Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what financial advice or guidance a lending institution is required to give a person aged 21 years old or under before permitting them to take out a loan of more than £25,000.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Lenders offering credit are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). This oversight ensures that lending practices are fair and that consumers are protected – firms regulated by the FCA must comply with its strict lending affordability rules, lending only to those who can afford repayments based on a thorough assessment of their financial situation. Lenders are also required to follow the FCA’s rules on promotions and adverts, where non-compliance could lead to fines. The FCA requires that all adverts and other promotions must be clear, fair, and not misleading.
The Government is committed to ensuring that people can access the guidance they need to confidently understand and use financial products such as loans. The Money and Pensions Service (MaPS), an arm’s length body of the Government, provides free and impartial guidance on a range of financial topics, including credit. More widely, the Government is taking steps to improve financial literacy and better prepare young people for life’s key financial decisions. As part of the Financial Inclusion Strategy, the Government announced plans to make financial education compulsory in primary schools in England, alongside a renewed focus on financial education in secondary schools through the subjects of mathematics and citizenship. This will help build a generation better equipped to make informed financial decisions, including those related to the use of credit.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she plans to devolve powers to the Mayor of London to adjust taxation rates in London.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
While the Government keeps the tax system under review, the Government has no plans to extend the Mayor’s powers to adjust tax rates in London.
However, the Government is empowering Mayors to introduce a visitor levy on short-term overnight accommodation in their region, to drive economic growth including through support for the local visitor economy. The Government has published a consultation, running until 18 February, so that the public, businesses, and local government can shape the design of the power to introduce a levy that will be devolved to local leaders. Local leaders will decide whether to introduce a levy and how the revenue raised will be used to drive growth in their region.
Asked by: Henry Tufnell (Labour - Mid and South Pembrokeshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions she has had with the Secretary of Stare for Energy Security and Net Zero, on the potential inclusion of refined petroleum products within the UK Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism; and when the outcomes of those discussions will be made available.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
As announced at Budget 2025 the government is considering the feasibility and impacts of including refined products in the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) in future. The government recognises that refineries play a role in energy security and the UK’s industrial base. Government Ministers are holding a roundtable with the refining sector on 4 February 2026 and will also publish a call for evidence on the fuel sector shortly.
Asked by: Henry Tufnell (Labour - Mid and South Pembrokeshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when she plans to begin a formal assessment of the potential addition of refined petroleum products to the scope of the UK Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
As announced at Budget 2025 the government is considering the feasibility and impacts of including refined products in the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) in future. The government recognises that refineries play a role in energy security and the UK’s industrial base. Government Ministers are holding a roundtable with the refining sector on 4 February 2026 and will also publish a call for evidence on the fuel sector shortly.
Asked by: Mims Davies (Conservative - East Grinstead and Uckfield)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has conducted an equality impact assessment for the increase in employer National Insurance contributions.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - 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 is firmly committed to supporting women to enter, stay and progress in work, tackling gender pay gaps and ensuring women can reach their full potential in the labour market. To help make work pay for mothers in particular, we are improving access to affordable childcare through the Tax-Free Childcare scheme and 30 hours of funded childcare a week.
The Government is committed to supporting young people to earn and learn. That is why we are delivering a Youth Guarantee, backed by £820m over the Spending Review period. This includes providing guaranteed paid work placements to young people on Universal Credit, who are unemployed for over 18 months, granting an opportunity for young people to gain essential skills and experience and prevent the damaging effects of long-term unemployment. The Youth Guarantee will also create nearly 300,000 additional work experience and training opportunities, further expand Youth Hubs to every local area of Great Britain, and increase investment to prevent young people from falling out of education, employment or training in future.
Asked by: Patricia Ferguson (Labour - Glasgow West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will (a) review and (b) update the Overseas Scale Rates during 2026.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Overseas Scale Rates are an administrative easement that employers can use to pay or reimburse accommodation and subsistence expenses incurred by employees who have to travel outside the UK without the need to check receipts. Where the rates do not cover the expense incurred employers can check employee receipts to reimburse these costs.
The government keeps all taxes under review as part of the policy making process.
Asked by: Harriet Cross (Conservative - Gordon and Buchan)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what is HM Revenue and Customs' average time for processing income tax rebate claims.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC recognise that repayments are important for customers. They prioritise them and work hard to ensure they are processed as quickly and securely as possible.
HMRC balance the provision of prompt payments to eligible customers with effective revenue protection from fraudsters.
They continue to invest in automation and to review their internal processes to ensure repayments are issued as quickly as possible.
HMRC also understands the importance of keeping the customer, and where appropriate the customer’s representative informed of progress, and are exploring ways of doing that more effectively.
In the meantime, HMRC’s online ‘Where’s My Reply’ tool can help customers understand when they can expect to receive a response.
HMRC does not produce one overall average processing time across all Income Tax repayment routes, because timings differ depending on the repayment type and checks required.
HMRC does not hold a single consolidated measure of outstanding Income Tax repayment claims across all channels, and producing a comprehensive breakdown by the age bands requested would require manual collation from multiple systems. Gathering this data would exceed the cost threshold for answering parliamentary questions.
The majority of Income tax repayment claims are for PAYE and Self Assessment (SA) customers. There are several triggers for PAYE and SA repayments, but for those which involve the customer submitting a claim, these are treated as priority post. HMRC have an agreed and published service standard to clear 80% of priority post within 15 working days of receipt. HMRC’s correspondence performance has improved from 68.2% in April 2025 to 87.8% in November 2025. They publish regular updates on their performance at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-quarterly-performance-updates
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many additional people will pay the higher income child benefit charge in this financial year.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Statistics on the number of people paying the High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC) are published each year as part of the Child Benefit Statistics annual release. The latest figures are available here:
Child Benefit Statistics: annual release, August 2024 - GOV.UK
The next release is due to be published this Spring. Figures are produced with a time lag due to Self-Assessment deadlines.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people paid the Higher Income Child Benefit Charge in (a) 2022, (b) 2023 and (c) 2024.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Statistics on the number of people paying the High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC) are published each year as part of the Child Benefit Statistics annual release. The latest figures are available here:
Child Benefit Statistics: annual release, August 2024 - GOV.UK
The next release is due to be published this Spring. Figures are produced with a time lag due to Self-Assessment deadlines.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an estimate of the average increase in the business rates liability of retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) businesses in London from the Crossrail GLA supplement as a consequence of RHL relief no longer applying to the supplement from 2026-27.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Decisions around the determination and application of local Business Rates Supplement are for the Greater London Authority, who must ensure they follow the requirements set out in the Business Rates Supplement Act 2009 and the policies set out in their final prospectus.