Asked by: Lord Rogan (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact on the economy in Northern Ireland of increasing air passenger duty.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government is committed to securing the long-term future of the aviation sector in the UK and recognises the benefits of the connectivity it creates between the UK and the rest of the world.
Following previous increases to Air Passenger Duty (APD) rates to account for below inflation rates, the government will uprate APD rates in line with RPI from 1 April 2027 and rounded to the nearest penny. This constitutes a real terms freeze.
In 2012, the UK government devolved the power to set direct long-haul APD rates to the Northern Ireland Executive, and the Executive subsequently set these at zero. The UK government continues to set APD rates for short-haul international and domestic flights from Northern Ireland.
Reforms to APD took effect in April 2023, including the introduction of a new band for domestic flights, initially set at half the rate for short-haul international flights. The domestic rate applies to all flights between airports in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland and is currently set at £7 for economy passengers until 31 March 2026.
Asked by: Lord Rogan (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of (1) the number of additional people in Northern Ireland who will pay income tax due to the personal allowance threshold being frozen until 2031, and (2) the anticipated additional tax revenue for HM Treasury.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The number of people forecast to pay tax by marginal rate can be found in Table 3.19 in the OBR’s November 2025 Economic and Fiscal Outlook (EFO). This data reflects the decision made by the previous Government to maintain income tax thresholds at their current levels from April 2021 until April 2028.
3.19 Effect of personal tax threshold freezes on the number of taxpayers in each threshold (millions) [1]
| 2028-29 | 2029-30 | 2030-31 |
Number of taxpayers |
|
|
|
With indexation | 37.4 | 37.9 | 38.4 |
Without indexation | 42.1 | 42.9 | 43.5 |
…brought into income tax | 4.7 | 5.0 | 5.2 |
Number of higher-rate taxpayers |
|
|
|
With indexation | 4.1 | 4.2 | 4.2 |
Without indexation | 8.2 | 8.6 | 8.9 |
…brought into higher-rate band | 4.1 | 4.4 | 4.8 |
Number of additional-rate taxpayers |
|
|
|
Previous £150,000 threshold | 0.9 | 0.9 | 1.0 |
Aligned to the end of PA taper | 1.4 | 1.5 | 1.6 |
…brought into additional-rate band | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.6 |
The latest yield of personal tax measures can be found in Table 3.18 in the OBR’s November 2025 EFO. As above, this data reflects the decision made by the previous Government to maintain income tax thresholds at their current levels from April 2021 until April 2028.
3.18 Latest yield of personal tax measures(£billions) [2]
| 2028-29 | 2029-30 | 2030-31 |
Changes to thresholds | 54.3 | 60.3 | 66.6 |
Asked by: Lord Rogan (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government how much funding they have allocated to Northern Ireland under the Barnett Formula as a consequence of spending on HS2; and how much additional funding they expect to allocate to Northern Ireland as a consequence of the project in each of the next five years.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Block Grant Transparency publication breaks down all changes in the devolved governments’ block grant funding from the 2015 Spending Review up to and including Main Estimates 2023-24. Where funding for HS2 has been allocated at a fiscal event or Estimates, the publication will confirm the total Barnett consequentials received by the Northern Ireland Executive. The most recent report was published in July 2023 [1]. An updated report will be published in due course.
At Spending Reviews, the Barnett formula is applied to the overall change in a department’s settlement using departmental comparability factors. This means that Barnett consequentials generated in relation to HS2 specifically cannot be determined.
[1] You can access this report via the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/block-grant-transparency-july-2023
Asked by: Lord Rogan (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Lord Timpson on 13 May (HL Deb col 2055), how much of the extra £1 billion for policing will be allocated to Northern Ireland.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
As set out in the 2025-26 final police funding settlement, overall funding for the policing system in England and Wales will be up to £19.6 billion, an increase of up to £1.1 billion when compared to the 2024-25 funding settlement
This funding is for England and Wales. Policing is devolved in Northern Ireland and so the Barnett formula was applied in the normal way to the Home Office DEL budget, providing Barnett consequentials to the Northern Ireland Executive.
The Northern Ireland Executive's Phase 1 Spending Review settlement is the largest in real terms of any settlement since devolution, at £18.2 billion in 2025-26, including an additional £1.5 billion through the operation of the Barnett formula.
Asked by: Lord Rogan (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what are the Barnett consequentials for Northern Ireland following its agreement of a new funding package for community pharmacies in England.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Barnett formula applies to all increases or decreases to UK Government Departmental Expenditure Limits (DEL). As the Community Pharmacy Contract is being funded from within existing Department for Health and Social Care’s budgets, there will be no additional Barnett consequentials for the devolved governments. The Barnett formula has already been applied to funding previously allocated at the Budget in October 2024 and Phase 1 of Spending Review 2025 for 2025-26.
