Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to (a) support vulnerable people when using banking services and (b) tackle fraud and scams perpetrated against those people.
Answered by John Glen
The Government is strongly committed to ensuring those with a characteristic of vulnerability have access to appropriate, useful and affordable financial products and services. The Government also works with industry to combat fraud and ensure members of the public have the information they need to spot a scam and stand up to fraudsters. The Government works closely together with regulators and stakeholders from the public, private and third sectors, to ensure that all consumers of financial services are appropriately protected.
UK banks’ and building societies’ treatment of their customers is governed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in its Principles for Businesses. This includes a general requirement for firms to provide a prompt, efficient and fair service to all of their customers.
The FCA’s Guidance for firms on the Fair Treatment of Vulnerable Customers requires that firms should understand what harms their customers are likely to be vulnerable to and ensure that customers in vulnerable circumstances receive the same fair treatment and outcomes as other customers.
If a firm has doubts about a consumer’s ability to understand a product or service, suspects they do not have capacity to make decisions or that they are acting as a result of fraud or coercion, the firm should assess whether it should allow the consumer to proceed. It may be appropriate for firms to contact, or act on the instructions of, a family member, friend or other third party.
The Government also recognises the actions of the financial services industry to help tackle fraud, including through investment in anti-fraud capabilities, the creation of a voluntary reimbursement Code, and the implementation of initiatives such as Confirmation of Payee. While we welcome these initiatives, it is clear that more needs to be done both to prevent these scams, and to ensure that victims are not left paying for fraud through no fault of their own.
The Government therefore welcomed the Payment Systems Regulator’s recent consultation on Authorised Push Payment scams, which set out potential measures that could improve scam prevention and outcomes, including proposals to introduce mandatory requirements to reimburse victims. The Government has confirmed it intends to legislate to address any barriers regarding regulatory action regarding mandatory reimbursement when parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people have been registered for the tax-free childcare scheme in each of the last three years.
Answered by Simon Clarke
Statistics relating to Tax-Free Childcare account usage are published quarterly in “Tax-Free Childcare Statistics” on the gov.uk website. The latest publication, containing information up to December 2021 is here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tax-free-childcare-quarterly-statistics
Table 7 of the publication shows the number of families, by Government Office Region, that have a Tax-Free Childcare account. The table below shows the number of accounts that are open, regardless of whether or not they have been used.
Families with Open Tax-Free Childcare accounts:
Region | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 |
United Kingdom | 449,355 | 614,730 | 697,145 |
England | 426,130 | 570,020 | 643,085 |
North East | 18,200 | 24,100 | 27,340 |
North West | 59,495 | 79,940 | 91,265 |
Yorkshire and The Humber | 40,750 | 54,815 | 62,420 |
East Midlands | 38,215 | 51,335 | 58,095 |
West Midlands | 43,220 | 57,910 | 65,300 |
East of England | 50,140 | 67,130 | 75,605 |
London | 54,550 | 73,230 | 79,730 |
South East | 74,660 | 99,850 | 113,600 |
South West | 46,900 | 61,705 | 69,735 |
Wales | 6,745 | 13,705 | 15,945 |
Scotland | 9,700 | 19,355 | 24,435 |
Northern Ireland | 3,240 | 6,645 | 8,805 |
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the rising cost of childcare and cost of living pressures facing working families, whether he has plans to increase the level of support available through the tax-free childcare scheme.
Answered by Simon Clarke
Tax Free Childcare is a generous scheme which provides financial support for working parents with their childcare costs. For every £8 parents pay into their childcare account, the government adds £2 up to a maximum of £2,000 in top up per year for each child aged up to 11, and up to £4,000 per disabled child until they’re 17.
In addition, all three- and four-year-olds can access 15 hours of free childcare per week, regardless of circumstance. Eligible working parents of three- and four-year-olds can also access an additional 15 hours of free childcare per week, also known as 30 hours free childcare. Moreover, Universal Credit (UC) claimants are able to claim up to 85% of their childcare costs.
The Government has no plans to change the amount of top-up provided through Tax-Free Childcare (TFC).
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 impact on the hospitality industry of ending the reduced rate of 12.5% VAT for the sector; and what steps he is taking to mitigate against any negative impact of his decision to remove this rate.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The temporary reduced rate of VAT was introduced on 15 July 2020 to support the cash flow and viability of around 150,000 businesses and protect over 2.4 million jobs in the hospitality and tourism sectors. As announced at Spring Budget 2021, the Government extended the 5 per cent temporary reduced rate of VAT for the tourism and hospitality sectors until the end of September 2021. On 1 October 2021, a new reduced rate of 12.5 per cent was introduced for these goods and services to help ease affected businesses back to the standard rate. This relief ended on the 31 March 2022.
The Government has been clear that the reduced rate of VAT for hospitality and tourism was a temporary measure designed to support the sectors that have been severely affected by COVID-19. It is appropriate that as restrictions are lifted and demand for goods and services in these sectors increases, the temporary tax reliefs are first reduced, and then removed, in order to rebuild and strengthen the public finances.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to help ensure that small metals recycling businesses are protected from negative impacts following that industry's loss of the use of red diesel from 1 April 2022.
Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Chancellor confirmed at Spring Budget 2021 that the Government would remove the entitlement to use red diesel for most uses from April 2022. This more fairly reflects the negative environmental impact of the emissions produced and helps to ensure that the tax system incentivises the development and adoption of greener alternative technologies.
To support the development of alternatives that affected businesses can switch to, the Government is at least doubling the funding provided for energy innovation through the £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio. From that portfolio, the Government announced the £40 million Red Diesel Replacement Competition, which will provide grant funding for projects that develop and demonstrate lower carbon, lower cost alternatives to red diesel for the construction, and mining and quarrying sectors. The technologies developed from this programme will also be applicable to other sectors to support decarbonisation, and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is planning a series of dissemination events in the future with industry and other affected sectors to spread awareness about the successes achieved and lessons learned through this programme.
As announced at Spring Budget 2021, from 1 April 2021 until 31 March 2023, companies can also claim 130% first-year capital allowances on qualifying plant and machinery investments.
Furthermore, in recognition of the unique circumstances that are currently pushing up fuel prices to unprecedented levels, the Government announced at the Spring Statement that it is cutting fuel duty on petrol and diesel by 5 pence per litre for a period of 12 months. This is a significant tax cut that will deliver considerable savings to businesses over the next year, including those that use diesel, and is the first time in over a decade that the main rates of petrol and diesel have been cut.