Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for economic growth of the proportion of UK household wealth held directly in equities being lower than in other G7 countries.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government wants to see more people benefit from the higher returns and long-term financial resilience that investing can provide, which will also benefit UK capital markets and the wider economy. That is why the Chancellor has set out a series of bold measures to get Britain investing again, including the reforms to ISAs announced at Autumn Budget.
The Government and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are working closely with the industry-led initiatives to promote the benefits of investing to the public, and to reform how firms talk about the risks and benefits of investing.
In addition, HM Treasury has worked closely with the FCA on the introduction of targeted support, which went live on 6 April. This allows authorised firms, with the relevant permission, to provide customers with proactive help on investment decisions, including suggesting specific products – helping people to act on information and make choices that are right for their circumstances.
In the longer term, HM Treasury is working closely with the Department for Education to strengthen financial education. As part of the Financial Inclusion Strategy, published in November 2025, the Government announced that financial education will be made compulsory in primary schools in England, alongside a renewed focus on financial education in secondary schools.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of high levels of household cash savings on long-term financial resilience and returns for UK consumers.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government wants to see more people benefit from the higher returns and long-term financial resilience that investing can provide, which will also benefit UK capital markets and the wider economy. That is why the Chancellor has set out a series of bold measures to get Britain investing again, including the reforms to ISAs announced at Autumn Budget.
The Government and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are working closely with the industry-led initiatives to promote the benefits of investing to the public, and to reform how firms talk about the risks and benefits of investing.
In addition, HM Treasury has worked closely with the FCA on the introduction of targeted support, which went live on 6 April. This allows authorised firms, with the relevant permission, to provide customers with proactive help on investment decisions, including suggesting specific products – helping people to act on information and make choices that are right for their circumstances.
In the longer term, HM Treasury is working closely with the Department for Education to strengthen financial education. As part of the Financial Inclusion Strategy, published in November 2025, the Government announced that financial education will be made compulsory in primary schools in England, alongside a renewed focus on financial education in secondary schools.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking with other Government departments to improve (i) financial education and (ii) investment literacy among the public.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government wants to see more people benefit from the higher returns and long-term financial resilience that investing can provide, which will also benefit UK capital markets and the wider economy. That is why the Chancellor has set out a series of bold measures to get Britain investing again, including the reforms to ISAs announced at Autumn Budget.
The Government and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are working closely with the industry-led initiatives to promote the benefits of investing to the public, and to reform how firms talk about the risks and benefits of investing.
In addition, HM Treasury has worked closely with the FCA on the introduction of targeted support, which went live on 6 April. This allows authorised firms, with the relevant permission, to provide customers with proactive help on investment decisions, including suggesting specific products – helping people to act on information and make choices that are right for their circumstances.
In the longer term, HM Treasury is working closely with the Department for Education to strengthen financial education. As part of the Financial Inclusion Strategy, published in November 2025, the Government announced that financial education will be made compulsory in primary schools in England, alongside a renewed focus on financial education in secondary schools.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to ensure that regulatory frameworks support greater access to low-cost retail investment products.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government wants to see more people benefit from the higher returns and long-term financial resilience that investing can provide, which will also benefit UK capital markets and the wider economy. That is why the Chancellor has set out a series of bold measures to get Britain investing again, including the reforms to ISAs announced at Autumn Budget.
The Government and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are working closely with the industry-led initiatives to promote the benefits of investing to the public, and to reform how firms talk about the risks and benefits of investing.
In addition, HM Treasury has worked closely with the FCA on the introduction of targeted support, which went live on 6 April. This allows authorised firms, with the relevant permission, to provide customers with proactive help on investment decisions, including suggesting specific products – helping people to act on information and make choices that are right for their circumstances.
In the longer term, HM Treasury is working closely with the Department for Education to strengthen financial education. As part of the Financial Inclusion Strategy, published in November 2025, the Government announced that financial education will be made compulsory in primary schools in England, alongside a renewed focus on financial education in secondary schools.
Asked by: Callum Anderson (Labour - Buckingham and Bletchley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking to encourage greater participation in equity investment among UK households.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government wants to see more people benefit from the higher returns and long-term financial resilience that investing can provide, which will also benefit UK capital markets and the wider economy. That is why the Chancellor has set out a series of bold measures to get Britain investing again, including the reforms to ISAs announced at Autumn Budget.