The Block Grant Transparency publication breaks down all changes in the devolved governments’ block grant funding from the 2015 Spending Review up to and including Main Estimates 2023-24. The most recent report was published in July 2023, and the next version of the Block Grant Transparency will be published in due course.
The Northern Ireland Executive’s 2025-26 Spending Review settlement is the largest settlement in real terms of any since devolution and ensures that the Northern Ireland Executive continues to receive over 24% more per person than equivalent UK Government spending in the rest of the UK, including the 2024 restoration financial package.
Asked by: Lord Rogan (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to provide mitigation to community pharmacies in Northern Ireland before the increase in employers’ National Insurance contributions comes into effect in April.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
At Autumn Budget 2024, the Government provided funding to the public sector to support them with the additional cost associated with changes to Employer National Insurance Contributions.
The Northern Ireland Executive will receive funding through the Barnett formula for any changes to UK Government budgets, including this additional support, in the usual way in 2025-26. This is the normal operation of the funding arrangements as set out in the Statement of Funding Policy.
This funding will be in addition to the Northern Ireland Executive’s record Spending Review settlements for 2025-26, which are the largest in real terms of any settlements since devolution.
Barnett-based funding for the Northern Ireland Executive is not ringfenced for a specific policy area. This allows the Northern Ireland Executive the flexibility to allocate its funding across devolved areas according to its own priorities and local circumstances, including community pharmacies in Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Lord Rogan (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan for the Chancellor of the Exchequer to visit Northern Ireland to discuss how it can play its full part in growing the UK economy.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Chancellor of the Exchequer looks forward to visiting Northen Ireland when diary scheduling allows.
Asked by: Lord Rogan (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government why representatives of the UK media were refused permission to accompany the Chancellor of the Exchequer on her visit to China; and whether representatives of the government of China were consulted before this decision was made.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government is taking a consistent, long term and strategic approach to managing the UK’s relations with China, rooted in UK. This means cooperating where we can, competing where we need to, and challenging where we must.
The Chancellor’s visit to China for the 2025 UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue was consistent with this approach and was the UK’s first substantive engagement with China on nationally important economic and financial issues in five years. The Chancellor was accompanied by a small delegation as we looked to re-open dialogue and respectfully yet robustly strengthen our lines of communication.
The Chancellor took questions from journalists from UK and international media organisations while she was in Beijing and representatives of the government of China were aware of these plans before the fact.
The government published a press statement about the Chancellor’s visit on Saturday 11 January. [1.]
1 - UK Government, 11 January 2025. Chancellor marks £600m of secure growth for UK economy in Beijing. [Available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/chancellor-marks-600m-of-secure-growth-for-uk-economy-in-beijing]
Asked by: Lord Rogan (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they conducted an impact analysis before capping Agricultural Property Relief on inheritance tax at £1 million for Northern Ireland farmers; and if so, whether they will publish the results.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government published information about the reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief at GOV.UK.
It is expected that up to around 2,000 estates will be affected by the changes to Agricultural Property Relief (APR) and Business Property Relief (BPR). Up to around 520 of these are expected to relate to claims for APR (including those that also claim for BPR), and this number falls to around 430 when claims that include AIM shares are excluded. Almost three-quarters of estates claiming agricultural property relief (or those claiming agricultural property relief and business property relief together) each year are expected to be unaffected by these reforms.
In accordance with standard practice, a tax information and impact note will be published alongside the draft legislation before the relevant Finance Bill.
Asked by: Lord Rogan (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Penn on 12 July (HL9073), how enabling duty-free shopping between Northern Ireland and the EU would "undermine frictionless trade with the EU"; and why this is not the case in relation to trade between Great Britain and the EU.
Answered by Baroness Penn
Introducing duty free shopping between Northern Ireland and the EU (which includes the Republic of Ireland) would require implementing allowances for the movement of these goods, to stop the uncontrolled flow of tax-free goods into either Northern Ireland or the EU (including the Republic of Ireland). These allowances would require enforcement. Therefore, if this were to be implemented, controls on the movement of goods between NI and the Republic of Ireland would be required, contravening the shared ambitions of the UK, Ireland and the EU.
By contrast, the movement of goods between the EU and Great Britain is subject to full third-country controls. This enables the enforcement of allowances for duty-free goods for passengers travelling into and out of Great Britain.