Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether funding for the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan is coming from his Department's existing budgets.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government is backing the plan with over £2.4 billion over the next five years to fund additional education and training places. This is on top of increases to education and training investment, reaching a record £6.1 billion over the next two years.
The education and training budget for 2024-25 was set at the last Spending Review and the Government is working with NHS England to finalise the budget to make sure it reflects recent pay deals.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether annual budget allocations have been made for 2024-25 in relation to the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government is backing the plan with over £2.4 billion over the next five years to fund additional education and training places. This is on top of increases to education and training investment, reaching a record £6.1 billion over the next two years.
The education and training budget for 2024-25 was set at the last Spending Review and the Government is working with NHS England to finalise the budget to make sure it reflects recent pay deals.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the potential impact of HMRC's Research and Development Tax relief reform changes on the number of UK SMEs submitting applications for tax relief.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government is currently undertaking a review of R&D tax reliefs, to ensure the UK remains a competitive location for cutting edge research, that the reliefs continue to be fit for purpose, and that taxpayer money is effectively targeted. A number of reforms have already been announced as part of this review.HMRC has considered the impacts of these measures, and these are set out Tax Information and Impact Notes published alongside any announcements.
HMRC publishes annual statistics on the number of R&D tax relief claims received: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/corporate-tax-research-and-development-tax-credit
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many Research and Development tax credit relief applicants have received repeated requests for information in the last 12 months.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Research and Development tax reliefs are a vital driver of innovation, growth and productivity and are crucial to the government’s pledge to grow the economy. It’s important that these reliefs are easy to claim and are provided quickly to genuine claimants.
HMRC does not record details of the number of additional requests for information, however, HMRC asks for information only where it is needed to support a claimant in justifying their claim.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer ,what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the rise in alcohol duty on the (a) growth and (b) job creation prospects of the Scotch whisky industry.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The potential impacts of the recent changes to alcohol duty rates were published at Spring Budget in HMRC’s Tax Information and Impact Note and can be found online (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/changes-to-alcohol-duty-rates/alcohol-duty-rate-changes#summary-of-impacts).
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has made a recent assessment of the contribution of the Scotch whisky industry to the tourism industry.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The whisky industry is the UK’s largest single food and drink sector, accounting for 25% of the UK’s food and drink exports and 75% of Scottish food and drink exports, impacting 200 markets worldwide. The whisky sector generates £3.3 billion directly to the UK economy, and totals £5.5 billion when Gross Value Added (GVA) is added to the overall to UK Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Research by VisitScotland found that 20% of respondents stated they visited a whisky distillery on their holiday in Scotland, making it one of the top activities for overnight tourists on their trip to Scotland.
Visits to whisky distilleries in Scotland have increased by two thirds since 2010, and over 1000 people are now directly employed in tourism roles which equates to 10% of the industry’s direct employment in Scotland.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many staff working on Research and Development tax relief schemes in HMRC have (a) prior experience in and (b) qualifications relevant to the technological sector.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
HMRC does not expect staff working on Research and Development (R&D tax relief schemes to be experts in the field of technology. That is not required because it is HMRC’s responsibility to ask questions to establish that the claimant understands and has correctly applied the definition of qualifying R&D. HMRC are seeking to gather information to test against the requirements for eligibility.
HMRC staff work with customers to understand the commercial context of their activities and whether they qualify for R&D relief and as part of the checking process. Where HMRC deal with complex matters HMRC staff can seek technical support or specialist advice.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the Financial Conduct Authority's procedures for authorising the association of multiple trading names with a single registration.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is an operationally independent non-governmental body responsible for regulating and supervising the financial services industry. Although the Treasury sets the legal framework for the regulation of financial services, the FCA is responsible for developing and implementing rules, including relating to trading names. Further information on the FCA’s approach is available on its website.
Through the Financial Services Act 2021, the government granted the FCA new powers to remove permissions from firms when they are not carrying out the regulated activities they are permitted to. The FCA has since undertaken a ‘use it or lose it’ exercise, removing firms’ permissions where they are not carrying out regulated activities.
This has seen the FCA carry out 1,090 assessments in 2021/22 and resulted in 264 firms applying to voluntarily cancel, and a further 47 to modify, their permission to carry out regulated activities.
Ministers regularly engage with the FCA on a range of issues while recognising that the independence of the FCA is critical to its functions.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the Financial Conduct Authority's procedures for ensuring that all trading names associated with a single registration are properly authorised.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is an operationally independent non-governmental body responsible for regulating and supervising the financial services industry. Although the Treasury sets the legal framework for the regulation of financial services, the FCA is responsible for developing and implementing rules, including relating to trading names. Further information on the FCA’s approach is available on its website.
Through the Financial Services Act 2021, the government granted the FCA new powers to remove permissions from firms when they are not carrying out the regulated activities they are permitted to. The FCA has since undertaken a ‘use it or lose it’ exercise, removing firms’ permissions where they are not carrying out regulated activities.
This has seen the FCA carry out 1,090 assessments in 2021/22 and resulted in 264 firms applying to voluntarily cancel, and a further 47 to modify, their permission to carry out regulated activities.
Ministers regularly engage with the FCA on a range of issues while recognising that the independence of the FCA is critical to its functions.
Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 23 May 2023 to Question 186387 on Cancer: Vaccination and with reference to the oral contribution of the Secretary of State for Scotland on 29 March 2023, Official Report, column 1000, if he will meet the hon. Member for Edinburgh South to discuss cancer vaccine trials.
Answered by Will Quince
In May this year, the Government published its response to Lord O’Shaughnessy’s Review into Commercial Clinical Trials in the United Kingdom. The response accepted the recommendations from the O'Shaughnessy Review and identified five priority commitments to take forwards in the immediate term, backed by £121 million, all aimed at speeding up the set up and running of commercial clinical trials in the UK.
The UK signed a Memorandum of Understanding with BioNTech in January, bringing their innovative research and development to the whole of the UK. Through the agreement, UK cancer patients will have access to trials exploring personalised mRNA cancer therapies. Ministers regularly meet with parliamentary colleagues across a range of health issues, meeting requests should be sent direct to the Department.