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Written Question
Economic Growth
Thursday 28th March 2024

Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the evidential basis is for his Department's tweet of 29 September 2023 that the UK was the fastest growing European G7 country since 2010.

Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

The calculations underlying this statistic were based on public information available on the 29 September 2023, including quarterly GDP data published by the Office for National Statistics for the UK and OECD data for the remaining G7 European economies.

The data showed that cumulative GDP growth in the UK from the beginning of 2010 (change on 2009 Q4) through to 2023 Q2 of 24.2% was greater than that of France (16.4%), Italy (3.5%) and Germany (21.2%).


Written Question
Income Tax: G7
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the evidential basis is for his Department's tweet of 6 January 2024 that the UK had the lowest effective average personal tax rate in the G7; and what the effective average personal tax rate is in each G7 country.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government is committed to rewarding hard work through a fair and simple tax system that is also competitive internationally. The Government is taking a responsible approach by delivering tax cuts within the fiscal rules.

The tweet of 6 January 2024 was based on the most recently published data from the OECD’s Taxing Wages 2023 publication. This shows the total personal tax liability divided by salary for a single employed individual with no children on average earnings for Germany (37.4%), Italy (28.8%), France (27.7%), Canada (25.6%), the US (24.8%) and Japan (22.3%). Following the 2p NICs cut made at Autumn Statement, the effective personal tax rate for an employee on £44,300 (the OECD’s figure for UK average earnings) reduced from 23.6% to 21.5%, which would be the lowest rate in the G7, according to the latest available OECD data. This has fallen to 20.1% following the further 2p NICs cut made at Spring Budget.


Written Question
Voluntary Organisations: VAT
Monday 4th March 2024

Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will exempt not for profit organisations delivering welfare services for people living with dementia from VAT.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

VAT has been designed as a broad-based tax on consumption, and the twenty per cent standard rate applies to most goods and services. Whilst there are exceptions to the standard rate, these have always been strictly limited by both legal and fiscal considerations.

Welfare services for people living with dementia provided by local authorities and similar bodies and charities are exempt from VAT, meaning no VAT is charged to the final consumer.

Welfare services for people living with dementia, provided by state regulated private welfare organisations, are also exempt from VAT. State regulated suppliers are those that are registered with the Care Quality Commission, and are eligible for the VAT exemption where they are providing services that are state regulated.

The regulation requirement ensures that VAT relief is limited to providers certified as offering safe and high-quality welfare services. This is a long-standing requirement, and there are no plans to make changes to these rules.


Written Question
Banks: East Devon
Thursday 8th February 2024

Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to help prevent the closure of banks in East Devon constituency.

Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government believes that all customers, wherever they live, should have appropriate access to banking and cash services, and I would like to assure you that I am monitoring the issue of branch closures closely. Whilst decisions to open or close a branch are commercial decisions for banks, it is imperative that banks and building societies recognise the needs of all their customers, including those who still need to use in-person services.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)’s guidance is clear that firms are expected to carefully consider the impact of planned branch closures on their customers’ everyday banking and cash access needs, and put in place alternatives, where this is reasonable. This seeks to ensure the implementation of closure decisions is done in a way that treats customers fairly. Where firms fall short of expectations, the FCA may ask for closures to be paused or other options to be put in place.

Alternative options to access everyday banking services can be via telephone banking, through digital means such as mobile or online banking and via the Post Office or Banking Hubs. The Post Office allows personal and business customers to carry out everyday banking services at 11,500 Post Office branches across the UK.

Banking Hubs are a voluntary industry initiative, which enable customers of participating banks to access cash and banking services in shared facilities. As such, decisions regarding their operation, including opening hours, are taken by participating banks. Over 100 Banking Hubs have been announced so far, including in Sidmouth. 33 Banking Hubs are already open across the UK, and the Government hopes to see the others open as soon as possible.


Written Question
Banking Hubs: Opening Hours
Thursday 8th February 2024

Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has had discussions with Cash Access UK on the opening hours of banking hubs.

Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government believes that all customers, wherever they live, should have appropriate access to banking and cash services, and I would like to assure you that I am monitoring the issue of branch closures closely. Whilst decisions to open or close a branch are commercial decisions for banks, it is imperative that banks and building societies recognise the needs of all their customers, including those who still need to use in-person services.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)’s guidance is clear that firms are expected to carefully consider the impact of planned branch closures on their customers’ everyday banking and cash access needs, and put in place alternatives, where this is reasonable. This seeks to ensure the implementation of closure decisions is done in a way that treats customers fairly. Where firms fall short of expectations, the FCA may ask for closures to be paused or other options to be put in place.

Alternative options to access everyday banking services can be via telephone banking, through digital means such as mobile or online banking and via the Post Office or Banking Hubs. The Post Office allows personal and business customers to carry out everyday banking services at 11,500 Post Office branches across the UK.

Banking Hubs are a voluntary industry initiative, which enable customers of participating banks to access cash and banking services in shared facilities. As such, decisions regarding their operation, including opening hours, are taken by participating banks. Over 100 Banking Hubs have been announced so far, including in Sidmouth. 33 Banking Hubs are already open across the UK, and the Government hopes to see the others open as soon as possible.


Written Question
Housing: Repairs and Maintenance
Tuesday 21st November 2023

Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of reducing VAT charged on property repairs required as a result of damage caused by flooding.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

VAT is a broad-based tax on consumption and the twenty per cent standard rate applies to most goods and services. Whilst there are exceptions to the standard rate, these have always been limited by both legal and fiscal considerations.

Introducing new reliefs would impose additional pressure on the public finances to which VAT makes a significant contribution. VAT is the UK’s third largest tax and is forecast to raise £161 billion in 2023/24, helping to fund key spending priorities, such as the NHS, education and defence. Plus, there is no guarantee that a VAT relief would be passed on to consumers in the form of lower prices.

That is why the government has instead put in place a comprehensive framework to support flood recovery, which is used in exceptional circumstances to support councils and communities following severe flooding.

Whilst the government keeps all taxes under review, there are no current plans to reduce VAT charged on property repairs required as a result of damage caused by flooding.


Written Question
Workplace Pensions
Wednesday 29th March 2023

Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will place in the Library a list of (a) public sector pension schemes and (b) other occupational pension schemes which are treated as a non-registered scheme by HM Revenue & Customs.

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

Under the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005 (CRCA), HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has a statutory duty of confidentiality to protect the information it holds about taxpayers. As a result, it is not possible to confirm the tax status of individual schemes, but many schemes will have made public statements separate to this.


Written Question
Companies: Finance
Monday 27th February 2023

Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his Department's policies of trends in the level of corporate (a) borrowing and (b) saving in each sector of the economy in the latest period for which data is available.

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

The Government considers a variety of factors to understand the health of the UK corporate sector and inform economic analysis and policymaking. This includes monitoring official data, internal economic modelling and regular engagement with firms and business groups.

As part of this, HM Treasury monitors aggregate and sectoral trends in corporate lending and deposits, including via the use of Bank of England data.

The Government will continue to monitor trends in corporate saving and borrowing to inform policy making and its assessment of corporate health.


Written Question
Cider: Production
Thursday 23rd February 2023

Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps he is taking through the tax system to help support small cider producers.

Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)

The Government is introducing comprehensive alcohol duty reforms from 1 August this year, which will support small cider producers through the introduction of the new Small Producer Relief, providing a tapered duty discount which helps small beer and cider producers to grow and thrive.

The Government is also providing a duty discount on draught cider sold in pubs, whilst equalising the treatment of fruit ciders with beer. Further, ciders between 3.5% and 8.5% ABV will continue to benefit from a lower duty rate than other categories of alcohol to support their transition to the new duty system.


Written Question
Stamp Duty Land Tax: Second Homes
Tuesday 7th December 2021

Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much revenue has been raised from the 3 per cent stamp duty surcharge placed on second homes from 2016 onwards as of 29 November 2021.

Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport

The values have been published in the quarterly Stamp Duty Land Tax publication: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/quarterly-stamp-duty-land-tax-sdlt-statistics