Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make representations to (a) HSBC and (b) other UK-based pension providers to accept early withdrawal requests from Hong Kongers on the British National (Overseas) visa scheme who intend to obtain an indefinite leave to remain in the UK.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Ministers engage regularly with the UK financial sector on a range of issues. The root of the problem is the Chinese Government's decision not to recognise the BN(O) passport as a valid identity document in Hong Kong. The UK firmly opposes the discrimination of BN(O)s in this way. We continue to urge the Hong Kong authorities to facilitate early drawdown of funds as is the case for other Hong Kong residents who move overseas permanently.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the increase in alcohol duty on (a) economic growth and (b) job creation within the Scotch Whisky industry.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The potential impacts of the recent changes to alcohol duty rates were published at Spring Budget in HMRC’s Tax Information and Impact Note and can be found online: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/changes-to-alcohol-duty-rates/alcohol-duty-rate-changes#summary-of-impacts.
This Government is supporting Scotch Whisky. We have provided a series of cuts and freezes to alcohol duties in the past decade. Before Spring Budget 2023, the spirits industry has benefitted from cuts or freezes to spirits duty at eight out of the last nine fiscal events, since the end of the duty escalator for spirits in 2013. The most recent alcohol duty freeze from Autumn Budget 2021, including the extension to 1 August 2023, represented a total tax cut of £2.7 billion over the next four years.
We have also undertaken the biggest reform of alcohol duties in 140 years and moved all alcohol products to being taxed based on their strength, narrowing the gap between spirits and still wine.
Further, we have removed punitive tariffs on Scotch Whisky imposed on the US market and are committed to protecting the interests of Scotch Whisky in trading agreements, ensuring that they face lower tariffs for export, and that the unique characteristics and global reputation of Scotch is protected, as demonstrated recently in our free trade agreements with Australia and New Zealand, and the CPTPP.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will review the employer-provided living accommodation tax exemptions and the potential impact of geographical location on the application of those exemptions.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Where an employer provides living accommodation to an employee and it is not within the scope of any exemptions, the cost of providing that accommodation will be taxable as a benefit-in-kind.
The tax rules for employer provided accommodation apply to the whole of the UK and are consistent across different employers. This ensures the UK tax system is simple, easy to understand, and limits the risk of abuse.
The Government keeps all taxes under review.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential effect of changing taxation rules on NHS provided housing to help (a) retain NHS staff and (b) encourage new staff to island communities.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Where an employer provides living accommodation to an employee and it is not within the scope of any exemptions, the cost of providing that accommodation will be taxable as a benefit-in-kind.
The tax rules for employer provided accommodation apply to the whole of the UK and are consistent across different employers. This ensures the UK tax system is simple, easy to understand, and limits the risk of abuse.
The Government keeps all taxes under review.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much money the FCA has spent on online advertising relating to fraud and scams, by company.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
This is a matter for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is operationally independent from Government. The question has been passed on to the FCA. The FCA will reply directly to the Honourable Member by letter. A copy of the letter will be placed in the Library of the House.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the HM Treasury:
If he will make an assessment of the potential merits of postponing the planned changes to red diesel regulations following the increases in fuel prices.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
To help meet Net Zero and improve UK air quality, we are reducing the entitlement to use red diesel, which enjoys a duty discount, to come into effect this April.
The full duty rate more fairly reflects the damaging impact of diesel emissions and will incentivise the development of greener alternatives.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to improve his Department's response times to correspondence from members of the public.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government recognises the importance of responding to members of the public in an effective and timely manner, and the Cabinet Office published an updated Guide to Handling Correspondence for government departments and agencies in July 2021.
The guidance reasserts the standards for handling correspondence, including a 20 working day deadline for departments to respond to members of the public, criteria outlining when a response to a member of the public is required, and when a piece of correspondence from a member of the public should be transferred to another department. Following publication of the updated guidance, all departments have been reminded that they must follow the processes outlined in the guidance.
In April 2021, 72% of Treasury replies were answered within 20 working days. This has increased to 77% as of October 2021 and we are continuing to make improvements to response times.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what additional funding has been provided to the NHS as a result of the UK’s departure from the EU and statements made during the 2016 referendum campaign.
Answered by Simon Clarke
The NHS is a key spending priority for the government and that is why it committed in 2018 to a historic settlement that provides a cash increase of £33.9 billion a year by 2023-24. The announcement was clear that “some of the extra funding will come from the money the government will no longer spend on the annual membership subscription to the European Union after Britain has left”
Since then, we have gone even further, and announced a new Health and Social Care Levy which will provide a further £15.7bn to the NHS over the next 3 years.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the HM Treasury:
If his Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of making permanent the five per cent reduced rate of VAT for the tourism and hospitality sector.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The temporary reduced rate of VAT was introduced on 15 July to support the cash flow and viability of about 150,000 businesses and to protect over 2.4 million jobs in the hospitality and tourism sectors. As announced at Budget, this relief will now run until 31 March 2022, with a staggered return to the standard rate. Applying this relief permanently would come at a significant cost to the Exchequer, and that cost would have to be balanced by increased taxes elsewhere, or reductions in Government spending.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people who have been in settlement discussions with HMRC on the Loan Charge have settled their case.
Answered by Jesse Norman
About 5,600 employers and individuals settled their use of disguised remuneration tax avoidance schemes in the period to 30 September 2020, in addition to the about 11,000 employers and individuals who settled their use of disguised remuneration schemes between Budget 2016 and 31 March 2020.
Further information on settlements is available in HMRC’s report to Parliament on the implementation of the recommendations of the independent Loan Charge Review, which was published on 3 December: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-loan-charge-review-hmrc-report-on-implementation.