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.
Asked by: Lord Agnew of Oulton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much revenue has been refunded to oil and gas operators in the UK sector of the North Sea through decommissioning tax reliefs under the (1) Petroleum Revenue Tax, (2) Ring Fence Corporation Tax, and (3) Supplementary Charge, in each of the past five years.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Estimates of the cost of decommissioning tax reliefs used by oil and gas companies under the Ring Fence Corporation Tax (RFCT) and Petroleum Revenue Tax (PRT) regimes, are published at tax relief statistics gov.uk [1] This indicates that tax relief for decommissioning expenditure under the Petroleum Revenue Tax regime amounted to £140m in 2019-20, £270m in 2020-21, £350m in 2021-22, £340m in 2022-23, £600m* in 2023-24 and £450m* in 2024-25. Tax relief for the same expenditure under the offshore Corporation Tax regime amounted to £590m in 2019-20, £450m in 2020-21, £560m in 2021-22, £790m in 2022-23, £940m* in 2023-24 and £1bn* in 2024-25. Figures indicated by an asterisk are based on forecasted data.
[ 1] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tax-relief-statistics
Asked by: Lord Agnew of Oulton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the projected total cost to the Exchequer of tax reliefs available for the decommissioning of North Sea oil and gas infrastructure over the next decade; and how much has been claimed in tax reliefs for this purpose since 2010.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Companies operating oil and gas fields in the UK and on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) are required to decommission infrastructure at the end of a field’s life. Tax relief is a normal part of the corporate tax system where there are genuine costs to companies, and so providing tax relief on decommissioning recognises the heavy “end of life” cost for oil and gas projects.
Estimates of the projected total cost of decommissioning relief are published on gov.uk [1]. This indicates a provision of £5.7 billion based on estimated tax repayments of Petroleum Revenue Tax (£2.1 billion) and offshore Corporation Tax (£3.6 billion) by HMRC to companies over the period to 2067 due to losses from decommissioning expenditure. Additionally, the government forecasts a cost of £5.1 billion in the form of foregone offshore Corporation Tax due to decommissioning expenditure being deductible for tax purposes in this regime.
Estimates of the cost of decommissioning tax relief are published at tax relief statistics gov.uk [2] . The latest structural tax relief publication indicates that tax relief for decommissioning expenditure under the Petroleum Revenue Tax regime amounted to £140m in 2019-20, £270m in 2020-21, £350m in 2021-22, £340m in 2022-23, £600m* in 2023-24 and £450m* in 2024-25. Tax relief for the same expenditure under the offshore Corporation Tax regime amounted to £590m in 2019-20, £450m in 2020-21, £560m in 2021-22, £790m in 2022-23, £940m* in 2023-24 and £1bn* in 2024-25. Figures indicated by an asterisk are based on forecasted data.
Where data is available earlier publications set out the cost of tax reliefs for earlier periods. This shows that tax relief for decommissioning expenditure under the Petroleum Revenue Tax amounted to £250m in 2014-15, £420m in 2015-16, £310m in 2016-17, £220m in 2017-18 and £170m in 2018-19. Tax relief for the same expenditure under the offshore Corporation Tax regime amounted to £850m in 2014-15, £540m in 2015-16, £480m in 2016-17, £520m in 2017-18 and £580m in 2018-19.
[1] https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66a8ebc349b9c0597fdb0784/HMRC_annual_report_and_accounts_2023_to_2024.pdf for HMRC’s provision related to future decommissioning tax relief payments, and https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/government-revenues-from-uk-oil-and-gas-production--2/government-revenues-from-oil-and-gas-production-september-2024#exchequer-liability-from-decommissioning for foregone revenue estimates due to the tax deductibility of decommissioning expenditure
[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tax-relief-statics for the past 5 years and earlier statistics are also available on gov.uk ([ARCHIVED CONTENT] Structural tax reliefs - GOV.UK).
Asked by: Lord Agnew of Oulton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to HMRC Government Major Projects Portfolio Data March 2024, published on 16 January, how they have revised their estimated monetised benefits for the Making Tax Digital programme from £2.1 billion to £6.3 billion in the most recent Annual Report; and what methodology changes were applied to account for this increase.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Making Tax Digital (MTD) is key to tackling parts of the tax gap that result from error and failure to take reasonable care, and it is helping taxpayers reduce common mistakes in their tax returns. The benefits increase is mainly due to new and improved data.
In particular, the model was updated to better account for projected increases in customer income which increased the expected number of individuals within the scope of MTD for Income Tax. It also reflects HMRC’s increased estimate of the proportion of the Self Assessment tax gap attributable to error and failure to take reasonable care which were included in the ‘Measuring tax gaps 2023 edition’ publication. Updates also incorporated findings from a published evaluation study on the impact of MTD on VAT.
Estimates will continue to be updated as new information and insight becomes available.