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Written Question
Small Businesses: Finance
Wednesday 10th September 2025

Asked by: Lord Risby (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve access to finance for small and family-run businesses in the light of recent increases in borrowing costs.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

As part of the recent Spending Review and the Government’s Plan for Small and Medium Sized Businesses, this Government has committed to a range of measures to improve access to finance for small and family-run businesses. These include:

  • Expanding the ENABLE Guarantee programme from £3 billion to £5 billion, to help lenders unlock more finance options for small businesses.
  • Scaling up the Start-up Loans to offer 69,000 new businesses the chance of finance and mentoring.
  • Placing the Growth Guarantee Scheme on a long-term footing with funding confirmed until March 2030.

Delivered by the British Business Bank (BBB) through around 50 accredited lenders, the Growth Guarantee Scheme helps SMEs who may not meet traditional creditworthiness criteria, to access debt finance.

Written Question
Income Tax
Wednesday 16th September 2020

Asked by: Lord Risby (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many people are currently paying the additional rate of income tax; and how much they raised from this band over the last financial year.

Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton

The table below contains estimates of additional rate taxpayer numbers and liabilities taxed at the additional rate for the 2019-20 financial year:

Number of taxpayers with total taxable income above the additional rate threshold and tax liabilities at the additional rate

Number of taxpayers (thousands)

450

Total additional rate tax liabilities (£ million)

42,400

Of which:

Tax on earnings (£ million)

35,300

Tax on savings (£ million)

856

Tax on dividends (£ million)

6,290

  1. Taxpayer numbers and liabilities are rounded to three significant figures. Figures may not sum due to rounding.
  2. The figures are based on outturn data derived from the 2017-18 Survey of Personal Incomes (SPI) and projected using economic assumptions consistent with the Office for Budget Responsibility’s March 2020 Economic and Fiscal Outlook.

The estimated number of income tax payers, and liabilities by tax band are published in HMRC’s Income Tax Liabilities Statistics publication.

Written Question
Inheritance Tax
Wednesday 16th September 2020

Asked by: Lord Risby (Conservative - Life peer)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what has been the total yield on inheritance tax collected in each of the last five years.

Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton

HMRC publish information regarding the total amount of Inheritance Tax (IHT) receipts received in each tax year annually in their ‘Inheritance Tax Statistics’ publication.

The latest statistics were published on 30 July 2020. The amount of revenue raised from IHT, irrespective of when the charge to tax arose, is reproduced in the table below, for each of the last five years.

Tax Year

Receipts (£millions)

2015-16

4,673

2016-17

4,840

2017-18

5,218

2018-19

5,384

2019-20

5,161

Source: Table 12.1 Inheritance Tax: Analysis of Receipts. Available online on the GOV.UK website. These figures include both cash and non-cash receipts.