Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what comparative assessment he has made of the level of financial support for workers provided by (a) the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and (b) governments in other countries that are similarly affected by the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Jesse Norman
On 12 May, the Chancellor announced an extension of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme until the end of October. The scheme has been extended in full until the end of July, with changes concerning part-time working and employer contributions from August. The Government will keep all policies under review, and monitors the economic support packages for workers implemented by other governments around the world. Several other countries (such as Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada) have announced similar measures.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of people in the Scottish Borders who have been furloughed as part of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Applications for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) opened on Monday 20th April. As of Thursday 23rd April HMRC had received about 512,000 claims with a total value of around £4.5bn.
This is a new scheme and HMRC are currently working through the analysis they will be able to provide based on the data available. HMRC will make the timescales for publication and the types of data available in due course.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people are using Help to Save in Scotland.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
HMRC has published the number of opened Help to Save accounts registered to addresses in Scotland to end-January 2020. The following link provides the latest edition of this publication:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/help-to-save-statistics
12,050 accounts had been opened and registered to addresses in Scotland to end-January 2020.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has any plans to reduce stamp duty rates.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government keeps all taxes under review as part of the usual tax policy making process. Tax changes, including changes to Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT), are generally announced at the Autumn Budget, where decisions are taken in the round.
SDLT is an important source of government revenue, raising several billion pounds each year to help pay the essential public services. Therefore, any changes to SDLT would have to be carefully considered given the potential effect on public finances.
Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) was devolved to Scotland by the Scotland Act 2012 and subsequently replaced with the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax in April 2015.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Government has any plans to review or amend the Barnett formula.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
The 2017 government manifesto committed to continue to use the Barnett formula. The Barnett formula is simple, mechanical and transparent, and has stood the test of time with successive governments committing to its retention.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has plans to raise the higher rate threshold of income tax and what assessment he has made of the potential effect of a raise in that threshold on the (a) Scottish Government block grant and (b) tax differential between Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government is committed to keeping taxes low to support working people to keep more of what they earn and to encourage individuals to progress.
This is why the Government met its commitment to raise the higher rate threshold to £50,000, one year early. This has ensured that nearly 1 million fewer people pay the higher rate of tax compared to 2015-16.
Decisions on the Higher Rate Threshold and the National Insurance Contributions (NICs)s Upper Earnings Limit and Upper Profits Limit are taken by the Chancellor at fiscal events.
The mechanism through which the changes to income tax policy affect the Scottish Government’s block grant are set out in the Scottish Government’s Fiscal Framework. When the UK Governments increases the Higher Rate Threshold, the Scottish Government receives an increase to their block grant commensurate to the Higher Rate Threshold increase. National Insurance Contributions are reserved to the UK government, and therefore any changes to NICs do not affect the Scottish Government’s block grant.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has plans to change the level of national insurance paid at the upper earnings limit and what assessment he has made of the potential of effect of that change on the (a) Scottish Government block grant and (b) tax differential between Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government is committed to keeping taxes low to support working people to keep more of what they earn and to encourage individuals to progress.
This is why the Government met its commitment to raise the higher rate threshold to £50,000, one year early. This has ensured that nearly 1 million fewer people pay the higher rate of tax compared to 2015-16.
Decisions on the Higher Rate Threshold and the National Insurance Contributions (NICs)s Upper Earnings Limit and Upper Profits Limit are taken by the Chancellor at fiscal events.
The mechanism through which the changes to income tax policy affect the Scottish Government’s block grant are set out in the Scottish Government’s Fiscal Framework. When the UK Governments increases the Higher Rate Threshold, the Scottish Government receives an increase to their block grant commensurate to the Higher Rate Threshold increase. National Insurance Contributions are reserved to the UK government, and therefore any changes to NICs do not affect the Scottish Government’s block grant.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has any plans to reduce corporation tax.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Since 2010 the Government has successively reduced the UK Corporation Tax rate to support businesses both large and small. Now at 19% the UK Corporation Tax is currently the lowest in the G20. In April 2020 the Government will reduce the UK Corporation tax rate further to 17%.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he will take to reduce bank closures in rural areas.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government recognises that the closure of bank branches is a very important issue for many people, particularly in rural communities. However, banking service providers need to balance customer interests and other commercial factors when considering their strategies. Although the Government understands the dissatisfaction, it is right that decisions on opening and closing branches are taken by the management team of each bank on a commercial basis and the Government does not intervene in these decisions.
Government cannot reverse the changes in the market and in customer behaviour; nor can it determine firms’ commercial strategies in response to those changes. In 2018, two-thirds of UK adults used contactless payments, 72% used online banking and 48% used mobile banking, according to UK Finance. The Government is committed to ensuring that all areas of the UK benefit from world class digital connectivity, and we have invested heavily to meet that ambition. The £1.8bn superfast programme has ensured that 96% of the UK has access to download speeds of at least 24Mbps. For those premises that do not have access to download speeds of at least 10 Mbps, the Government have introduced the Universal Service Obligation (USO), which allows people to request a USO connection from the designated Universal Service provider, BT, from March 2020.
However, the Government still firmly believes that the impact of branch closures should be understood, considered, and mitigated where possible so that all customers, wherever they live, continue to have access to over-the-counter banking services if they wish to use them. That is why the Government is in full support of the voluntary Access to Banking Standard that the major high-street banks are signed up to. This commits them to keep customers well informed about branch closures, and to set out their reasons for closures and the alternative options for continued access to services. It is also why the Government supports the Post Office Banking Framework Agreement, which enables 99% of personal customers and 95% of small business customers to carry out their everyday banking at one of the Post Office’s 11,500 branches.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people have benefited from the Help to Buy ISA and how much this is in monetary terms in (a) Scotland and (b) Berwickshire, Roxburgh & Selkirk.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Since the Help to Buy: ISA’s launch in 1 December 2015 till 31 December 2018, the Government has paid out 23,960 bonuses to individuals purchasing a home in Scotland, with a total value of £20,326,852. In Berwickshire, Roxburgh & Selkirk, 261 bonuses have been paid, with a total value of £198,112.