Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many allegations of fraud in the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme from whistleblowers HMRC has (a) received, (b) investigated and (c) concluded were fraudulent as of 12 May 2022.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
HMRC does not categorise intelligence reports, including allegations received from whistle-blowers, by fraud or other non-compliant behaviours and so is unable to provide the information requested.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the value of Eat to Help Out funds that were claimed fraudulently.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
HMRC identifies claims for compliance checks where the amount of the claim is out of step with other information. The risk that a claim is incorrect may be due to either an honest mistake or fraud, and the reason cannot be established until the check is concluded.
Estimates for the proportion of error and fraud were published in November 2021, and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/measuring-error-and-fraud-in-the-covid-19-schemes/measuring-error-and-fraud-in-the-covid-19-support-schemes-methodology-and-approach.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many staff have been (a) reassigned from other teams in HMRC into the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce and (b) hired by HMRC to replace those who have been reassigned.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Covid Taxpayer Protection Taskforce is made up of 1,265 experienced compliance officers, and all its staff have been reassigned from other teams across HMRC. These staff were selected from those who have tax training and compliance experience. Once they joined the taskforce, staff were provided with additional training on the COVID-19 Schemes.
HMRC has recruited an additional 430 full-time equivalent staff, funded for five years, to backfill those colleagues who were deployed to the Covid-19 taskforce for two years.
The £100 million has been used to recruit new HMRC staff to backfill those who were reassigned into the Covid-19 taskforce.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much of the Government's £100 million investment in the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce, announced in November 2021, has been used for (a) existing and (b) new HMRC staff.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Covid Taxpayer Protection Taskforce is made up of 1,265 experienced compliance officers, and all its staff have been reassigned from other teams across HMRC. These staff were selected from those who have tax training and compliance experience. Once they joined the taskforce, staff were provided with additional training on the COVID-19 Schemes.
HMRC has recruited an additional 430 full-time equivalent staff, funded for five years, to backfill those colleagues who were deployed to the Covid-19 taskforce for two years.
The £100 million has been used to recruit new HMRC staff to backfill those who were reassigned into the Covid-19 taskforce.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an estimate of the value of loans issued through the Bounce Back Loan Scheme at risk of being used to fund terrorist organisations.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Bounce Back Loans were offered by accredited lenders who were required to carry out appropriate anti-money laundering and know-your-customer checks on applications.
In the event that lenders have concerns in regard to a loan already issued, they are responsible for recovering funds or referring the organisations to law enforcement agencies for investigation and recovery. In order to support these efforts, at Spring Statement the government provided £13.2m additional funding for the National Investigation Service to investigate fraud and financial crime against the scheme.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has held discussions with (a) officials in his Department, (b) Cabinet colleagues and (c) relevant stakeholders on the global minimum corporate tax system since his appointment as Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The UK have been active participants throughout the process to introduce a global minimum corporate tax, with the Chancellor playing a leading role in securing G7 commitment to a global minimum tax rate of 15 per cent in June 2021, setting a foundation for the wider agreement reached by over 130 members of the OECD Inclusive Framework in October 2021.
As part of the normal policy making process, the Chancellor maintains strong and ongoing working relationships with both HM Treasury officials and Cabinet colleagues alike on the policy direction and the current status of the global minimum tax.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has attended policy discussions with officials in his Department on (a) the non-domicile status of taxpayers, (b) the treatment of foreign nationals in the UK tax system and (c) the treatment of people paying tax in more than one country since his appointment as Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
As with all aspects of the tax system, the Government keeps policy surrounding tax residence under review as part of the Budget process.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions (a) he or (b) other Ministers in his Department have had with HMRC about the advice issued to employers to add the message, 1.25 per cent uplift in NICs funds NHS, health & social care, to payslips in relation to the increase in national insurance.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Health and Social Care Levy (HSCL) was developed in partnership with HM Treasury, Ministers, and HMRC. The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced the policy on 7 September 2021 and the HSCL was legislated for via the HSCL Act 2021.
HMRC is responsible for the administration and successful delivery of tax policy set by the Government. As part of this function, HMRC have issued guidance to employers to include factual messaging on payslips in 2022-23 to highlight the temporary change in NICs rates before the new Levy begins in 2023-24; however, this is not mandatory.
From April 2023, the HSCL will be a separate tax and will be itemised as a separate deduction on payslips.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he took to avoid a conflict of interests when considering changes to tax rules for non-domiciled residents.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Ministerial Code sets out the process by which Ministers should declare their interests, and take advice from their Permanent Secretary and the Independent Adviser on Ministers' Interests about any action that may be needed to avoid a conflict or the perception of a conflict.
Asked by: Abena Oppong-Asare (Labour - Erith and Thamesmead)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he approved the HMRC guidance, Prepare for the Health and Social Care Levy, issued on 31 January 2022 and last updated on 7 February 2022.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
HMRC work in partnership with HM Treasury and Ministers on developing and delivering policy, including in connection with the implementation of the temporary increase to certain National Insurance Contributions rates rise for 2022-23 from April 2022.
HMRC regularly publishes operational guidance on all manner of Income Tax and National Insurance changes to relay the detail of how a given policy is intended to operate for staff and the general public. Minsters are not involved in the sign off of operational guidance, but there is a stringent process in place to quality assure all published guidance.