Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Answer of 28 April 2021 to Question 187297 on National Savings and Investments, what estimate he has made of the date on which the NS&I Green Savings Bond will be available to customers.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Green Savings Bonds were made available to customers via National Savings and Investments on 22 October and will be on sale for a minimum of three months. The 3-year fixed-term savings product with an interest rate of 0.65% will give UK savers the opportunity to take part in the collective effort to tackle climate change. Customers can invest between £100 and £100,000.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the likelihood that the consultation on the pensions charge cap will lead to higher returns for savers.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
This is a matter for the Department for Work and Pensions.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many businesses are affected by the VAT reduction for hospitality, holiday accommodation and attractions in (a) the Scottish Borders and (b) in Scotland.
Answered by Jesse Norman
It is estimated that about 13,000 businesses in Scotland benefit from the VAT reduced rate for hospitality, accommodation and attractions. Estimates are not available for lower level geographic areas.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent progress has been made on the National Savings and Investment's green savings product; and whether the Government has plans to offer that product to savers in summer 2021.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Since the Chancellor’s announcement at Spring Budget 2021 that a Green Savings Bond will be offered through NS&I, work has continued at pace on the development of this product. The Green Savings Bond will be linked to the UK’s sovereign Green Bond framework, due to be published in June 2021, and will give UK savers the opportunity to take part in the collective effort to tackle climate change. Further details on the Green Savings Bond will be published in due course, prior to the product going on sale this summer.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much Gift Aid has been paid to charities in the Scottish Borders in each of the last three years.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The information requested is not readily available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much the Soft Drinks Industry Levy has raised since that Levy was introduced.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
Since its introduction in April 2018, the provisional total for revenue raised from the Soft Drinks Industry Levy up to and including December 2020 is £802 million. This consists of the following amounts raised per financial year:
2018-19: £240 million
2019-20: £337 million
2020-21: £224 million (provisional year to date total covering revenue received between April 2020 and December 2020).
The discrepancy of £1 million between the overall total (£802 million) and the sum of financial year subtotals (£801 million) is due to rounding used by HMRC when producing these statistics.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions he has had with the Scottish Government on freeports.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Freeports will attract new businesses, spreading jobs, investment and opportunity to towns and cities up and down the country.
Last month, I met with the Scottish Government a few days before they publicly announced their intention to work with the UK Government to launch a Freeports bidding process in Scotland before the end of March.
I strongly welcome that announcement and look forward to bringing the benefits of Freeports to Scotland.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of compensating people who were unable to claim child benefit due to delays in receiving their child's birth certificate as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government announced on 7 April 2020 that, as General Register Offices were closed or operating at a reduced capacity during the COVID-19 outbreak, HM Revenue and Customs would allow parents to claim Child Benefit for their newborns without having to register their child’s birth first, to ensure they did not miss out on Child Benefit payments. Child Benefit can be backdated for up to three months.
The press release announcing these measures is at:
www.gov.uk/government/news/dont-miss-out-claim-child-benefit-by-phone-or-post-hmrc-tells-new-parents
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many discounts were claimed as part of the Eat Out to Help Out Scheme in (a) the Scottish Borders, (b) Scotland and (c) the UK.
Answered by Jesse Norman
HMRC have published constituency level data, on claims received up to 27 August 2020, on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/eat-out-to-help-out-scheme-claims-by-parliamentary-constituency. There are also plans to develop a wider official statistics release for the scheme once the Claims Service closes at the end of September.
In addition, HMRC have published data on a weekly basis about registered premises and claims received on GOV.UK.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent comparative assessment he has made of the competitiveness of NS&I and high street bank savings product interest rates.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
NS&I has a core remit to deliver cost-effective financing for government. In effect, customers’ deposits with NS&I are a form of government borrowing, and the rates that NS&I offer impact the cost to government of this borrowing. Rates on NS&I products are kept under review and set in accordance with its operating framework to balance the interests of savers; taxpayers; and the broader financial services sector.