Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government why thresholds for child benefit entitlement do not take into account overall household income, so that families with one earner are sometimes disadvantaged under the current system.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The Government at the Spring Budget set out plans to administer the High Income Child Benefit Charge on a household rather than individual basis by April 2026, and will be consulting on these changes in due course
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to rebalance the burden of taxes to provide a fairer distribution between high street businesses and online companies.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The 2023 business rates revaluation updated ratable values to ensure bills more closely reflect the commercial property market and ensured the burden of rates falls across all non-domestic properties.
Furthermore, at Autumn Statement 2023, the government announced a package of business rates support worth £4.3 billion over the next five years to support small businesses and the high street.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase Government contributions to Tax-free Childcare Allowance.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
Tax-Free Childcare provides financial support for working parents with their childcare costs. For every £8 parents pay into their childcare account, the Government adds £2 up to a maximum of £2,000 in top up per year for each child up to age 11 and up to £4,000 per disabled child until they’re 17.
The Government recognizes the importance of supporting parents with the costs of childcare and continues to support families with a range of other childcare offers, including the free hours offer, and support through Universal Credit childcare.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many businesses are expected to benefit from raising of the threshold for VAT exemption from £85,000 to £90,000 per annum.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
It is expected that 28,000 fewer businesses will need to be VAT registered in 2024 to 2025, and 14,000 fewer on average from 2024 to 2025 to 2028 to 2029.
This information can be found in HM Revenue & Customs’ publication: ‘VAT: increasing the registration and deregistration thresholds’, published 7 March 2024.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the total amount of (1) resource expenditure, and (2) capital expenditure, repurposed from previously allocated funding to form part of the package of overall funding offered to restore devolution in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The UK Government is providing the Northern Ireland Executive with a comprehensive £3.3 billion spending settlement to stabilise public services, better manage public finances and pave the way for transformation of public services.
Within this package, as set out by the UK Government last month, we are providing the Northern Ireland Executive with £708 million to support public services over five years from 2024-25 to 2028-29. This is comprised of £85 million new funding and removing the ring-fence on £623 million of existing Northern Ireland funding streams.
As the £623 million being un-ringfenced is from unallocated Northern Ireland funding streams, none of the Northern Ireland Executive’s block grant has been repurposed as part of the UK Government’s financial package.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what areas of previously allocated expenditure within the Northern Ireland Block Grant were repurposed to form part of the package for restored devolution in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The UK Government is providing the Northern Ireland Executive with a comprehensive £3.3 billion spending settlement to stabilise public services, better manage public finances and pave the way for transformation of public services.
Within this package, as set out by the UK Government last month, we are providing the Northern Ireland Executive with £708 million to support public services over five years from 2024-25 to 2028-29. This is comprised of £85 million new funding and removing the ring-fence on £623 million of existing Northern Ireland funding streams.
As the £623 million being un-ringfenced is from unallocated Northern Ireland funding streams, none of the Northern Ireland Executive’s block grant has been repurposed as part of the UK Government’s financial package.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the warning from the Northern Ireland Fiscal Council that Stormont will face a financial "cliff-edge" in 2026 when money from the Government support package runs out.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
The UK Government is providing the Northern Ireland Executive with a significant funding settlement of over £3.3 billion. This will support the Executive to stabilise public finances and public services in Northern Ireland.
In the longer term, the UK Government has committed to open discussions on a new fiscal framework for Northern Ireland and to introduce a new needs-based factor which will provide a 24% uplift on future Barnett consequentials for the Northern Ireland Executive from 2024-25.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what Barnett consequentials arise for (1) Scotland, (2) Northern Ireland, and (3) Wales, as a result of additional financial support for schools to deal with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton
Education is a devolved matter. The devolved administrations have received funding for schools through the Barnett formula at the last Spending Review and subsequent fiscal events.
The Barnett formula will continue to apply in the usual way to any changes in UK Government departmental budgets at future fiscal events.
We are committed to working collaboratively with our devolved administration counterparts on this issue.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what are the Barnett consequentials, or share of funding for Northern Ireland, of the additional capital funding for transport projects announced at the Conservative Party Conference.
Answered by Baroness Penn
For the Network North transport projects, the Barnett formula will apply when departmental budgets change, not when new or additional funding is announced, as set out in the published Statement of Funding Policy document[1]. All decisions on funding beyond the Spending Review 2021 period will be taken at the next spending review.
[1] Statement_of_Funding_Policy_update_Feb_2023.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what are the implications of the EU's carbon tax for businesses in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Baroness Penn
The EU introduced a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) on 1st October 2023. It is currently in its initial reporting phase which means that EU importers of CBAM goods will have to report on the volume of their imports and the emissions embedded in those products, but without paying any charge at this stage. The UK Government is following developments on the EU CBAM closely and engaging with the Commission to discuss technical detail.