Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many HMRC legal investigations into (a) individuals and (b) businesses were launched in financial year 2021-22; and the average length of those investigations.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Information on the total number of opened compliance checks in 2021-22 can accessed within the latest HMRC quarterly performance publication as below:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1101475/HMRC_quarterly_performance_data_table_Q4_2021_to_2022.xlsxAsked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 17 October 2022 to Question 61148 on Treasury: Protective Clothing, at what grade the 0.25 full time equivalent staff in his Department is employed; and since what date they have been employed.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
It is long-standing Government policy not to comment on individual personnel matters. The 0.25 FTE are primarily at junior grades however it includes staff across the department and at varying levels of seniority, including senior civil servants. This number has fluctuated as issues arise over the course of any period. DHSC remain the lead department on PPE storage, but resource in HMT has also been directed towards overseeing DHSC’s work on Covid-19 PPE continuously since the start of the pandemic.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what public appointments have been made by ministers in his Department since he took office.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Since the Chancellor of the Exchequer took up office on 14 October 2022, Ministers have appointed three new Non-Executives to the Court of Directors at the Bank of England. They are Lord Jitesh Gadhia, Sabine Chalmers and Tom Shropshire.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he will make it his policy to introduce public country-by-country reporting by multinational corporations on (a) taxation and (b) where multinational corporations are trading and making profits.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government has taken significant steps, domestically and internationally, to ensure companies pay the right amount of tax on their UK activities and prevent profits attributable to UK activities being shifted overseas.
This includes introducing the Diverted Profits Tax (2015), the Corporate Interest Restriction Rules (2017), and recent confirmation that the UK will introduce the new Pillar 2 global minimum tax from 31 December 2023.
The Government continues to engage internationally to improve tax transparency at a global level, and supports the development of a public Country-by-Country reporting model that works on a global multilateral basis. Global multilateral implementation is necessary to ensure that the initiative results in a comprehensive set of information on both UK headquartered and foreign headquartered multinationals and that the requirements cannot be avoided through group restructuring and do not make the UK less attractive as a location for groups to headquarter.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much revenue the Exchequer received from taxation paid by PPE Medpro Ltd in the 2020-21 tax year.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The information requested cannot be provided.
HMRC has a legal duty to maintain the confidentiality of taxpayer information and disclosing information to persons outside of HMRC is only allowed in a limited number of circumstances. These are set out in Section 18 of the Commissioners of Revenue and Customs Act 2005.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has taken steps to help ensure that P&O Ferries is complying with national minimum wage legislation on its vessels working between Cairnryan and Larne since 25 October 2022.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
HMRC enforce the National Minimum Wage (NMW) and the National Living Wage on behalf of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.
HMRC do not comment on any identifiable individuals or businesses.
HMRC consider 100 per cent of complaints they receive and undertake an extensive programme to identify risk and allocate resource based on the level of risk identified, to ensure compliance with the NMW where there is entitlement. Alongside this they undertake an extensive programme of outreach activity to help employers understand their obligations and workers to know their rights.
If anyone thinks they are not receiving at least the minimum wage, they can contact Acas, in confidence, on 0300 123 1100 or submit a query online: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pay-and-work-rights-complaints. HMRC also welcomes information from third parties, if any person or organisation has information about potential NMW breaches they can get in touch with us via gov.uk by searching “pay and work rights complaints.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much his Department spent in total on external management consultants in (a) 2019, (b) 2020 and (c) 2021.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
HM Treasury’s spend on external management consultants is published and available for viewing within the Annual Report and Accounts. We have included the links to the published Annual Report and Accounts for each of the available years in question within the table below.
Financial Year | Publication Link | Page Reference |
2019-20 | https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hm-treasury-annual-report-and-accounts-2019-to-2020 | Page 104 |
2020-21 | https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hm-treasury-annual-report-and-accounts-2020-to-2021 | Page 101 |
2021-22 | HM Treasury annual report and accounts 2021 to 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) | Page 122 |
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many (a) consultations and (b) calls for evidence issued by his Department are closed but have not been responded to as of 12 July 2022.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
All Government consultations and calls for evidence are published on gov.uk, which also provides an update on whether Government has responded to these.
As of 12 July 2022, we have identified 15 calls for evidence or consultations which are closed, but which HM Treasury has not yet responded to.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many civil servants are employed in his Department to oversee the storage of personal protective equipment.
Answered by Felicity Buchan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
HM Treasury is in regular contact with DHSC as the lead department on PPE storage, as part of its role maintaining oversight of DHSC’s £178.5bn budget and financial performance. On a day-to-day basis the oversight of PPE storage is carried out by, on average, approximately 0.25 full time equivalent staff in HM Treasury.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much his Department spent on focus groups in (a) 2019 and (b) 2020.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Any spend over £25,000 can be found by following the link below:
HM Treasury spend over £25,000 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
In 2019 we did not conduct any focus groups.
In 2020, we spent £240,538 on combined focus groups and polling services from Hanbury Strategy – this includes all of our spend on focus groups that year, but it is not possible to disaggregate the amount spent on focus groups specifically.
This is for invoices paid during the period January 2019 to December 2020.