Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the (a) impact of the (i) Spring Statement 2022 and (ii) October Budget 2021 and (b) combined impact of those fiscal events on (A) women, (B) Black, Asian and minority ethnic people, (C) disabled people, (D) LGBT+ people and (E) pensioners.
Answered by Simon Clarke
The Treasury carefully considers the impact of its decisions on those sharing protected characteristics, including at Spring Statement 2022 and Autumn Budget 2021 and other fiscal events, in line with both its legal obligations and with its strong commitment to promoting fairness.
Those with protected characteristics are amongst those who are benefitting from the actions taken at the Spring Statement 2022 and Autumn Budget 2021. These include increases in the National Living Wage (NLW) to £9.50 an hour for workers aged 23 and over, which will benefit women, people with disabilities and individuals from some ethnic minority backgrounds, who are more likely to be on the NLW.
Women and the LGBT community are disproportionately affected by domestic abuse and sexual violence and are being supported by increased funding announced at Autumn Budget 2021 for victim support services, including Independent Sexual and Domestic Violence Advisors.
Spending Review 2021 also announced an enhanced offer for workers aged 50 and over to ensure that older workers receive the support they need to remain in or return to work and benefit from fuller working lives.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what reason his Department's distributional analysis accompanying the Spring Statement 2022 combined all tax, welfare and public service spending decisions since the Spending Round 2019; and what plans his Department has to publish a separate distributional analysis for each fiscal event during that period.
Answered by Simon Clarke
At each fiscal event HM Treasury has regularly published distributional analysis of the impact of tax, welfare and spending decisions on households.
The aim of the government’s distributional analysis is to present a comprehensive picture of the net effect of tax or welfare changes on household incomes, as well as the impact of public spending decisions, in the round. As each policy decision will have a different effect on households, presenting the total impact over a relatively long time period provides a more robust, comprehensive and stable approach than looking at every policy individually.
Distributional analysis published at Spring Statement 2022 shows that in 2024-25, the tax, welfare and spending decisions made since Spending Round 2019 (SR19) will have benefitted the poorest households most (as a percentage of income). The impact of government policy since SR19 on the bottom four deciles is expected to be worth more than £1,000 a year, while there will have been a net benefit on average for the poorest 80% of households.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many meetings his Department has had with the Bank Signature Forgery Campaign on bank signature forgeries in the last three years.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Treasury ministers and officials engage with a number of organisations and stakeholders on a variety of policy issues.
The Government expects all companies to obey the law and relevant regulations. Anyone with evidence of forgery taking place should report it to their bank in the first instance. If their concerns remain, or they do not have a direct relationship with the lender, they should report it to the relevant authorities.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) requires all authorised firms to have systems and controls in place to mitigate the risk that they be used to commit financial crime. Whilst the police have primary responsibility for investigating fraud the FCA also has powers to take a variety of enforcement action against firms that carry out fraudulent activity.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made representations to the National Crime Agency on forged bank signatures cases in the last 12 months.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Treasury ministers and officials engage with a number of organisations and stakeholders on a variety of policy issues.
The Government expects all companies to obey the law and relevant regulations. Anyone with evidence of forgery taking place should report it to their bank in the first instance. If their concerns remain, or they do not have a direct relationship with the lender, they should report it to the relevant authorities.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) requires all authorised firms to have systems and controls in place to mitigate the risk that they be used to commit financial crime. Whilst the police have primary responsibility for investigating fraud the FCA also has powers to take a variety of enforcement action against firms that carry out fraudulent activity.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will place in the Library any contingency plans his Department has prepared in the event that additional economic support is required as a result of a further wave of covid-19.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Throughout the pandemic, the government has sought to protect people’s jobs and livelihoods while also supporting businesses and public services across the UK. To do this, the government has put in place a package of support which will provide businesses and individuals with certainty over the coming months, even as measures to prevent further spread of the virus change. The cumulative cost to the government of the support has been £352 billion since the start of the pandemic.
