Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will hold discussions with representatives of Skrill of the potential merits of blocking people in Russia from using that financial service.
Answered by John Glen
HM Treasury and the UK regulatory authorities have proactively engaged with the financial services sector, including representatives of cryptoasset businesses, electronic money institutions and payment services providers, to ensure that the implications of the Russia sanctions are understood.
Under the UK’s Money Laundering Regulations, cryptoasset businesses, electronic money institutions and payment service providers, such as Skrill, are expected to apply risk-sensitive customer due diligence measures in order to identify and verify the customer and understand the purpose behind their transactions, when considering the services they provide to current or potential customers.
This includes checking that the customer is not subject to sanctions, and does not intend to use the services for criminal purposes, including assisting others in the evasion of sanctions. Risk assessments by firms must also include consideration of geographical risk factors, including the country where the customer is resident.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans he has to extend the Bus Recovery Grant beyond March 2022 to help support the recovery of bus transport in the North of England.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Government recognises the vital importance of bus services to local economies and communities across the country.
We have provided over £1.5bn to maintain essential local bus services outside London since March 2020, ensuring that people can continue to get to work, school, and shops safely and easily.
The Chancellor also confirmed a further £1.2bn to deliver London-style services, fares and infrastructure improvements. This will help to deliver the PM’s ‘Bus Back Better’ strategy for transforming bus services across England, and means that dedicated spending on buses will more than double over this Parliament taking into account wider investment in thousands of new zero emission buses.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to recover the (a) incorrectly and (b) fraudulently claimed money through the (i) Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and (ii) Bounce Back Loan Scheme.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
HMRC’s approach to recovering incorrectly claimed money through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) is to ensure that no one who has tried to do the right thing, but made an honest mistake, has any need to be concerned as long as they work with HMRC to put it right. Claimants were able to amend an incorrect claim without incurring a penalty within 90 days of receiving the grant, or their circumstances changing. HMRC also set up an online system to help people easily correct any mistakes. As of November 2021, HMRC have had circa £408 million returned to them by claimants who, unprompted, found an error in their claim, and over £719 million was returned to them by claimants who were entitled to the grant but decided, for a range of reasons, to repay it.
HMRC carefully examines CJRS claims for indications that they may be incorrect. This allows them to make the best possible use of their investigators and spare the vast majority, who are doing the right thing, from hearing from them. Since the launch of the CJRS, HMRC detected a range of attempted frauds, from individual opportunistic frauds, such as genuine employers manipulating CJRS claims, to organised attacks by criminal groups. HMRC commenced preventive compliance activity as soon as the scheme went live with a strong focus on stopping fraudulent payments to organised criminal groups. HMRC commenced post-payment compliance once they had the powers to do so in July 2020. They have established the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce (TPT) to provide a large-scale, dedicated capability to address fraud and error which, as of 30 November 2021, has opened over 27,000 compliance interventions. The TPT, where proportionate and necessary, refer more complex cases and those involving organised criminal groups for specialist investigation by appropriate expert teams within HMRC, including the Fraud Investigation Service (FIS). As of 30 November 2021, FIS has 21 ongoing criminal investigations and 7 live civil investigations into the most serious attempted frauds against the CJRS.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) administers the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBL). HMRC have supported BEIS in identifying and addressing fraudulent activity by exchanging data about organisations who have applied for and taken out loans under this scheme. HMRC have also used BBL data to identify broader compliance risks in the tax system.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Net Zero Strategy published in October 2021, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of asking companies to report on steps they have taken to help ensure a just transition to a green economy in their transition plans.
Answered by John Glen
At COP26 Finance Day the Chancellor announced that the UK will move towards making transition plans mandatory. Initially, asset managers, regulated asset owners and listed companies will need to publish a transition plan or provide an explanation if they have not done so.
Recognising that there is not yet an agreed standard for transition plans, the Chancellor also announced that the Government will set up a Transition Plan Taskforce. This will bring together the best of British industry and academia with regulators and the third sector to develop recommendations on transition plan disclosures in the UK. It will consider relevant Government policy in its work, such as the Net Zero Strategy, and report initially by the end of 2022.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what his reasoning is for not applying tax on kerosene used on passenger flights.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Members of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), including the United Kingdom, are prevented from taxing international aviation fuel, or any proxies for fuel, under the Chicago Convention. However, Air Passenger Duty – which raised £3.6 billion in 2019-20 – ensures that the air travel sector contributes to the cost of public services.
Asked by: Alex Sobel (Labour (Co-op) - Leeds Central and Headingley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of potential effect of the change in (a) passenger numbers and (b) carbon emitted following the abolishment of Air Passenger Duty for domestic flights.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
At Budget, the Government announced that, from April 2023, it will introduce a new reduced domestic band of Air Passenger Duty (APD) set at £6.50 for economy passengers. The new domestic band will cover flights between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, in order to support connectivity across the UK. As a result, around 9 million passengers will pay less APD in 2023/24.
In addition, the Government will introduce a new ultra long-haul band, which will ensure that those who fly furthest, and have the greatest environmental impact, will pay the most.
Aviation accounts for around 8% of the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions. International aviation is responsible for the vast majority of this contribution and accounted for 37 MtCO2e in 2019, whereas domestic aviation was responsible for 1.5 MtCO2e – equivalent to less than 1% of the UK’s total emissions in 2019.
Additionally, domestic aviation is included within the scope of the UK Emissions Trading Scheme, which sets a cap on the total amount of greenhouse gases that can be emitted by sectors covered by the scheme.