Asked by: Charlotte Cane (Liberal Democrat - Ely and East Cambridgeshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Act 2025 on small and medium sized businesses.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
A Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) was published alongside the introduction of the Bill containing the changes to employer NICs. The TIIN sets out the impact of the policy on the exchequer, the economic impacts of the policy, and the impacts on individuals, businesses, and civil society organisations, as well as an overview of the equality impacts.
The Government decided to protect the smallest businesses from the changes to employer NICs by increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500. This means that this year, 865,000 employers will pay no NICs at all, and more than half of all employers will either gain or will see no change.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government to what extent the rise in employers' National Insurance contributions contributed to the loss of 69,000 hospitality jobs since last October, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics, and how this compares with their initial estimates of sector specific job losses before implementing the rise.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
A Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) was published alongside the introduction of the Bill containing the changes to employer National Insurance contributions (NICs). The TIIN sets out the impact of the policy on the exchequer, the economic impacts of the policy, and the impacts on individuals, businesses, and civil society organisations, as well as an overview of the equality impacts.
The Office for Budget Responsibility also published the Economic and Fiscal Outlook (EFO), which sets out a detailed forecast of the economy and public finances.
With all policies considered, the OBR's March 2025 EFO forecasts the employment level to increase from 33.6 million in 2024 to 34.8 million in 2029.
The Government protected the smallest businesses from the changes to employer NICs by increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500. This means that this year, 865,000 employers will pay no NICs at all, and more than half of all employers will either gain or will see no change.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many adults in the UK they expect not to pay any income tax in the financial year 2025–26.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Data on the number of UK adults who are not liable to pay income tax are not currently held or published.
HMRC publishes projections for the total number of Income Taxpayers per year in Table 2.1 of the Income Tax liabilities statistics. [1] Current projections show that there are estimated to be 39.1 million Income Taxpayers in the UK in the 2025 to 2026 financial year.
The Office for National Statistics publishes projections for the total number of people in the UK by age in their population projections. [2] They currently estimate there to be 55.9 million individuals aged 18 or over in the UK in 2025.
[1] Table 2.1 of our Accredited official statistics (gov.uk).
[2] Zipped population projections data files, UK - Office for National Statistics
Asked by: Maureen Burke (Labour - Glasgow North East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing funding from the Growth Mission fund to Springburn Winter Gardens.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
In her recent Spending Review speech, the Chancellor announced that the Government would be establishing a Growth Mission Fund to expedite local projects that are important for growth.
Whilst we cannot confirm funding allocations yet, our £240 million Growth Mission Fund should support transformative projects that give local leaders real investment to deliver real change.
Details regarding funding criteria will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Esther McVey (Conservative - Tatton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of her Department's proposals for a Remote Betting & Gaming Duty on (a) levels of investment in the UK, (b) consumer costs and (c) levels of illegal gambling.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is consulting on proposals to simplify the current gambling tax system by merging the three current taxes that cover remote (including online) gambling into one. The Government welcomes views from stakeholders, as part of the consultation process.
No final policy decisions have been made. If any changes are made to gambling duties at a future Budget following the consultation, they will be accompanied by a Tax Information and Impact Note which will set out the expected impacts, including to individuals, businesses and the wider economy.
DCMS works closely with the Gambling Commission to ensure that illegal gambling, in all its forms, is addressed. The Crime and Policing Bill, introduced in Parliament on 25 February 2025, will grant the Gambling Commission with powers to move quickly and effectively to take down illegal gambling websites.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking to help improve HMRC investigation times.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
As part of our transformation of HMRC, we are improving our compliance learning offer to build the capability of both new trainees and established colleagues. Our Compliance Professional Standards reinforce that all colleagues should be mindful to avoid unnecessary delay in dealing with cases and keep customers informed throughout the compliance activity.
HMRC’s new Interactive Compliance Guidance tool, launched in April 2025, is designed to help businesses and individuals understand HMRC compliance checks, improving our support for customers. This promotes a better experience for the customer.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to support people who were ineligible for government financial support measures during the Covid pandemic.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Decisions on eligibility for Covid-19 financial support were taken by the previous government.
The previous Government provided support through the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) and Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS). The support was based on two principles: a) targeting support at those who needed it most; and b) guarding against error, fraud, and abuse, whilst reaching as many individuals as possible. Those ineligible for the schemes may have been eligible for other elements of financial support provided by the previous Government.
The current Government is working to improve living standards for everyone across the country. We are taking immediate action to support individuals, such as committing to no increases in employee National Insurance, Income Tax or VAT as we want to keep taxes low for working people. Driving growth is the Government’s number one mission, which will help individuals by boosting wages and putting more money in people’s pockets.
Asked by: Baroness Alexander of Cleveden (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they expect to publish updated estimates of the wealthy tax gap which is the difference between the amount of tax that should be paid by wealthy individuals and what is actually paid.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) estimates the size of the tax gap, which is the difference between the amount of tax that should, in theory, be paid to HMRC, and what is actually paid. The tax gap statistics are published annually, most recently on 19 June 2025, with the next release planned for June 2026. [1]
The latest estimate of the wealthy customer group tax gap was £2.1 billion for the tax year 2023 to 2024. [2]
[1] The latest estimates include tax years from 2005 to 2006 through to 2023 to 2024 and are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/measuring-tax-gaps.
[2] Historical estimates for the tax gap for wealthy customers can be found in table 1.4 here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/measuring-tax-gaps-tables
Asked by: Lord Mackinlay of Richborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Livermore on 8 July (HL8787 and HL8788), how introducing Making Tax Digital for smaller taxpayers will help reduce the tax gap.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Making Tax Digital (MTD) helps reduce the estimated £22 billion tax gap across all taxes caused through error and failure to take reasonable care. It does this by requiring closer-to-real-time digital record keeping, underpinned by quarterly updates and submission of the end-of-year tax return using MTD compatible software. MTD for VAT is currently predicted to deliver cumulative additional revenue (ATR) of over £4 billion by 2029-30 by reducing taxpayer errors.
Asked by: Baroness Altmann (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential demand from defined benefit pension funds and insurers for new issuance of Government bonds aiming to match pension liabilities or annuities and linked to (1) consumer price index, (2) limited price indexation and (3) life expectancy in the United Kingdom.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government consults primary dealers and gilt investors regularly to understand their needs, taking that feedback into account when designing the gilt financing programme. The gilt market is deep and liquid and enjoys strong demand from a well-diversified investor base.
Issuing new types of gilts risks fragmenting the market, which would not be consistent with the government’s debt management objective to minimise the long-term cost of financing. Long-dated and index-linked gilts are already very effective assets for defined benefit pension funds and insurers and allow them to hedge long-term liabilities. This is reflected by the high levels of demand for these products from those sectors.
The government keeps the introduction of new debt instruments under regular review. Any new instrument would need to meet value-for-money criteria, enjoy strong and sustained demand in the long term, and be consistent with wider fiscal objectives.