The Government and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are working closely with the industry-led initiatives to promote the benefits of investing to the public, and to reform how firms talk about the risks and benefits of investing.
In addition, HM Treasury has worked closely with the FCA on the introduction of targeted support, which went live on 6 April. This allows authorised firms, with the relevant permission, to provide customers with proactive help on investment decisions, including suggesting specific products – helping people to act on information and make choices that are right for their circumstances.
In the longer term, HM Treasury is working closely with the Department for Education to strengthen financial education. As part of the Financial Inclusion Strategy, published in November 2025, the Government announced that financial education will be made compulsory in primary schools in England, alongside a renewed focus on financial education in secondary schools.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer to Question UIN 123141, of 31 March 2026, if she knows when the OBR expect to publish their first set of areas of research interest.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has full discretion over the timing of its publication programme.
The November 2025 Economic and Fiscal Outlook stated that the OBR will be publishing its first set of areas of research interest in the coming months.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department has used artificial intelligence to assist with drafting (a) legislation and (b) policy in the past 12 months.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
AI is not used by the department to draft legislation.
Officials use AI tools in combination with a range of evidence, collaboration, challenge and technology to deliver policy drafts. They use their judgement and a variety of data sources to apply a critical lens to their advice and analysis to ensure high quality.
Officials use HMT-GPT, the department’s internal AI tool, and Copilot, which are both secure and quality assured for civil service use. Guidance and training for responsible AI usage is provided to staff, making it clear that tools are designed to assist with work, not to replace colleagues in decision making processes.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 16 April 2026 to Question 126551, what steps she is taking to ensure that the merits of the HMRC approved software to the user are maintained for the remainder of this Parliament.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government has ensured a wide range of MTD-compatible software is available to support businesses of all budgets and sizes, and will continue to work closely with the software industry to ensure that Making Tax Digital (MTD) software meets the needs of taxpayers.
Software providers must meet a clear set of criteria and Terms of Use for their products to be recognised as MTD-compatible. These include requirements on security, data protection and accessibility, as well as the ability to support core user journeys and portability of data.
A taxpayer is not locked into a single MTD-compatible software product and can change provider at any time. As their business needs evolve over time, taxpayers may find alternative software becomes the most appropriate option for their circumstances.
HMRC has published guidance to support taxpayers in finding the right software here:
www.gov.uk/guidance/find-software-that-works-with-making-tax-digital-for-income-tax
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential a) merits of extending the R&D Expenditure Credit to include capital expenditure and the b) impact of that measure on allowing start-ups and pre-profit companies to invest and scale in the UK.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
At Autumn Budget 2024, the Government made a number of commitments on R&D tax reliefs as part of the Corporate Tax Roadmap to provide the stability and certainty that help support investment decisions. The Government committed to maintaining the generosity of the rates in both the merged R&D Expenditure Credit (RDEC) scheme and the Enhanced R&D Intensive Support (ERIS). This, combined with the commitment to cap the headline rate of Corporation Tax, means that companies doing qualifying R&D will continue to receive between £15 to £27 for every £100 spent on R&D.
The RDEC rate of 20 per cent represents the joint highest uncapped headline rate of R&D tax relief in the G7 for large companies, and the ERIS scheme will provide around £1.3 billion per year to eligible R&D-intensive, loss-making SMEs. Overall, R&D reliefs will support an estimated £56 billion of business R&D expenditure in 2029/30, roughly a 20 per cent increase from £47 billion in 2022/23.
Companies are not currently able to claim R&D reliefs on capital expenditure, but the Government keeps the whole tax system under review.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her department has made on the potential impact of the changes to umbrella company regulations on non-profit umbrella providers.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
From 6 April 2026, recruitment agencies are responsible for ensuring that Pay As You Earn and National Insurance contributions obligations are met when they choose to use an umbrella company to engage a worker. Where these obligations are not met, HMRC will recover underpayments from the recruitment agency. If there is no recruitment agency involved in an arrangement with an umbrella company, this responsibility will fall to the end client business.
These rules apply to all umbrella companies, regardless of corporate structure. They do not change the amount that umbrella companies, including not-for-profit umbrella companies, have to account for under Pay As You Earn when they pay their employees. The government keeps tax policies under review. However, there are no plans to change the treatment of not-for-profit umbrella companies within these rules.