Asked by: Lord Agnew of Oulton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much HMRC received in voluntary National Insurance contributions between 1 October 2024 and 31 March 2025, and what estimate they have made of the projected total lifetime cost of the associated state pension entitlements.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC does not have comprehensive records showing the total number of people who have purchased missing qualifying years, or the full value of these contributions paid across the range of available payment channels. As such, DWP have not been able to estimate the additional State Pension lifetime entitlement associated with these payments.
However, since the online State Pension forecast service was launched on 29 April 2024, 138,000 people have paid £180 million of contributions through this service.
HMRC collects residency and tax contribution history as part of the application process for paying voluntary National Insurance contributions . However, the cost of producing reliable statistics would represent a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Agnew of Oulton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the total projected lifetime cost to the Treasury of state pension entitlements arising from voluntary National Insurance contributions since 2013; and whether HMRC collects data on the residency or tax contribution history of individuals making such contributions, including during the 2023 to 2025 period when up to 18 years of back-payments were permitted.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC does not have comprehensive records showing the total number of people who have purchased missing qualifying years, or the full value of these contributions paid across the range of available payment channels. As such, DWP have not been able to estimate the additional State Pension lifetime entitlement associated with these payments.
However, since the online State Pension forecast service was launched on 29 April 2024, 138,000 people have paid £180 million of contributions through this service.
HMRC collects residency and tax contribution history as part of the application process for paying voluntary National Insurance contributions . However, the cost of producing reliable statistics would represent a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Agnew of Oulton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much HMRC has received in each tax year since 2013 from voluntary National Insurance contributions made to purchase missing qualifying years for the UK state pension; and how many additional qualifying years of entitlement were created in each year as a result.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC does not have comprehensive records showing the total number of people who have purchased missing qualifying years, or the full value of these contributions paid across the range of available payment channels. As such, DWP have not been able to estimate the additional State Pension lifetime entitlement associated with these payments.
However, since the online State Pension forecast service was launched on 29 April 2024, 138,000 people have paid £180 million of contributions through this service.
HMRC collects residency and tax contribution history as part of the application process for paying voluntary National Insurance contributions . However, the cost of producing reliable statistics would represent a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Agnew of Oulton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the publication on 19 February of Current PFI and PF2 projects as at 31 March 2024, why data for 273 projects does not include one or more of (1) the date of the Official Journal of the European Union, (2) the date of preferred bidder and (3) the date of financial close.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
For the 273 projects lacking information on (1) the date of the Official Journal of the European Union, (2) the date of preferred bidder, and (3) the date of financial close, this is because the relevant data has not been provided to His Majesty's Government by the responsible department or contracting authority. The data published on 19 February regarding Current PFI and PF2 projects as of 31 March 2024 is not audited by His Majesty's Treasury or the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (now NISTA, the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority, as of 1 April). NISTA continues to collaborate with departments to enhance the quality and reliability of the data.
Asked by: Lord Agnew of Oulton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the publication on 21 January of the State of digital government review, whether the estimated £45 billion in annual savings and productivity benefits from full digitisation of public sector services was included in the scoring of (1) the Spring Statement 2025, or (2) the Economic and Fiscal Outlook published in March by the Office for Budget Responsibility; and if not, whether they intend to revise fiscal projections to reflect those savings.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The figure of £45 billion in annual savings and productivity gains represents the long-term potential benefits of the digital transformation of the public sector. The ‘Blueprint for modern digital government’ sets out the vision for modern digital government in the UK, and Spending Review 2025 will set out the next steps to reforming the public services. Judgements on the economic and fiscal impacts of government policy are for the independent Office for Budget Responsibility.
Asked by: Lord Agnew of Oulton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government on which date each department submitted their final costings for new policy measures included in the Spring Statement 2025, and how many were submitted after the certification deadline set by the Office for Budget Responsibility.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The OBR certification deadline refers to Policy Costing Notes. These documents outline the methodology used for costing policies. The OBR scrutinise them to determine that the costing is reasonable and central.
