Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to WPQ 122859 answered on 31 March 2026, on Business Rates. Gyms and Leisure Centres, whether she hold discussions with the leisure centre and gym sector on the impact of business rates on the financial sustainability of the sector.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HM Treasury Ministers and officials have regular discussions with representatives from across the retail, hospitality, and leisure sectors, including gyms and leisure centres, to understand the impact of business rates on the sector’s financial sustainability.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 26 March 2026 to Question 121856 on VAT Fraud, what steps she is taking to monitor the effectiveness of the (a) additional controls to strengthen systems and (b) the work of the Fraud Prevention Centre to tackle levels of cases of organised criminals accessing VAT accounts using customers' registration details and fraudulently claiming VAT refunds.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Work to tackle fraud in claiming VAT refunds is carried out by a range of compliance, counter fraud and operational teams across HMRC. Controls introduced to tackle fraudulent VAT refunds include new reporting routes for customers, strengthened incident management processes, and the deployment of technical enhancements. The improvements in identification and response to VAT repayment fraud are monitored through the reduction in attempts to fraudulently access customer accounts (based on specific criminal methods) and submit fraudulent repayment requests.
The developing Fraud Prevention Centre works collaboratively with specialist teams across the department, including the Risk & Intelligence Service, which leads on detection of VAT repayment fraud, and the Fraud Investigation Service, which leads on criminal and civil investigations. Together this supports HMRC in assessing criminal success rates are reducing, whether VAT fraud controls remain effective, and informs the continued development of the Centre’s capability, tooling and specialist fraud expertise during 2026/27.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 21 January 2026 to Question 105219 on Small Businesses: Business Rates, what recent discussions she has had with small businesses on the Government's work to develop a redesigned transitional relief scheme and a supporting small business scheme.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government regularly engages with a range of businesses and their representative bodies across different sectors to discuss business rates.
The Government has introduced a support package worth £4.3 billion to protect against ratepayers seeing large overnight increases in bills following the revaluation. This includes a redesigned Transitional Relief scheme and an expanded Supporting Small Business scheme.
As a result of these measures, most properties seeing increases have them capped at 15 per cent or less in 2026/27, or £800 for the smallest.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions she has had with the leisure centre and gym sector on the impact of business rates on the financial sustainability of that sector.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
At the Budget, the VOA announced updated property values from the 2026 revaluation. This revaluation is the first since the pandemic, which has led to significant increases in rateable values for some properties as they recover from the pandemic.
To respond to those who are seeing large increases, Government has already acted to limit increases in bills, announcing a support package worth £4.3 billion package at the Budget.
The Government is also introducing new permanently lower tax rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties. These new tax rates are worth nearly £1 billion per year and will benefit over 750,000 properties.
The Government published information on the effects of the changes to business rates made at Budget 2025 here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/effects-of-the-business-rates-retail-hospitality-and-leisure-multipliers-and-high-value-multiplier/effects-of-the-business-rates-retail-hospitality-and-leisure-multipliers-and-high-value-multiplier#multipliers
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will have discussions with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on the impact of business rate costs on the ability of the gym and leisure centre sector to provide services for the health and wellbeing of communities.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
At the Budget, the VOA announced updated property values from the 2026 revaluation. This revaluation is the first since the pandemic, which has led to significant increases in rateable values for some properties as they recover from the pandemic.
To respond to those who are seeing large increases, Government has already acted to limit increases in bills, announcing a support package worth £4.3 billion package at the Budget.
The Government is also introducing new permanently lower tax rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties. These new tax rates are worth nearly £1 billion per year and will benefit over 750,000 properties.
The Government published information on the effects of the changes to business rates made at Budget 2025 here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/effects-of-the-business-rates-retail-hospitality-and-leisure-multipliers-and-high-value-multiplier/effects-of-the-business-rates-retail-hospitality-and-leisure-multipliers-and-high-value-multiplier#multipliers
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will introduce updated guidance for the inclusion of community and independent gym and leisure facilities within RHL relief categories.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
At the Budget, the VOA announced updated property values from the 2026 revaluation. This revaluation is the first since the pandemic, which has led to significant increases in rateable values for some properties as they recover from the pandemic.
To respond to those who are seeing large increases, Government has already acted to limit increases in bills, announcing a support package worth £4.3 billion package at the Budget.
