considering the Committee’s recommendations and will respond in a Treasury Minute in due course.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what tools his Department uses to assess the impact of the increase in the Bank of England base rate on mortgage holders.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
HM Treasury is regularly in contact with mortgage lenders on all aspects of their mortgage business to understand their position and current lending conditions, including at a roundtable hosted by the Chancellor on Friday 23 June.
However, we recognise this will be a concerning time for all mortgage holders, particularly those who are due to come to the end of their existing deal in the immediate future. The Prime Minister has been clear, the best and most important way that we can keep costs and interest rates down for people is to halve inflation, and then return it to the 2% target.
At the roundtable on Friday 23 June, the Chancellor met with mortgage lenders, UK Finance and the FCA to discuss a new package of support for those who encounter problems keeping up with their mortgage payments. These commitments include an agreement permitting customers to switch to an interest only mortgage, or extend their mortgage term, for 6 months, after which they can switch back without a new affordability check or it affecting their credit score. Lenders also agreed borrowers won’t have their home repossessed within 12 months from a first missed payment without their consent or unless in exceptional circumstances.
This is in addition to the measures the Government has already taken aimed at helping people to avoid repossession, including Support for Mortgage Interest (SMI) loans, and protection in the courts through the Pre-Action Protocol.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the answer of 2 May 2023 to Question 182866 on Home Care Services: Minimum Wage, whether his Department will introduce an action plan on enforcement of the National Minimum Wage including travel time for the home care workforce.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
HM Revenue and Customs enforces the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Living Wage (NLW) in line with the law and policy set out by the Department for Business and Trade. This involves a wide-ranging programme of education and risk led enforcement activity across the whole of UK labour market including social care.
All businesses, irrespective of their size or business sector, are responsible for paying the correct NMW to their staff.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department will include natural gas and nuclear in the green taxonomy.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government has set out plans to deliver a UK Green Taxonomy – a tool to provide investors with definitional certainty about the green economic activities they are invested in. This will help address risks of greenwashing and support greater investment into key sectors. We will consult on this in Autumn 2023.
Nuclear energy has an important role in achieving net zero by 2050 as a crucial source of reliable low carbon energy. The Government has stated its intention to include nuclear in the UK Green Taxonomy, subject to consultation, incentivising private investment in this important technology alongside renewables.
We have not yet set out further details of what will or will not be included in the Taxonomy.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether fossil gas power plants will be designated as green in the green taxonomy.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government has set out plans to deliver a UK Green Taxonomy – a tool to provide investors with definitional certainty about the green economic activities they are invested in. This will help address risks of greenwashing and support greater investment into key sectors. We will consult on this in Autumn 2023.
We have not yet set out further details of what will or will not be included in the Taxonomy.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the proportion of invoices his Department paid to small and medium-sized enterprises within five days in (a) the 2021-2022 financial year and (b) each of the last 12 months.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
All government departments publish payment performance quarterly showing the percentage of invoices paid in 5 days, the percentage of invoices paid in 30 days, and net debt interest liability.
This is available on GOV.UK. HM Treasury Group’s published data is available at: HM Treasury Group Payment Performance Publication_Data.xlsx
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the LSE report entitled Releasing the mortgage prisoners: Proposed solutions and illustrative costings, published 1 March 2023, what assessment he has made of the implications for his Department's policies of that report's findings.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government understands that being unable to switch your mortgage can be extremely stressful.
The Government has consistently committed to looking for practical and proportionate options where they will deliver genuine benefits for affected mortgage borrowers, and where interventions are fair to borrowers in the active market, and to taxpayers. We will consider the proposals put forward in this very recently published report carefully.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many company directors have been convicted of a criminal offence under section 31 of the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 in each of the last 12 years.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government is determined that everyone who is entitled to the National Minimum Wage (NMW) receives it.
HMRC continues to crack down on employers who ignore the law, ensuring that workers receive the wages they are entitled to.
A majority of NMW cases are subject to civil (non-criminal) sanctions, which include penalties of up to 200 per cent of the arrears, and public naming.
Prosecutions are reserved for the most serious offences. They can cause delays in recovering arrears for workers and do not necessarily guarantee payment. The data held by HMRC does not provide further breakdown as to the legal position of the individual who has been convicted of a criminal offence under section 31 of the National Minimum Wage Act 1998.
Full details of criminal prosecutions from 2007/2008 to 2020/2021 are provided as supplementary data (Table 13) to the annual report “National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage: Government evidence on enforcement and compliance, 2021”, published in May 2022. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-living-wage-and-national-minimum-wage-government-evidence-on-enforcement-and-compliance-2021.