Asked by: Ann Davies (Plaid Cymru - Caerfyrddin)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Welsh Government have made a request for Northern Powerhouse rail to be designated as an England only project.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
We are working closely with the Welsh Government following our major commitment to the NPR programme.
Territorial classification of specific programmes depends on whether the policy area is devolved to the relevant devolved government in each nation or reserved to the UK Government. Heavy rail is reserved to the UK Government in England and Wales.
Asked by: Ann Davies (Plaid Cymru - Caerfyrddin)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment she has made of the impact of frozen personal tax thresholds on pensioners’ disposable incomes.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The previous government made the decision to freeze the income tax Personal Allowance at its current level of £12,570 until April
The previous government published a Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) setting out the impacts.
Asked by: Ann Davies (Plaid Cymru - Caerfyrddin)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department plans to maintain tax relief on pension contributions.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Pensions tax relief is one of the most expensive reliefs in the personal tax system, costing £78.2 billion in 2023/24.
The Government remains committed to encouraging pension saving, to help ensure that people have an income, or funds on which they can draw, throughout retirement.
Asked by: Ann Davies (Plaid Cymru - Caerfyrddin)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of reducing the Soft Drinks Industry Levy thresholds on consumers.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
An assessment of impacts – including health impacts for consumers – is enclosed within the ‘Strengthening the Soft Drinks Industry Levy’ consultation document. This is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/strengthening-the-soft-drinks-industry-levy.
The government welcomes feedback on the proposed changes as part of the consultation, which is open until 21 July 2025 and will inform decisions at a future Budget. If the government decides to make changes to the levy, it will publish a tax information and impact note (TIIN) to give account of the confirmed policy’s impacts.
Asked by: Ann Davies (Plaid Cymru - Caerfyrddin)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to her oral statement on Spending Review 2025, Official Report, column 985, for what reason she referenced Swansea and Bridgend in the context of the extension of free school meals in England.
Answered by Darren Jones - Minister for Intergovernmental Relations
The government will provide £410 million per year by 2028-29 to expand Free School Meals eligibility from September 2026 to all pupils in England with a parent receiving Universal Credit.
The Barnett formula will apply in the normal way; education is a devolved matter and so the Welsh Government is responsible for Free School Meals policy in Wales.
Asked by: Ann Davies (Plaid Cymru - Caerfyrddin)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the planned changes to the Winter Fuel Payment, announced on 9 June 2025, for what reason an income threshold of £35,000 for the Winter Fuel Payment was decided.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government wants more pensioners to benefit from Winter Fuel Payments. The £35,000 threshold means that the vast majority of pensions - more than three quarters and around 9 million individuals - will benefit from a Winter Fuel Payment. The threshold is also broadly in line with average earnings. This change also ensures that the means-testing of winter fuel payments has no effect on pensioner poverty.
Restricting Winter Fuel Payments to those with incomes below or equal to £35,000 means those on lower and middle incomes will still receive the help they need and ensures fairness for both pensioners and taxpayers.
Asked by: Ann Davies (Plaid Cymru - Caerfyrddin)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the press notice entitled Major investment to boost growth and cement Britain’s place as cultural powerhouse, published on 20 February 2025, what consequential funding through the Barnett formula will be provided to Wales.
Answered by Darren Jones - Minister for Intergovernmental Relations
The Barnett formula is applied when departmental budgets change – not when departments announce how they are spending their budgets. The Barnett formula was applied in the usual way, as set out in the Statement of Funding Policy, when the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s budget changed at Phase 1 of the Spending Review 2025.
The Welsh Government’s Phase 1 Spending Review 2025 settlement for 2025-26 is the largest in real terms of any Welsh Government settlement since devolution. The Welsh Government is receiving at least 20% more funding per person than equivalent UK Government spending in England. That translates into over £4 billion more in 2025-26.
The published Block Grant Transparency document provides a detailed breakdown of how the block grants are calculated and the next iteration will be published in due course.
Asked by: Ann Davies (Plaid Cymru - Caerfyrddin)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of increasing the rate of child benefit by £20 per week for each child.
Answered by Darren Jones - Minister for Intergovernmental Relations
All working-age benefits (including Child Benefit, the child element of Universal Credit, and Child Tax Credit) were uprated in full from April 2024, by September 2023 CPI of 6.7%. Beyond the receipt of benefits, the Government is committed to supporting children and families. At the King’s Speech, the Government set out plans to introduce free breakfast clubs in every primary school, to bring down costs for parents. Growth is our number one mission, which will help families by boosting wages and putting more money in people’s pockets.
To give every child the very best start at life, the Government is also prioritising work to develop an ambitious and comprehensive strategy to reduce child poverty through the Ministerial taskforce on Child Poverty.