Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the number of applications for (a) enhanced capital allowances, (b) Stamp Duty Land Tax relief and (c) employer National Insurance contributions relief that were processed in the tax sites of the Tees Freeport in each month since November 2021 to date.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Since November 2021, under the tax reliefs available at Teesside Freeport, HMRC has not received any claims for enhanced capital allowances and Stamp Duty Land Tax relief. It is normal for there to be a delay in the receipt of enhanced capital allowance claims because claims are made in the corporation tax return within one year from the end of the accounting period for which the claim relates, and there is scope for SDLT freeport claims to be made up to 30 September 2026.
With regards to Employer National Insurance contributions relief, HMRC do not routinely analyse take-up at an individual Freeport level, and so do not have the requested data readily available.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what his policy is on the taxation of dividend payments made by businesses authorised to operate in a Freeport.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Dividends paid by companies operating in freeports are taxed in the same way and at the same rates as companies that do not operate in freeports.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs spent on national minimum wage enforcement in Financial Year (a) 2019-20 and (b) 2020-21.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
HMRC enforces the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Living Wage in line with the law and policy set out by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS). BEIS funds HMRC to deliver this activity.
For the year 2019-20, HMRC were given a budget allocation of £26.3 million. In the year 2020-21 this was increased to £26.4 million. The vast majority of the NMW funding allocation is invested in front line NMW compliance activity so that HMRC can provide adequate coverage across the UK. HMRC aim to keep their resourcing level at a minimum of 410 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff. There are many factors that impact on their level of resourcing, including staff moves and pay settlements.
The total number of FTE staff employed by HMRC, working out of 12 regions across the country, to carry out NMW enforcement and compliance in the years 2019-20 and 2020-21 is provided in the table below.
Region | 2019-2020 | 2020-2021 |
East Midlands | 24.81 | 22.2 |
Greater London | 40.07 | 41.2 |
North East | 33.74 | 37.2 |
North West | 106.06 | 100.5 |
Northern Ireland | 25.23 | 26.2 |
Scotland | 63.95 | 55.1 |
South East | 12.34 | 11.2 |
South West | 13.46 | 11.0 |
East of England | 3.00 | 2.00 |
Wales | 24.05 | 23.4 |
West Midlands | 51.98 | 47.3 |
Yorkshire and Humberside | 43.36 | 42.6 |
Total | 442.05 | 419.9 |
The table shows where the staff were located but this does not necessarily mean these staff were working on cases linked to the locations given. HMRC deploy a national resource deployment model, to enable them to flexibly deploy their resource to deal with the highest risk area.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many national minimum wage enforcement staff were employed by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs in each region in Financial Year (a) 2019-20 and (b) 2020-21.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
HMRC enforces the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Living Wage in line with the law and policy set out by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS). BEIS funds HMRC to deliver this activity.
For the year 2019-20, HMRC were given a budget allocation of £26.3 million. In the year 2020-21 this was increased to £26.4 million. The vast majority of the NMW funding allocation is invested in front line NMW compliance activity so that HMRC can provide adequate coverage across the UK. HMRC aim to keep their resourcing level at a minimum of 410 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff. There are many factors that impact on their level of resourcing, including staff moves and pay settlements.
The total number of FTE staff employed by HMRC, working out of 12 regions across the country, to carry out NMW enforcement and compliance in the years 2019-20 and 2020-21 is provided in the table below.
Region | 2019-2020 | 2020-2021 |
East Midlands | 24.81 | 22.2 |
Greater London | 40.07 | 41.2 |
North East | 33.74 | 37.2 |
North West | 106.06 | 100.5 |
Northern Ireland | 25.23 | 26.2 |
Scotland | 63.95 | 55.1 |
South East | 12.34 | 11.2 |
South West | 13.46 | 11.0 |
East of England | 3.00 | 2.00 |
Wales | 24.05 | 23.4 |
West Midlands | 51.98 | 47.3 |
Yorkshire and Humberside | 43.36 | 42.6 |
Total | 442.05 | 419.9 |
The table shows where the staff were located but this does not necessarily mean these staff were working on cases linked to the locations given. HMRC deploy a national resource deployment model, to enable them to flexibly deploy their resource to deal with the highest risk area.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has plans to reimburse businesses that brought back employees from the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) on the basis of receiving the £1,000 per employee Job Retention Bonus (JRB) but that subsequently did not benefit from the JRB nor the extension of the CJRS.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The purpose of the Job Retention Bonus (JRB) was to encourage employers to keep people in work until the end of January 2021. This purpose was instead fulfilled by the extension of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) to March, April, and subsequently the end of September 2021.
