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
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
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 - Leader of HM Official Opposition
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 - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
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 - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
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 - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
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 - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
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, with reference to the news story, Business rates relief boosted with new £1.5 billion pot, published on 25 March 2021, what the planned timescale is for local authorities to set up local relief schemes to distribute business rates relief.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Government has announced a £1.5bn pot of additional business rates relief for businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic that are not eligible for the retail, hospitality and leisure business rates holiday. The statement by the Minister of State for Regional Growth and Local Government of 25 March 2021 explained the relief will be allocated to local authorities based on the stock of properties in the area and the sector-specific economic impacts of COVID-19.
Formal guidance will follow in due course, setting out the specific considerations that Local Authorities (LAs) should have regard for when providing relief. Relief will be for LAs to award on a discretionary basis. Funding will be available once the legislation relating to MCC provisions has passed and LAs have established their own local relief schemes. The Government will support LAs to do this as quickly as possible, including through new burdens funding.