Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when his Department will publish the conclusions of the Access to Cash consultation.
Answered by John Glen
The Government recognises that cash remains an important part of daily life for millions of people across the UK, which is why it has committed to legislate to protect access to cash.
From 1 July to 23 September last year, the Government held the Access to Cash Consultation on proposals for new laws to make sure people only need to travel a reasonable distance to pay in or take out cash. The Government’s proposals intend to support the continued use of cash in people’s daily lives and help to enable local businesses to continue accepting cash by ensuring they can access deposit facilities.
The Government received responses to the consultation from a broad range of respondents, including individuals, businesses, and charities.
The Government is carefully considering responses to the consultation as it develops legislation. The Government will set out next steps in due course.
Following the Government’s commitment to legislate, firms are working together through the Cash Action Group to develop new initiatives to provide shared services. The Government welcomes the direction set by industry’s commitments at the end of last year and looks forward to seeing what results they deliver in protecting cash facilities for local communities across the UK.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that (a) pensioner and (b) other people who apply for credit without a comprehensive credit rating have fair access to finance.
Answered by John Glen
The Government believes that a consumer without a comprehensive credit rating should have fair access to credit.
To support those struggling to access credit, in 2018, the Government announced the winners of its £2 million Rent Recognition Challenge. The winners offer apps for renters to record and share their rent payment data, helping boost their credit score. Further, since 2019, the Government has provided £96 million to Fair4All Finance to increase the financial resilience and wellbeing of people in vulnerable circumstances through improving availability of fair and accessible financial products and services.
For consumers struggling to access credit, Credit Reference Agencies can advise consumers to add a Notice of Correction (of up to 200 words) to their credit report explaining any special circumstances, and to explain how their situation has now changed or improved. The content of the Notice should be taken into account alongside the information on the consumer’s report.
To support pensioners, those in receipt of Pension Credit may be able to apply for Budgeting Loans available through DWP’s Social Fund. These are interest-free loans, which are repayable from benefit awards and are designed to help with intermittent expenses that are considered difficult to budget. Those in receipt of Universal Credit can access new claim advances at the beginning of their claim should they have upfront costs. There are also budgeting or change of circumstances advances, available throughout a Universal Credit claim, should someone encounter unexpected one-off expenses.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many officials in (a) his private office and (b) the wider Department have been allocated to the production and promotion of online content for use on social media in (a) 2018-19, (b) 2019-20 and (c) 2020-21.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
There are no officials in private office allocated to the production and promotion of online content. The digital capability in communications team is not wholly devoted to social media but also deals with content production for other purposes such as design and photography. With that caveat the number of civil servants for whom this is a part of their role for the relevant years is:
2018-19: 4
2019-20: 5
2020-21: 6 ( and 1 vacancy)
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what support his Department can provide to UK-based, French-owned companies who no longer benefit from French research and development tax credits for UK-based work.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
Firms within the charge to UK corporation tax, which undertake qualifying R&D, may be able to claim R&D tax reliefs via the Research and Development Expenditure Credit (RDEC) or the Small and medium sized enterprises (SME) R&D Relief.
Combined, these reliefs provided £5.1 billion of support to nearly 60,000 businesses in 2017-18.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of reducing wine duty to support the UK's wine industry.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
Alcohol duties are kept under review and the merits of a change to wine duty is considered at each fiscal event. Announcements about any changes to wine duty will be made in the usual way at the next Budget.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many officials in their Department were dedicated to their Department's responsibilities associated with the delivery of the Industrial Strategy in (a) 2017, (b) 2018, (c) 2019, (d) 2020 and (e) 2021.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is responsible for the overall delivery of the Industrial Strategy.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has plans in place to support sellers who miss the deadline for stamp duty relief as a result of buyers unexpectedly withdrawing from a property transaction.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The temporary relief was designed to stimulate immediate momentum in a property market where property transactions fell by as much as 50 per cent during the COVID-19 lockdown in March. This momentum in the property market will also support the jobs of people whose employment relies on custom from the property industry, such as retailers and tradespeople.
The Government will continue to monitor the market. As the relief was designed to provide an immediate stimulus to the property market, the Government does not plan to extend this relief.