The Government is also introducing new permanently lower tax rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties. These new tax rates are worth nearly £1 billion per year and will benefit over 750,000 properties.
The Government published information on the effects of the changes to business rates made at Budget 2025 here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/effects-of-the-business-rates-retail-hospitality-and-leisure-multipliers-and-high-value-multiplier/effects-of-the-business-rates-retail-hospitality-and-leisure-multipliers-and-high-value-multiplier#multipliers
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of business rates on the sustainability of the leisure centre and gym sector.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
At the Budget, the VOA announced updated property values from the 2026 revaluation. This revaluation is the first since the pandemic, which has led to significant increases in rateable values for some properties as they recover from the pandemic.
To respond to those who are seeing large increases, Government has already acted to limit increases in bills, announcing a support package worth £4.3 billion package at the Budget.
The Government is also introducing new permanently lower tax rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure (RHL) properties. These new tax rates are worth nearly £1 billion per year and will benefit over 750,000 properties.
The Government published information on the effects of the changes to business rates made at Budget 2025 here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/effects-of-the-business-rates-retail-hospitality-and-leisure-multipliers-and-high-value-multiplier/effects-of-the-business-rates-retail-hospitality-and-leisure-multipliers-and-high-value-multiplier#multipliers
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions she has had with the road haulage sector on the financial impact of [i] forthcoming changes to fuel duty and [ii] changes in oil prices due to the conflict in the Middle East on road hauliers.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recognises the key role the haulage sector plays in the UK economy. The Government is taking action to ensure that fuel at the pump remains affordable. At Budget 2025, the Government extended the 5p-per-litre cut for a further five months, until the end of August this year. The Government has also cancelled the increase in line with inflation for 2026/27; instead, rates will only gradually return to early 2022 levels by March 2027.
The Government's action on fuel duty will save an average heavy goods vehicle more than £800 in 2026/27 compared to previous plans, and follows an extended period where freezes to fuel duty have resulted in substantial savings for the haulage industry.
As the Chancellor has set out, a rapid de-escalation in the Middle East remains the best way to keep prices low at the pump.
As with all taxes, the Government keeps fuel duty under review; and any changes are announced at fiscal events.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to WPQ 112096 answered on 23 February 2026 about 'VAT Fraud,' what recent discussions he has had with HMRC about trends in the levels of cases of organised criminals accessing VAT accounts using customers' registration details and claiming VAT refunds.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC has active investigations into organised crime VAT fraud. However, live case information isn’t routinely published, and disclosing the number of ongoing investigations would risk alerting or enabling those seeking to exploit the tax system.
Further to answer UIN 112096, HMRC have implemented additional controls over recent months to strengthen its systems and ensure access is limited to legitimate customers. As part of this, HMRC has established the Fraud Prevention Centre (FPC), a multi-functional team led by HMRC's Security directorate, focused on the protection, detection and response to identity-related security threats. The FPC also provides enhanced, direct support to customers and manages fraud in line with industry best practice.
HMRC has wide ranging criminal investigation powers, as set out on GOV.UK, and is resourced to investigate serious fraud, deploying compliance and enforcement capability to protect the integrity of the tax system. At Spring Statement 2025, the Government set out plans to expand HMRC's counter-fraud capability, including strengthening its response to organised criminal attacks.
Asked by: Luke Evans (Conservative - Hinckley and Bosworth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 23 February 2026 to Question 112096 on VAT Fraud, how many cases are being investigated by HMRC of organised criminals accessing VAT accounts using genuine customers' registration details and claiming VAT refunds.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC has active investigations into organised crime VAT fraud. However, live case information isn’t routinely published, and disclosing the number of ongoing investigations would risk alerting or enabling those seeking to exploit the tax system.
Further to answer UIN 112096, HMRC have implemented additional controls over recent months to strengthen its systems and ensure access is limited to legitimate customers. As part of this, HMRC has established the Fraud Prevention Centre (FPC), a multi-functional team led by HMRC's Security directorate, focused on the protection, detection and response to identity-related security threats. The FPC also provides enhanced, direct support to customers and manages fraud in line with industry best practice.
HMRC has wide ranging criminal investigation powers, as set out on GOV.UK, and is resourced to investigate serious fraud, deploying compliance and enforcement capability to protect the integrity of the tax system. At Spring Statement 2025, the Government set out plans to expand HMRC's counter-fraud capability, including strengthening its response to organised criminal attacks.