Thanks to people’s hard work and sacrifice, supported by the success of the initial stages of the vaccine rollout, there is now a path to reopening the economy. We will continue to take a flexible but cautious approach as we review restrictions, and as measures to control the virus change it is right that government support should also evolve. Because of this, we will keep all impacts and policies under review.
To ensure that individuals and businesses have time to plan as the economy reopens in line with the easing of restrictions, schemes such as the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme, business grants and loans, and business rates and VAT relief are continuing beyond the end of the Roadmap.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether any officials in his Department receive remuneration for paid work for organisations or companies outside of government.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - President of the Board of Trade
On 23 April, the Cabinet Secretary wrote to the Chair of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee on the management of outside interests in the Civil Service.
The Committee published this letter on 26 April. It can be found here:
https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/5623/documents/55584/default/
The Cabinet Secretary’s letter sets out a series of steps to improve processes. This programme of work will also take account of any recommendations that emerge from
Nigel Boardman’s review.
The Civil Service Management Code sets out, at paragraph 4.3.4, the requirement that civil servants must seek permission before accepting any outside employment which might affect their work either directly or indirectly. The applicable principles are those set out in the Business Appointment Rules. The Civil Service Management Code is published here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-servants-terms-and-conditions .
Where the civil servant is a member of the departmental board, any outside employment, as well as other relevant interests will be published as part of the Annual Report and Accounts or other transparency publication.
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an assessment of the effect on revenue to the Exchequer of the change to the Statutory Residence Test announced on 9 April 2020 in the (a) 2019-20 and (b) 2020-21 financial years.
Answered by Jesse Norman
COVID-19 measures and guidance related to the Statutory Residence Test (SRT) have been estimated to have a negligible cost to the exchequer. This is because they will in most cases preserve what an individual's tax residence determination would be in the absence of COVID-19.
The number of individuals affected by the change is expected to be small.
Further information is available in the corresponding Tax Information and Impact Note on GOV.UK:
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an estimate of the number of people who have been affected by the change to the Statutory Residence Test announced on the 9 April 2020 in the (a) 2019-20 and (b) 2020-21 financial years.
Answered by Jesse Norman
COVID-19 measures and guidance related to the Statutory Residence Test (SRT) have been estimated to have a negligible cost to the exchequer. This is because they will in most cases preserve what an individual's tax residence determination would be in the absence of COVID-19.
The number of individuals affected by the change is expected to be small.
Further information is available in the corresponding Tax Information and Impact Note on GOV.UK:
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish the communication between (a) himself and his Department, (b) the Prime Minister and (c) the Prime Minister’s Office on the changes to the Statutory Residence Test announced on 9 April 2020.
Answered by Jesse Norman
At the start of the pandemic, HMT and HMRC received a large number of requests for easements, all of which were considered, resulting in more than 80 COVID-19 related easements and exemptions being introduced to support businesses and individuals since March 2020, with many of these still in place.
The Government took a principled approach to changing the rules for the Statutory Residence Test so that any individual within certain critical sectors working on COVID-19 related activity would have benefited from the exemption.
For further details, please see the statement published by the Prime Minister’s office on 23 April:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/information-relating-to-the-ventilator-challenge-and-the-statutory-residence-test
Asked by: Anneliese Dodds (Labour (Co-op) - Oxford East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many (a) individuals and (b) organisations made representations to his Department on the change to the Statutory Residence Test announced on 9 April 2020.
Answered by Jesse Norman
At the start of the pandemic, HMT and HMRC received a large number of requests for easements, all of which were considered, resulting in more than 80 COVID-19 related easements and exemptions being introduced to support businesses and individuals since March 2020, with many of these still in place.
The Government took a principled approach to changing the rules for the Statutory Residence Test so that any individual within certain critical sectors working on COVID-19 related activity would have benefited from the exemption.
For further details, please see the statement published by the Prime Minister’s office on 23 April:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/information-relating-to-the-ventilator-challenge-and-the-statutory-residence-test