Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to replace the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce with an alternative scheme after September 2023.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
At Budget 2021, the Government announced an investment of over £100 million in the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce, to be in place for two years to April 2023, to combat fraud in the COVID-19 financial support schemes administered by HMRC (Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, Self Employed Income Support Scheme and Eat Out To Help Out).
As planned between April and September 2023, compliance staff currently deployed on the taskforce will move back to business-as-usual tax compliance activity. Ongoing investigations into overclaimed grants that haven't been concluded will be worked to completion. HMRC will consider the risk of overclaims of COVID-19 grants alongside other tax compliance risks when prioritising cases for a compliance check. This is the most efficient way to ensure we protect and recover taxpayers’ money, as it allows HMRC to deal with all aspects of a customer’s potential non-compliance in a single check.
HMRC remains committed to tackling error and fraud in the COVID-19 support schemes where this is the most cost-effective use of resources, and we are not writing off any overpayments of grants. We will continue to take action against those who have deliberately sought to abuse the COVID-19 financial support schemes, while recognising there will be people who have made honest mistakes.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of moving staff from HMRC's Customer Compliance Group to Covid-19 schemes on the compliance yield for 2020-21 and 2021-22.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
At the Spring Budget 2021 the Government announced a £100m investment into a Taxpayer Protection Taskforce to significantly extend His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs’ work to address fraud and error in the HMRC administered COVID-19 support schemes (Self Employment Income Support Scheme, Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and Eat Out to Help Out).
The TPT investment has enabled HMRC to recruit and train new people to backfill these tax compliance posts; and in future years these additional resources will mitigate the impact on taxation compliance yield over the 5-year scorecard period.
Asked by: Lord Monks (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the furlough scheme on (1) relationships between employers and employees, and (2) the number of older people leaving the workforce; and in any such assessment, what links they have found between these factors.
Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme protected millions of UK jobs at a time of unprecedented economic uncertainty.
His Majesty’s Treasury (HMT) and His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) jointly published an interim evaluation in September 2022, looking at the scheme between March and October 2020. A final evaluation, covering the full duration of the scheme and a Value for Money assessment, will be published in 2023.
Asked by: Richard Thomson (Scottish National Party - Gordon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will take fiscal steps to support regional airports including Aberdeen Airport.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The aviation sector is an important part of the UK’s economy, and we are committed to supporting and restarting it.
At Autumn Budget 2021, the Government announced reforms to Air Passenger Duty (APD) on domestic flights in order to support UK-wide connectivity. To support connectivity, the new domestic rate will apply to all flights between airports in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (excluding private jets) and will be set at £6.50 for economy passengers, benefitting around 9 million passengers in 2023/24.
The air transport sector has benefitted from significant pandemic related Government support. This includes support through loan guarantees, support for exporters, the Bank of England’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility and the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. In addition, we supported regional airports through our Airports and Ground Operations Support Scheme.
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people worked for the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce in each month between April 2021 and December 2022.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
At Spring Budget 2021 the Government announced a £100 million investment into the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce of 1,250 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) staff up to March 2023. The taskforce was established to extend HMRC’s work to address fraud and error in the COVID support schemes that they administered (Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, Self-Employment Income Support Scheme, and Eat Out to Help Out). The table below shows the month-by-month breakdown of resources deployed in the taskforce from April 2021 to end of October 2022. HMRC are unable to provide more recent data as this is still being assured.
Table 1: Monthly breakdown of FTE staff deployed to taskforce:
Period | Apr 2021 | May 2021 | Jun 2021 | Jul 2021 | Aug 2021 | Sep 2021 | Oct 2021 | Nov 2021 | Dec 2021 | Jan 2022 | Feb 2022 | Mar 2022 |
Total FTE | 908 | 1,018 | 1,216 | 1,291 | 1,228 | 1,256 | 1,180 | 1,184 | 1,145 | 1,101 | 1,096 | 1,142 |
Period | Apr 2022 | May 2022 | Jun 2022 | Jul 2022 | Aug 2022 | Sep 2022 | Oct 2022 |
Total FTE | 1,180 | 1,155 | 1,246 | 1,203 | 1,230 | 1,232 | 1,187 |
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 1 November 2022 to Question 73004 on P&O Ferries: Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, whether his Department has had any discussions with representatives of P&O Ferries about the return of furlough funding since 25 October 2022.
Answered by Richard Holden - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Department has not had recent discussions with P&O Ferries’ representatives on the repayment of furlough funding. As per the response of 4 July 2022, the government has repeatedly called for P&O Ferries to repay its furlough funding, and we have emphasised this at every opportunity.
Asked by: Bob Seely (Conservative - Isle of Wight)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department is taking steps to ensure that funding provided by the UK Infrastructure Bank is targeted to small and medium-sized enterprises in (a) rural, (b) isolated and (c) deprived communities.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB) was launched in June 2021 and is a government-owned lending institution headquartered in Leeds.
UKIB has a mandate to tackle climate change and support regional and local economic growth across the UK by investing in economic infrastructure including clean energy, transport, digital, water and waste. As of 10th November, the UKIB has announced 10 deals worth over £1 billion covering all areas of the UK.
Within its remit, UKIB is able to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) indirectly through its financing of infrastructure projects.
Over the past two years, the Government has taken unprecedented action to protect millions of SMEs, including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and Government-guaranteed loans. This year we are extending the Recovery Loan Scheme until June 2024.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their latest estimate of fraud and error from (1) the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), and (2) the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS).
Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)
HMRC published the latest estimates for error and fraud in their 2021-22 Annual Reports and Accounts and accompanying Technical Note. In Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) the estimate is 5 per cent, and in Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) is 3.6 per cent. This is calculated on the net amounts (total paid out less unprompted repayments) paid to claimants from the start of the schemes to 31 March 2022.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 4 July 2022 to Question 26742 on P&O Ferries: Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, whether her Department has had recent discussions with representatives of P&O Ferries on the repayment of its furlough funding.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Department has not had recent discussions with P&O Ferries’ representatives on the repayment of furlough funding. As per the response of 4 July 2022, the government has repeatedly called for P&O Ferries to repay its furlough funding, and we have emphasised this at every opportunity.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps his Department is taking to support small and medium size enterprises.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Over the past two years, the Government has taken unprecedented action to protect millions of businesses, including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and Government-guaranteed loans.
We have brought forward a number of measures to support businesses this year, including extending the Recovery Loan Scheme until June 2024; freezing the business rates multiplier for 2022-23; cutting business rates by 50% for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure businesses in 2022-23 up to a cash cap of £110,000 per business; and permanently setting the Annual Investment Allowance at its highest ever level of £1 million from 1 April 2023, instead of reverting to £200,000 as previously planned.
The Government also increased the Employment Allowance from £4,000 to £5,000, which cuts the cost of employment for 495,000 small businesses.
Additionally, the Government is helping all eligible UK businesses, including small and medium sized businesses, with their energy bills through the Energy Bill Relief Scheme.
This builds on existing business support, including the Business Support Helpline which provides businesses with tools, resources and signposting to specialist organisations.