Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an assessment of whether there will be a Barnett consequential for Northern Ireland in respect of the Night Shelter Transformation Fund.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Night Shelter Transformation Fund is being funded from within existing Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities budgets. The Northern Ireland Executive have already received funding through the Barnett formula in relation to existing Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities budgets.
A full breakdown of Barnett-based funding provided to the Northern Ireland Executive is published in Block Grant Transparency, which is due to be updated shortly.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of reducing the level of VAT applying to public EV Charging from 20 per cent to 5 per cent.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Introducing a VAT relief for public EV charging would impose additional pressure on the public finances, to which VAT makes a significant contribution. Any reduction in tax paid is a reduction in the money available to support important public services, including the NHS, education and defence.
Although there are no current plans to change the VAT treatment of electricity supplied at public EV charge points, the Government is committed to supporting the transition to zero emission vehicles to help the UK meet its net zero obligations. The Government has already spent over £2 billion to support the transition. This funding has focused on reducing barriers to the adoption of such vehicles, including offsetting their higher upfront cost and accelerating the rollout of chargepoint infrastructure.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether there will be a Barnett consequential for Northern Ireland from the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund and Home Upgrade Grant for energy-saving measures.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Spending Review 2021 allocated funding for both the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund and Home Upgrade Grant for energy-saving measures.
At spending reviews, the Barnett formula is applied to changes in each UK government department’s DEL budget with the Barnett consequentials that arise then added to the devolved administrations’ baseline block grants.
Because the Barnett formula is not applied to changes in funding for all the individual programmes within a UK government department’s DEL budget, the Barnett consequentials associated with these individual programmes cannot be identified.
Spending Review 2021 set the largest annual block grants, in real terms, of any spending review settlement since the devolution Acts in 1998 and the Northern Ireland Executive is receiving an average of £1.6 billion per year through the Barnett formula on top of its £13.4 billion annual baseline.
It is for the devolved administrations to decide how to allocate their funding in devolved areas, including environmental planning and decarbonisation.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of requiring financial institutions to introduce a delay to processing payments linked to transactions that have been identified as potentially suspicious or fraudulent.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is clear that fraud prevention is preferable to cure, and that more needs to be done to protect the public from this devastating crime.
As such, HM Treasury is actively investigating amending legislation to enable payment service providers (such as banks) to delay payments beyond the existing legislative timescales in limited, high-risk fraud scenarios, in order for enhanced customer engagement to take place. This could enable firms to take more of a ‘risk-based’ approach to payments processing.
The Government will also continue its broader work across Departments to tackle fraud at the source, and will shortly publish a comprehensive Fraud Strategy to detail our ongoing and upcoming actions.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the (a) forecast and (b) actual expenditure was for the tax-free childcare scheme in the last three financial years.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Tax-Free Childcare began to be rolled out from April 2017.
Forecasted expenditure for financial years 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 was published in the Office for Budget Responsibility’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook for Spring Statement 2019 and can be found on page 105: https://obr.uk/docs/dlm_uploads/March-2019_EFO_Web-Accessible.pdf
Actual expenditure for financial years 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 was published in the Tax-Free Childcare Official Statistics, March 2022. The Tables and Statistics are available to download from: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tax-free-childcare-statistics-march-2022
Actual expenditure in 2020-21 was significantly lower than forecast. This is driven by the impact of COVID 19 lockdowns.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an estimate of the cost to the public purse of increasing the tax free childcare scheme to cover (a) 25 per cent and (b) 30 per cent of childcare costs.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Up-to-date estimates are not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost. Should the Government announce any changes to Tax-Free Childcare or other policy measures in future, costings will be submitted to the Office for Budget Responsibility and published in the budget report on GOV.UK.Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made a recent assessment of the potential merits of revising the planned dates for ending energy support for (a) residential and (b) business customers.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
On 9 January, the government announced that it would be launching a new energy support scheme for businesses, charities and the public sector. The new Energy Bills Discount Scheme will provide all eligible businesses and other non-domestic energy users across the UK with a discount on high energy bills until 31 March 2024, following the end of the current Energy Bill Relief Scheme. It will also provide businesses in sectors with particularly high levels of energy use and trade intensity with a higher level of support.
The new scheme strikes a balance between supporting businesses for a further 12 months, from April 2023 to March 2024, and limiting taxpayer’s exposure to volatile energy markets. This provides long term certainty for businesses and reflects how the scale of the challenge has changed since September last year. We will continue to monitor energy prices in the coming months.
For households, the Energy Price Guarantee scheme protects customers from increases in energy costs by limiting the amount suppliers can charge per unit of energy used. It currently brings a typical household energy bill in Great Britain down to £2,500 per year, with equivalent support provided in Northern Ireland. The Energy Price Guarantee will remain in place until 31 March 2024.
The government will also develop a new approach to consumer protection in domestic energy markets, which will apply from April 2024 onwards. It will work with consumer groups and industry to consider the best approach, including options such as social tariffs, as part of wider retail market reforms. The objectives of this new approach will be to deliver a fair deal for domestic consumers, ensure the energy market is resilient and investable over the long-term, and support an efficient and flexible energy system.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of reviewing the High-Income Child Benefit Charge to review rules on single and dual earners with the same level of household earnings.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The High Income Child Benefit Charge is calculated on an individual rather than a household basis, in line with other income tax policy. This is because HMRC holds records on individual incomes, allowing them to identify who is liable for the charge, and communicate with these individuals to encourage compliance.
However, HMRC does not routinely collect household relationship information, and changes to household make-up and income fluctuations would make it difficult for HMRC to calculate combined household incomes.
Basing the HICBC on household income, to take into account single and dual earner households, would require all families in receipt of Child Benefit payments to report their household income data to HMRC, to ensure compliance. This would be costly to the Government and burdensome for families who currently do not need to provide this information.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an estimate of the Barnett Consequentials Northern Ireland will receive for staffing for the Move to Universal Credit programme in (a) 2022-23, (b) 2023-24 and (c) 2024-25.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Barnett formula determines changes in the Northern Ireland Executive’s funding, not the overall funding, and is applied at departmental level at Spending Reviews. Barnett consequentials don’t therefore generally reflect the funding provided to the Northern Ireland Executive in relation to specific programmes or projects. The Block Grant Transparency publication sets out the breakdown of Barnett consequentials for the Northern Ireland Executive.
In relation to the Move to Universal Credit Programme, the Barnett formula has been applied as set out in the Statement of Funding Policy. Funding for this programme fed into overall Barnett-based funding for the Northern Ireland Executive set at the Spending Review 2021.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of revising vehicle tax to reflect the lower emissions resulting from the adoption of E10 fuel.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
E10 is the standard grade petrol in the UK. Fuel duty is levied on E10 at the same rate as other types of petrol and diesel. This is currently 52.95 pence per litre.
Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) is a tax on vehicle ownership sometimes referred to as a ‘vehicle tax’. Cars first registered since April 2017 already pay a first year VED rate based on their CO2 emissions, with the least polluting models paying £10 on first registration, whilst the most polluting pay over £2,300.
This is based on CO2 emissions as measured through laboratory tests and recorded on a vehicle’s type approval certificate ensuring a consistent approach is used for all new cars. Since 2020, the government has used the improved Worldwide harmonized Light vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP) standard for measuring CO2 emissions, which aims to reflect real world driving conditions.
All taxes are kept under review.