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Written Question
Coinage
Tuesday 29th October 2019

Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many 50 pence coins commemorating the UK leaving the EU have been minted as of 24 October 2019.

Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

We do not comment on the Royal Mint’s production lead times as this is commercially sensitive information.


Written Question
Stamp Duty Land Tax: Foreign Nationals
Monday 28th October 2019

Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 22 October 2019 to Question 1587 on Sleeping Rough, what assessment he has made of the effect of increasing the Stamp Duty Land Tax surcharge on non-UK residents buying residential property to three per cent on the prevalence of rough sleeping in (a) Northern Ireland and (b) England.

Answered by Jesse Norman

The Government has previously announced that the non-resident Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) surcharge will be set at 1%. A costing for how much the surcharge will raise will be produced at a future fiscal event once the final design of the surcharge has been confirmed. This costing will follow the usual process for analysing the revenue impacts of new tax measures, including being subject to scrutiny from the Office for Budget Responsibility.


Written Question
Stamp Duty Land Tax: Foreign Nationals
Monday 28th October 2019

Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 22 October 2019 to Question 1587 on Sleeping Rough, if he will make an estimate of the funding that would be raised for tackling rough sleeping under a Stamp Duty Land Tax surcharge of (a) 1 and (b) 3 per cent on non-UK residents buying residential property in England and Northern Ireland.

Answered by Jesse Norman

The Government has previously announced that the non-resident Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) surcharge will be set at 1%. A costing for how much the surcharge will raise will be produced at a future fiscal event once the final design of the surcharge has been confirmed. This costing will follow the usual process for analysing the revenue impacts of new tax measures, including being subject to scrutiny from the Office for Budget Responsibility.


Written Question
Revenue and Customs: Telephone Services
Friday 25th October 2019

Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 17 October 2019 to Question 69 on Revenue and Customs: Telephone Services, how many calls were (a) received and (b) made by the imports and exports helpline by (i) nation, (ii) region and (iii) sector.

Answered by Jesse Norman

By the 17th October HMRC have made a total of 4421 Inbound calls and 36,732 Outbound calls. HMRC do not collect data on nation, region or sector.


Written Question
Treasury: Health
Friday 25th October 2019

Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department uses Office for National Statistics estimates of personal well-being in formulating policy; and what policies his Department has introduced to improve personal well-being in the last 12 months.

Answered by Simon Clarke

HM Treasury uses ONS wellbeing statistics to inform health and wellbeing policy within the department. The Treasury also measures personal wellbeing through the annual Civil Service People Survey using the same national statistics that the Office for National Statistics (ONS) use for the UK population as a whole. The survey includes personal wellbeing questions covering life satisfaction, worthwhile, happiness and anxiety.

Over the past year the department has implemented the following initiatives to support well-being: access to the Wellbeing Gateway that includes quick guides and links to policy and support for the most common wellbeing issues, development of a Wellbeing Hub detailing all the wellbeing and resilience support and training available; provision of ‘Wellbeing Confident Leader’ workshops to the senior civil service (SCS) staff and introduction of the Stress Talking Toolkit to help with the difficult conversations around stress and mental health.


Written Question
Stamp Duty Land Tax: Foreign Nationals
Tuesday 22nd October 2019

Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether it is still the Government's policy to allocate taxes raised by the stamp duty surcharge on overseas property investors to fund programmes to tackle rough sleeping.

Answered by Jesse Norman

At Budget 2018, the Government announced it would consult on a new Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) surcharge of 1% on non-UK residents buying residential property in England and Northern Ireland.

This measure is designed to help control house price growth, and to ensure that those resident in the UK can get on the housing ladder.

The revenue raised by the surcharge will be used to tackle rough sleeping alongside the £422 million funding announced at the 2019 Spending Review, in addition to the £1.2 billion the Government committed to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping in the last Spending Review period.

The Government consulted on the surcharge earlier this year and is considering the responses.


Written Question
Financial Services
Monday 21st October 2019

Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to page 71 of the Government's No-Deal Readiness Report, what temporary measures will be introduced to create a standalone regime for financial services when the UK leaves the EU; and what estimate he has made of the length of time that each such measure will be in place.

Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

As set out in the Government’s No-Deal Readiness Report, the Government has implemented a range of temporary permissions and transitional regimes for various EEA inbound financial services firms. These regimes will in most cases last three years from exit day, allowing EEA businesses to continue operating as normal in the UK while they go through the process to obtain full UK authorisation or recognition.

While the Government has established the framework for these regimes in legislation, which Parliament has approved, the UK’s financial services regulators have been tasked with administering the operation of these regimes. Further information can be found on the regulators’ websites: https://www.fca.org.uk/brexit and https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/eu-withdrawal.


Written Question
Customs Intermediaries
Thursday 17th October 2019

Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to page 15 of the Government's No-Deal Readiness Report, how many new customs agents have been trained as a result of the £8 million made available for that purpose.

Answered by Jesse Norman

HMRC made £8million available from December 2018 to support customs intermediaries; £3million to increase the number of training courses available and £5million for a grant scheme to increase IT automation and fund places on training courses. A second wave of grants was made available in September 2019, with a £16m investment. Training courses can be for both new employees or to improve the skills of existing ones.

From the first wave of investment: over 3600 training courses were funded as a result of the £3m investment, and 2200 training courses were attended by businesses as a result of the £5m grant scheme, of which 1207 were undertaken by existing customs intermediaries. Employees were able to attend multiple courses so the number of individuals trained in customs procedures may be lower than the overall number of training places funded.

Grants are still being applied for and issued for the second wave of grants so figures for the number of training courses funded are not yet available.


Written Question
Revenue and Customs: Telephone Services
Thursday 17th October 2019

Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many calls have been received by the imports and exports helpline since that helpline has been operational.

Answered by Jesse Norman

The Brexit Imports and Exports Helpline has been available since 18 September 2019. To date, the helpline has received 3271 inbound calls. The helpline has also made 28,800 outbound calls to Traders providing support, advice and signposting to GOV.UK to increase readiness for when the UK exits the EU.
Written Question
Customs
Thursday 17th October 2019

Asked by: Chris Ruane (Labour - Vale of Clwyd)

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to page 15 of the Government's No-Deal Readiness Report, published on 8 October 2019, what the timeframe is for routine checks at borders to recommence in the event of the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

Answered by Jesse Norman

HMRC’s Day 1 model prioritises flow at the border, without compromising security. HMRC will move to a longer term model which minimises administrative burdens while improving compliance and control over time. This will be done in consultation with stakeholders.

The easements for customs that were in place for 12 April will continue to be available to traders, should the UK leave the EU without a deal in October, for at least as long as previously announced.