HM Treasury submitted notes for all policies to the OBR in advance of the certification deadline and an initial policy package was certified by the OBR.
The OBR noted in their March 2025 Economic and Fiscal Outlook that 'relatively small changes were made to the policy parameters of two welfare measures following the costings certification deadline', the changes to the Universal Credit Health Element, and the Universal Credit Standard Allowance.
The OBR did not certify the costings for the final policy design for these measures, although they noted that the relatively small size of the changes means they 'do not expect this will have a material impact on the costings'.
Asked by: Lord Agnew of Oulton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the publication on 19 February of Current PFI and PF2 projects as at 31 March 2024, what assessment they have made of the total remaining public liability across all PFI contracts where (1) no equity holder is named, and (2) the special purpose vehicle is registered offshore.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
His Majesty’s Government is aware of a total of £5,242m of public liability across all PFI contracts represented by 33 projects, where the contracting authority has indicated they do not know who the equity holders are, and 44 projects, where the contracting authority has indicated they know who the equity holders are, but have not provided data to His Majesty’s Government. To our knowledge no Special Purpose Vehicles are registered off shore.
This information is provided by the central government departments and devolved administrations that have procured or sponsored projects and represents 98.7% of PFI projects on the portfolio provided a data return in 2024. With the eight projects that did not provide a return, the most recently available data from previous years is used.
Asked by: Lord Agnew of Oulton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the publication on 19 February of Current PFI and PF2 projects as at 31 March 2024, what is the total value of all unitary charge payments made on projects with (1) no equity holders listed, and (2) equity holders listed as "not known", in 2023–24.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The value of those charge payments where no equity holder is listed, where the contracting authority has indicated they do not know who the equity holders are, is £5,570m across 33 projects. Where the contracting authority has indicated they know who equity holders are but have not provided the information to His Majesty’s Government, thereby making it “not known”, represents £8,872m across 44 projects. Cumulatively both represent a total value of £14,442m for unitary charge payments made on projects.
Asked by: Lord Agnew of Oulton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the publication on 19 February of Current PFI and PF2 projects as at 31 March 2024, what steps they take to detect when (1) equity holders, or (2) special purpose vehicles, transfer ownership of their stake in a project without notifying the contracting authority; and how often this has occurred in the last five years.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Infrastructure and Project Authority, now the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority as of the 1st April, collects data annually on PFI projects. This includes for each Special Purpose Vehicle the UK registered company number, name and address and the name of the equity holders (investors) in the Special Purpose Vehicle. Standard contract drafting provides that a contractor shall inform an authority as soon as reasonably practicable, and in any event within [30] days, of any change of ownership occurring. This information is collated and published annually.
Asked by: Lord Agnew of Oulton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many decommissioning relief deeds (DRDs) have been entered into since their introduction; how many DRDs have been triggered to date; what estimate they have made of the cost of the resulting total payments; and what estimate they have made of the potential future liability arising from all active DRDs.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government lays a Written Ministerial Statement in Parliament each year updating on the progress of its Decommissioning Relief Deed (DRD) policy. The latest statement was made on 21 March 2024 covering the 2022-23 financial year and indicates 108 DRDs had been signed as of this date. The statement also reports several DRD payments, which relate to 2 DRD claims. The next statement will be laid in due course.
HM Treasury recognise a provision when an amount can be reliably measured and a DRD claim is notified or a DRD claim is pending. These provisions are set out in the Treasury’s Annual Report and Accounts (ARA). The ARA for 2023-2024 indicates a provision of £227m in relation to claims as of the 31 March 2024. The next ARA will be laid ahead of parliamentary summer recess.
The ARA does not include an estimate of the overall financial effect of DRDs because it is unquantifiable. The likelihood of economic conditions at the individual firm level, required for DRD claims to be admissible, cannot be accurately estimated due to the absence of comparable data to use in any calculation.