Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether food and drink wholesalers will be eligible for the 50 per cent business rates relief discount.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
Guidance setting out eligibility for the 2022-23 retail, hospitality and leisure relief will be published by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in due course.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether food and drink wholesalers will be eligible for the 50 per cent business rates relief discount available to the retail, leisure and hospitality industry.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
Guidance setting out eligibility for the 2022-23 retail, hospitality and leisure relief will be published by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in due course.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the 50 per cent business rates relief discount will be available per business or per premise.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
Eligible retail, hospitality and leisure properties in England will receive up to 50 per cent off their business rates bill in 2022-23, subject to a £110,000 cash cap per business.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential effect of new bank transfer based payment methods offered by gambling providers on the efficacy of gambling transaction blocks as a tool to support people struggling with gambling harms.
Answered by John Glen
The Government has made no such assessment in relation to the effect of new bank transfer based payment methods. However, licensed gambling operators are only permitted to use payment methods where they are able to ensure they are compliant with all Gambling Commission licence conditions and requirements, including anti-money laundering and safer gambling measures.
The Government also recognises that the financial services industry plays an important role in helping their customers monitor and manage their gambling spending, including by offering gambling transaction blocks. In recent years there has been considerable voluntary progress in this area by the industry, with almost all the largest UK banks, as well as the larger digital banks, now offering gambling transaction blocks for debit and credit card transactions.
The Government welcomes this progress and continues to work together with industry to identify what more can be done in this area. As such, I will soon be hosting a roundtable with the financial sector to discuss what action has taken place to date on this issue and look at opportunities for additional progress which further support UK consumers. This will include looking at wider payment methods.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of proposals to mandate the provision of spending blocks for gambling activity for current accounts.
Answered by John Glen
The Government recognises the potential merits in mandating the provision of spending blocks which allow gamblers to self-exclude themselves from making payments to gambling operators.
However, in recent years there has been considerable voluntary progress in this area by the industry. Almost all of the largest UK banks, as well as the larger digital banks, now have voluntary gambling block features on their debit cards. This gives consumers a considerable market choice in this area to choose a current account that has the right features for them.
The Government acknowledges that despite the enormous amount that has been achieved by the industry on a voluntary basis, it can go even further. That is why the Government will shortly write to industry to organise a new Ministerial roundtable with the sector to discuss what action has taken place to date and look for opportunities to further support UK consumers.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the aim of the alcohol duty review remains to simplify the existing system.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
The Government recognises the need to reform the current duty system to support the alcoholic drinks and pubs sector in the longer term and that there is a case for simplifying the current complicated system, making the basis of alcohol taxation more economically rational, and reducing the administrative burden on producers.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what reason pubs are considered to hold a special status over off-trade settings including (a) convenience stores and (b) specialist alcohol retailers.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
The Treasury is considering the merits of differentiating products based on the place of retail as part of its alcohol duty review. We are currently analysing responses provided by stakeholders to our recent call for evidence and will provide further updates in due course.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of how much and what proportion of savings from a differential duty rate on kegged beer would be passed on to (a) on-trade premises and (b) stakeholders earlier in the supply chain.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
The Treasury is considering the merits of differentiating products based on the place of retail as part of its alcohol duty review. We are currently analysing responses provided by stakeholders to our recent call for evidence and will provide further updates in due course.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect on the levels of illicit alcohol trade of implementing a differential alcohol duty rate for (a) on-trade and (b) off-trade sales.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
The Treasury is considering the merits of differentiating products based on the place of retail as part of its alcohol duty review. We are currently analysing responses provided by stakeholders to our recent call for evidence and will provide further updates in due course.
Asked by: Carolyn Harris (Labour - Neath and Swansea East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions (a) he and (b) officials of his Department have had with (i) the banking sector and (ii) financial regulators on bank-based gambling blocks.
Answered by John Glen
Government ministers and officials regularly engage with the financial services regulators and financial services industry on a number of issues.
The Government recognises the value in voluntary gambling blocks to allow gamblers to self-exclude themselves from making payments to gambling operators. In February 2019, the then DCMS Secretary of State held a roundtable with UK banks, during which the Government set out the merits of gambling blocks.
Since then, there has been considerable progress in this area. Since April 2020, licensed gambling operators in the UK have been prohibited from accepting credit card payments and such payments have been blocked by the largest UK banks. For debit cards, almost all of the largest UK banks, as well as the larger digital banks, now have voluntary gambling block features on their debit cards. This means that consumers have considerable market choice in this area and can choose a current account that has the right features for them.