Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the Barnett consequential arising from the pay settlement for NHS workers in England is.
Answered by John Glen
The Barnett formula is applied when departmental budgets change – not when departments announce how they are spending their budgets.
Discussions between HMT and DHSC on the funding implications, should a pay deal be agreed, are ongoing.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of extending the Energy and Trade Intensive Industry scheme to include primary agricultural production.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
As part of the Energy Bills Discount Scheme (EBDS), we have taken a consistent approach to identifying the most energy and trade intensive sectors, with all sectors that meet agreed thresholds for energy and trade intensity eligible for Energy and Trade Intensive Industries (ETII) component of the scheme. These thresholds have been set at sectors falling above the 80th percentile for energy intensity and 60th percentile for trade intensity, plus any sectors eligible for the existing energy compensation and exemption schemes. We have also published further information on the methodology which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-bills-discount-scheme-factsheet/energy-bills-discount-scheme-energy-and-trade-intense-industries-assessment-methodology
All other eligible businesses, except for those experiencing low energy costs, will automatically receive a unit discount on their bills of up to £19.61/MW for electricity, and £6.97/MW for gas.
We remain committed to supporting our farmers to produce high quality food and to increase the productivity, resilience, and sustainability of their businesses. That is why we have maintained farm budgets across this Parliament as promised, each year providing an average of £2.4 billion in England, £621m in Scotland, £340m in Wales, and £330m in Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much revenue has accrued to the Treasury from fuel duty in each of the last three years.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
The Office for Budget Responsibility holds Government receipts from all taxes and duties for each year. Revenue accrued from fuel duty receipts in each of the last three years can be viewed online in their Public Finances Databank:
Data - Office for Budget Responsibility (obr.uk)
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much money the Government has recouped from child benefit claimants due to overpayment as a result of the High-Income Child Benefit Charge in each of the last three years.
Answered by Richard Fuller - Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The High Income Child Benefit Charge (HICBC) is a tax charge which applies to anyone with an adjusted net income of over £50,000 who receives Child Benefit, or whose partner receives it. HICBC is calculated on an individual rather than a household basis, in line with other income tax policy. The charge increases gradually for those with incomes between £50,000 and £60,000 and is equal to one per cent of a family’s Child Benefit for every extra £100 of income that is over £50,000 each year. Where income exceeds £60,000, the tax charge is equal to the amount payable in Child Benefit.
The total value of HICBC revenue in relation to the year of liability is published on gov.uk at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/high-income-child-benefit-charge-data/high-income-child-benefit-charge.
The figures for the last three years for which data is available are shown in the table below.
| 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 |
HICBC revenue (£million) | 423 | 437 | 416 |
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress has been made in the wider pilot of the No Interest Loan Scheme.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
Progress on the pilot of the No-Interest Loan Scheme is good and over 60 no-interest loans have now been issued at the proof-of-concept site in South Manchester, providing real world impact for recipients.
Fair4All Finance (who are delivering the scheme) are now finalising contracts with the lenders chosen to take part in the wider pilot and the government expect three pilot locations to have started lending by the end of November and a further pilot location to start lending in January, so that full-scale rollout will have commenced by early 2023. Fair4All Finance expects to deliver tens of thousands of no-interest loans over the course of the pilot.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he is taking steps to help ensure companies do not charge consumers excessive fees for withdrawing cash at ATMs.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
Arrangements for cash machines are commercial decisions for the operators of ATMs and ATM networks.
LINK (the scheme that runs the UK's largest ATM network) has commitments to protect the broad geographic spread of free-to-use ATMs and is held to account against these commitments by the Payment Systems Regulator. LINK has committed to protect free-to-use ATMs more than one kilometre away from the next nearest free ATM or Post Office, and free access to cash on high streets (where there is a cluster of five or more retailers) that do not have a free-to-use ATM or a Post Office counter within one kilometre.
In recognition that cash continues to be used by millions of people across the UK the Government has introduced legislation to protect access to cash as part of the Financial Services and Markets Bill. The legislation will establish the Financial Conduct Authority as the lead regulator for access to cash with responsibility and powers to ensure that people can continue to access cash withdrawal and deposit facilities. These powers will allow the FCA to take account of factors it considers appropriate for seeking to ensure there is reasonable provision of cash access services, this could include factors such as cost for end users.