Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of recent and proposed changes to ISAs on the complexity of the savings landscape and household saving behaviour.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
This is about making people’s savings work harder for them and for the economy. The UK has the lowest level of retail investment in the G7, with fewer than 1 in 10 people owning shares compared to 1 in 5 back in 1990. In Sweden, that figure rises to 2 in 5 people currently.
That is why the government is keeping the full £20,000 ISA allowance for investment and setting the cash ISA limit at £12,000 from April 2027.
This is part of our wider strategy aimed at supporting people to get into investing, including Targeted Support, which will be available from April 2026.
The OBR have provided a forecast of household saving in their November Economic and Fiscal Outlook
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of changes to business rates on the sustainability of commercial fitness gyms and community leisure centres serving rural communities.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The amount of business rates paid on each property is based on the rateable value of the property, assessed by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), and the multiplier values, which are set by the Government. Rateable values are re-assessed every three years. Revaluations ensure that the rateable values of properties (i.e. the tax base) remain in line with market changes, and that the tax rates adjust to reflect changes in the tax base.
At the Budget, the VOA announced updated property values from the 2026 revaluation. This revaluation is the first since Covid, which has led to significant increases in rateable values for some properties as they recover from the pandemic. To support with bill increases, at the Budget, the Government announced a support package worth £4.3 billion over the next three years, including protection for ratepayers seeing their bills increase because of the revaluation. As a result, over half of ratepayers will see no bill increases, including 23% seeing their bills go down. This means most properties seeing increases will see them capped at 15% or less next year, or £800 for the smallest.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of (a) named day questions and (b) ordinary written questions were responded to by her Department within the required timescale in (i) May 2025, (ii) June 2025, (iii) July 2025, (iv) August 2025, (v) September 2025, (vi) October 2025 and (vii) November 2025.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government recognises the importance of the effective and timely handling of written parliamentary questions (PQs).
The relevant data based on Treasury’s own case management system reporting is as follows:
Month | No. of Named Day PQs tabled | % of Named Day Answered On Time | No. of Ordinary Written PQs tabled | % of Ordinary Written Answered On Time |
May | 55 | 100% | 292 | 100% |
June | 118 | 100% | 301 | 99% |
July | 103 | 99% | 326 | 99% |
August | 0 | n/a | 0 | n/a |
September | 74 | 95% | 419 | 95% |
October | 82 | 99% | 426 | 98% |
November | 163 | 96% | 448 | 94% |
The House of Commons Procedure Committee monitors departmental PQ performance and publishes a report of the government’s consolidated PQ data following the end of each session.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many and what proportion of items of correspondence from Parliamentarians received by (a) her Department, (b) her and (c) her Ministers in each month since August 2024 have not yet received a substantive response.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
In line with Cabinet Office guidance, HM Treasury aims to respond to ministerial correspondence from parliamentarians within 20 working days. Correspondence performance data is published within HM Treasury’s Annual Report and Accounts. The 2023-24 Report noted that 62% of replies to parliamentarians were answered within the timeframe.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate her Department has made of the Government's financial liability for public sector defined benefit pensions in each of the next ten years.
Answered by Darren Jones - Minister for Intergovernmental Relations
The total liability for public service pensions stands at around £3 trillion, as per HM Treasury’s most recent Whole of Government Accounts report of 2021-22.
This includes the unfunded public service pension liabilities of £2.6 trillion and the liabilities of the funded schemes, such as the Local Government Pension Scheme, of £449 billion.
The Office for Budget Responsibility publishes forecasts of the cashflows of unfunded public service pension schemes and changes in public sector pension liabilities in their Economic and Fiscal Outlook (EFO) reports and supporting documents
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much funding she has budgeted (a) overall and (b) for each Department to reimburse them for the increased costs they incur from the rise in employers national insurance contributions.
Answered by Darren Jones - Minister for Intergovernmental Relations
The Government will provide support for departments and other public sector employers for additional Employer National Insurance Contributions costs only. This funding will be allocated to departments, with the Barnett formula applying in the usual way.
This is in line with the approach taken under the previous Government’s Health and Social Care Levy.
As set out in the Autumn Budget, the Government has set aside £4.7 billion in 2025-26 and plans to update Parliament on allocations by department in the usual way as soon as possible.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of public sector pensions in each of the next 20 years.
Answered by John Glen
The Office for Budget Responsibility’s Fiscal Risks and Sustainability Report forecasts expenditure on unfunded public service pensions is expected to fall from around 2% of GDP in 2021/22 to 1.8% of GDP in 2041/42.
Asked by: Caroline Johnson (Conservative - Sleaford and North Hykeham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people are enrolled in a public sector pension scheme but do not yet receive a pension under that scheme; and if he will publish a breakdown of those figures by (a) employer and (b) age.
Answered by John Glen
Membership data as of the last quadrennial valuation reports for each scheme is available on gov.uk. The Treasury does not hold age data or a breakdown by individual employer for each public sector pension scheme centrally and does not plan to collate or publish such data.