That is why the Chancellor announced in November 2020 that the JRB was not going to be paid in February 2021. Instead, employers have had access to an extra eight months of support through the CJRS, which has been available to more employers and more employees than the JRB. Furthermore, the Government extended the cut-off date for which employers had to have submitted a Pay-As-You-Earn Real Time Information submission for employees from 20 March 2020 to 30 October 2020, and subsequently to 2 March 2021, to ensure that additional employees could be eligible for the CJRS.
As set out in the Plan for Jobs Progress Update, published on 13 September 2021, the economy now is in a stronger position than it was last autumn, and the labour market is in a stronger position too.
The latest data show that the Government’s Plan for Jobs is working across all parts of the UK, with just 1.3 million people on furlough on 31 August 2021, and online job vacancy levels 35 per cent above February 2020 levels. Furthermore, at the start of the crisis, it was feared that unemployment would reach twelve per cent or even higher. The figure is now less than half of that – meaning almost two million fewer people out of work than had been feared – while the headline unemployment rate of 4.6 per cent has now fallen for seven consecutive months. The ONS has also found that of all workers who had ever been furloughed, more than nine in ten were still in work in the three months to June 2021. This is a similar proportion as for workers who had never been furloughed, meaning that there was no statistically significant difference in employment rates between those furloughed and who had never been furloughed.
We continue to maintain our focus on those still impacted by the pandemic, with targeted support for businesses, as well as getting people back into work.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy of 27 April 2021, Official Report, column 86WH, on the Government's policy on the inappropriate use by some employers of fire and rehire as a negotiation tactic, what steps their Department has taken to (a) investigate and (b) discourage the use of fire and rehire negotiation tactics by their Department's executive non-departmental public bodies; and what steps they have taken to communicate the Government's policy on those practices to those bodies.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
The Government has been very clear that threatening fire and rehire as a negotiating tactic is completely unacceptable. We always expect employers to treat employees fairly and in the spirit of partnership working with trade unions, where relevant, constructively. We are confident that all non-departmental public bodies are aware of the Government’s position on this matter.
We work constructively with each non-departmental public body which the Department has, including on workforce management matters, however each non-departmental public body is ultimately responsible for the management of their staff.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what support officials in his Department have provided to the Tees Valley Mayor in discussions with investors on the takeover of PD Ports’ facilities in the Tees Freeport.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Officials in HMT routinely meet with representatives of Mayoral Combined Authorities and Local Authorities as a core part of their work. The TVCA presented information to Treasury officials regarding PD Ports’ facilities on two occasions in September last year. Treasury officials did not provide any support regarding this matter.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will list the publicly-owned sea ports which are included within the eight freeports announced as part of Budget 2021.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
At Budget, the Chancellor announced 8 Freeports from 8 regions of England, as selected by the Secretary of State for the Ministry for Housing, Communities & Local Government – this followed the fair, open and transparent assessment process outlined in the Bidding Prospectus. The locations are:
The Ministry for Housing, Communities & Local Government will shortly publish more information on the selection of these Freeport locations according to the process laid out in the Prospectus.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will list the participants in each freeport announced in the Budget statement on 3 March 2021; and if he will publish the bid document for each.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
At Budget, the Chancellor announced 8 Freeports from 8 regions of England, as selected by the Secretary of State for the Ministry for Housing, Communities & Local Government – this followed the fair, open and transparent assessment process outlined in the Bidding Prospectus. The locations are:
The Ministry for Housing, Communities & Local Government will shortly publish more information on the selection of these Freeport locations according to the process laid out in the Prospectus.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will take steps to ensure that employment law is enforceable for all employees within the freeports announced in the Government's Budget 2021 on 3 March 2021.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The government is pleased to have announced the locations of 8 new English Freeports at Budget, including Solent. These new Freeports will create jobs in deprived communities across the country
Freeports are not deregulatory and the government will ensure that the UK’s high standards with respect to workers’ rights will not be compromised.