Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the potential revenue that will be (a) raised from the 1.25 per cent increase in National Insurance contributions and (b) allocated from that revenue to (i) Scotland, (ii) Wales and (iii) Northern Ireland in each year of this Parliament.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
In 2022-23, the Health and Social Care Levy takes the form of an increase to National Insurance contributions. From April 2023 onwards, the Health and Social Care Levy will be formally separated out from National Insurance.
The most recent estimate of the net yield from the Levy is around £12 billion per year, as published at Autumn Budget 2021.
A population share of receipts from the Levy will go to those responsible for health and social care in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, as with the existing NHS National Insurance contributions allocation.
This investment will enable Governments across the UK to put health and social care services on a sustainable footing.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what was the volume of uranium imports by country of origin in each year since 2000.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
HMRC is responsible for the collection and publication of data on imports and exports of goods to and from the UK. HMRC releases this information monthly, as a National Statistic called the Overseas Trade in Goods Statistics (OTS), which is available via their dedicated website: www.uktradeinfo.com. From this website, it is also possible to build your own data tables based upon bespoke search criteria: https://www.uktradeinfo.com/trade-data/ots-custom-table/.
Uranium falls within commodity code chapter heading 2844: ‘radioactive chemical elements and radioactive isotopes (including the fissile or fertile chemical elements and isotopes) and their compounds; mixtures and residues containing these products’. The full Commodity code would depend on the specific compounds of the uranium.
UK Imports, by country of origin, are only published from 2016 via the large bulk datasets available to download from here: https://www.uktradeinfo.com/trade-data/latest-bulk-datasets/.
Data on uranium imported into the UK prior to 2016 is available on: www.uktradeinfo.com. This provides the country of dispatch, which means the country from which the goods were last exported before coming to the UK. This may be different from the country of origin.
A table showing the volume of Uranium imported into the UK by Country of Origin from 2016-2022 is provided separately.
Until 2022, Country of Origin was only collected via the Customs declaration for UK imports from Non-EU countries. In some cases, EU countries can be declared in the country of origin for movements of goods dispatched from Non-EU countries.
Up until 2022, Trade in goods movements dispatched from EU countries were collected via the Intrastat Survey, which did not capture country of origin.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much funding he has allocated to the £150 household council tax rebate; and what estimate he has made of the total value of the £200 household energy rebate scheme.
Answered by Simon Clarke
The government has announced a package of support to help households with rising energy bills, worth £9.1 billion in 2022-23.
This includes a £150 non-repayable council tax rebate from April this year for households in England in council tax bands A-D and £144 million of discretionary funding to support households who need help with their energy bills but are not eligible. The cost of these measures is estimated to be around £3 billion and will be finalised following a reconciliation process to confirm how many rebates have been provided. The devolved administrations will be provided with funding to provide similar support, totalling £576 million that will be distributed through the Barnett formula.
In addition, the package also includes a £200 bill reduction to domestic electricity customers’ bills from October 2022, which will help around 28 million households with the cost of living. From April 2023, costs will be recovered through energy bills over 5 years, up to £40 a year per meter point.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the £350 payments made under the Homes for Ukraine initiative will be tax free.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
As confirmed by the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on Monday 14 March 2022, under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme the Government will provide a monthly payment of £350 to sponsors for each family whom they look after, limited to one payment per residential address offered, and these payments will be tax-free.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people have had their guaranteed minimum pensions reduced in financial year 2021-22 following reviews by HMRC in (a) Scotland and (b) the rest of the UK.
Answered by John Glen
HMRC do not hold the information requested.
Pension Scheme Administrators (PSAs) can compare the Guaranteed Minimum Pension (GMP) value they hold against HMRC records using the online GMP Checker Service held on GOV.UK. However, if the information held by HMRC indicates to PSAs that its records are incorrect and a lower amount is payable than is in payment, it doesn’t mean that the scheme needs to reduce the pension in payment. This is a decision for the pension scheme.
It is the responsibility of pension schemes and employers to maintain records of their pension scheme memberships and administer their members or employees’ pensions. It is for the pension provider to calculate and make the correct payments to individuals.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the total value was of National Insurance contributions received from people resident in (a) Scotland and (b) the rest of the UK for each year since 2000.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The estimates of annual National Insurance contributions by country and region of the UK can be found in ‘Country and Regional Public Sector Finances: Revenue Tables’: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/governmentpublicsectorandtaxes/publicsectorfinance/datasets/countryandregionalpublicsectorfinancesrevenuetables.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with representatives of the Financial Conduct Authority on its 2021 consultation on proposals to ban claim management companies from handling FSCS claims where they had a relevant connection to the claim.
Answered by John Glen
Consumers should have confidence that firms are acting in their best interests when using claims management companies (CMCs) to help them obtain compensation. The Government welcomes the FCA’s consultation on proposals to prevent the practice of ‘phoenixing’, which intend to ensure that CMCs are not seeking to profit from past misconduct of individuals connected with the CMC. The Government looks forward to the outcome of the FCA’s consultation.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the total VAT receipts contained in the (a) March and (b) November 2021 budget for each financial year for the remaining parliamentary term.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Office for Budget Responsibility published Economic and fiscal outlook reports in March 2021 and October 2021. The March publication contained a VAT forecast up to and including the year 2025-26. The October publication contained a VAT forecast up to and including the year 2026-27.
The March publication set out that VAT receipts are forecast to be £127.9 billion in 2021-22, £145.6 billion in 2022-23, £149.7 billion in 2023-24, £155.1 billion in 2024-25, and £159.2 billion in 2025-26.
The October publication set out that VAT receipts are forecast to be £131.9 billion in 2021-22, £155.0 billion in 2022-23, £159.1 billion in 2023-24, £163.1 billion in 2024-25, £167.4 billion in 2025-26, and £172.1 billion in 2026-27.