Asked by: Stewart Malcolm McDonald (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of applying vehicle excise duty based on CO2 emissions recorded under laboratory conditions at the point of manufacture; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Simon Clarke
The Government uses a graduated VED system to encourage the uptake of cars with low CO2 to help meet our legally binding climate change targets.
In July 2019 the Government announced that the UK will use Worldwide harmonized Light vehicles Test Procedures (WLTP) to measure vehicle carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from 1 April 2020 for VED.
WLTP is a laboratory test which is used internationally, and aims to accurately reflect real world driving conditions. Its implementation will strengthen the link between vehicle taxation and the true environmental impacts of motoring.
Asked by: Stewart Malcolm McDonald (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many complaints HMRC has received on employers advertising unpaid work trials in the last 12 months.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government is determined that everyone who is entitled to the National Minimum Wage (NMW) receives it.
All businesses, irrespective of size or business sector, are responsible for paying the correct minimum wage to their staff.
HMRC do not record numbers of complaints relating specifically to unpaid work trials.
HMRC take seriously and review all complaints from workers; and if anyone thinks they are not receiving at least the minimum wage, they can contact Acas, in confidence, on 0300 123 1100 or submit a query online using the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pay-and-work-rights-complaints.
Asked by: Stewart Malcolm McDonald (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he plans to publish the results of the regulation of pre-paid funeral plans consultation.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
HM Treasury launched a call for evidence on the regulation of pre-paid funeral plans in June 2018. The call for evidence confirmed that consumer detriment is present in the pre-paid funeral plan sector and that there is broad demand for the sector to come under compulsory regulation.
Consequently, the government intends to bring the pre-paid funeral plan market within the remit of the Financial Conduct Authority and has consulted on the proposed legislative framework to implement this proposal. The consultation closed on 25 August and the government is currently reviewing the responses. A response to the consultation will be published in due course.
Asked by: Stewart Malcolm McDonald (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with representatives from the Competition and Market Authority on ensuring that the (a) delivery (b) marketing and (c) sale of funeral plans are included in the scope of the investigation into the funeral market.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
In June 2018, the CMA launched a market study into the funeral sector. The CMA investigated two core areas in connection to the supply of a funeral: (1) how competition between funeral directors works and transparency issues in the provision of funerals; and (2) how competition works in the crematoria segment of the industry. In light of the findings of the market study, the CMA launched a full market investigation into the funeral sector. The scope of the CMA’s market investigation includes the funeral services supplied by funeral directors arising from the redemption of funeral plans.
HM Treasury launched a call for evidence on the regulation of pre-paid funeral plans in June 2018. The call for evidence has confirmed that consumer detriment is present in the pre-paid funeral plan sector and that there is broad demand for the sector to come under compulsory regulation. Consequently, the government intends to bring the pre-paid funeral plan market within the remit of the Financial Conduct Authority and is currently consulting on the proposed legislative framework to implement this proposal.
My officials have engaged with the CMA to ensure the respective investigations are complementary and coherent.
Asked by: Stewart Malcolm McDonald (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many staff in HMRC are allocated to investigating non-payment of the minimum wage.
Answered by Mel Stride - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The government is determined that everyone who is entitled to the National Minimum Wage (NMW) receives it. If anyone thinks they are not receiving at least the minimum wage, they can contact Acas, in confidence, on 0300 123 1100 or submit a query online using the link https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pay-and-work-rights-complaints
The government increased NMW enforcement funding from £20 million per annum in 2016/17, to £26.3m in 2018-19. This additional investment enabled a significant expansion of resources dedicated to enforcing the minimum wage: there were 424 staff in post in HMRC’s NMW teams as at 31 March 2018.
In addition, other staff across HMRC contribute to enforcing NMW, including lawyers, technical advisers, and those specialising in criminal investigations. HMRC does not record the specific numbers of those staff involved beyond those identified above.
Asked by: Stewart Malcolm McDonald (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with the (a) Scottish Government and (b) Student Loans Company (SLC) staff to ensure all SLC staff based in Scotland are paid as a minimum the Real Living Wage set by the Living Wage Foundation.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
Treasury Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery.
Details of ministerial and permanent secretary meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available at:
Asked by: Stewart Malcolm McDonald (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what reasons recruitment controls were imposed at HM Revenue and Customs offices in Glasgow, London, Newcastle and Worthing from 1 August 2017; and what is the nature of those controls.
Answered by Mel Stride - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
HM Revenue and Customs’ (HMRC’s) ambition to move to 13 Regional Centre locations, along with a small number of transitional and specialist sites, requires effective planning of future workforce numbers.
Additional recruitment controls have been introduced in Glasgow, London, Newcastle and Worthing to ensure HMRC is not recruiting more people than required.
These are designed to ensure that greater rigour is applied to the vacancy filling and external recruitment processes. HMRC will manage and monitor these controls as part of the normal approval processes for vacancies and external recruitment.
Asked by: Stewart Malcolm McDonald (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress his Department has made in recovering unpaid taxes following publication of the Panama papers.
Answered by Jane Ellison
On 8 November, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Home Secretary updated the House on the work of the cross-agency taskforce that was set up to analyse and take action on the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ)’s Panama Papers data leak.
As part of this update, they confirmed that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) had opened civil and criminal investigations into 22 individuals for suspected tax evasion, and has placed 43 high net worth individuals under special review while their links to Panama are further investigated.
HMRC will engage the relevant prosecuting authorities to bring any identified wrongdoing before the courts. On 7 December, it confirmed that two arrests had been made as part of a criminal investigation involving the use of a number of offshore companies to disguise the beneficial ownership of UK property.
As stated previously, Parliament will be kept updated on any significant developments.
Asked by: Stewart Malcolm McDonald (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on the economy of changes in the timetable to make a decision on airport expansion in the South East.
Answered by David Gauke
There has been no change to the timetable for a decision.
The government has taken a decision on its preferred scheme – this will be announced shortly.
Following this a draft National Policy Statement for airports will be published for public consultation, and there will be a vote on the final NPS, which we expect in winter 2017.
The Davies Commission recommended additional south east airport capacity by 2030, and Government still plans to deliver that.
Asked by: Stewart Malcolm McDonald (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with counterparts in the Bahamas on improving tax transparency since the leak of internal files from the company register in that country.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The UK has led the way on tax transparency by developing a global standard for the automatic exchange of financial account information with our international partners. This will see more than 100 jurisdictions exchanging data on offshore accounts with each other, with the Bahamas first exchanging in 2018. The UK has also taken a lead on improving the international accessibility of beneficial ownership information through the launch of a new initiative in April 2016 for automatic exchange of such information between countries on a global basis. Almost 50 jurisdictions have made a political commitment to this initiative to date and the Treasury continues to engage with relevant financial centres.