Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus and Perthshire Glens)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will conduct a review of the potential effect of the Loan Charge on instances of the suicides in the UK.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Loan Charge was introduced to draw a line under the historic use of disguised remuneration (DR) schemes which paid income in the form of loans via third parties, often offshore trusts.
When announced at Budget 2016, the Loan Charge formed part of a package estimated to yield more than £3.2 billion over five years. The forecast was last revised at Spring Statement 2022, with the latest estimated overall Exchequer yield of £3.4 billion for the entire package, which includes the Loan Charge.
There has already been an independent review of the Loan Charge. The Independent Loan Charge Review, led by Lord Morse, assessed the impact of the policy on affected taxpayers. The Government accepted all but one of the Review’s 20 recommendations and changes resulting from the review have reduced the Exchequer yield by an estimated £620 million.
Any loss of life is a tragedy, and HMRC takes issues relating to loss of life or serious injury extremely seriously. HMRC has made ten referrals to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) in relation to individuals who have sadly taken their lives and have used DR schemes. In the eight concluded cases, the investigations found no evidence of misconduct by any HMRC officer. Individuals affected by the Loan Charge are supported by HMRC’s Extra Support teams. These are teams of specialist trained advisors who, where appropriate, signpost taxpayers to specialist Voluntary and Community organisations. To further strengthen the support offered to taxpayers, HMRC and Samaritans are currently working together to deliver an 18-month project.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus and Perthshire Glens)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 29 December 2022 to Question 105568 on Manufacturing Industries: Energy, when he plans to publish the review of the Energy Bill Relief Scheme; and what plans he has to provide further support.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
On 9 January, the government announced that it would be launching a new energy support scheme for businesses, charities and the public sector. This will help those locked into contracts signed before recent substantial falls in the wholesale price manage their costs and provide others with reassurance against the risk of prices rising again.
The new Energy Bills Discount Scheme will provide all eligible businesses and other non-domestic energy users across the UK with a discount on high energy bills until 31 March 2024, following the end of the current Energy Bill Relief Scheme.
It will also provide businesses in sectors with particularly high levels of energy use and trade intensity with a higher level of support.
The new scheme strikes a balance between supporting businesses for a further 12 months, from April 2023 to March 2024, and limiting taxpayer’s exposure to volatile energy markets, with a cap set at £5.5 billion. This provides long term certainty for businesses and reflects how the scale of the challenge has changed since September last year.
Further information on the scheme can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/energy-bills-discount-scheme
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus and Perthshire Glens)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department provided written instructions to public service pension schemes on continued payment of Pension Increase (PI) for Guaranteed Minimum Pension in circumstances where there is no monetary payment made through the State Pension between 2016 and 2019.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
Provisions for the indexation of Guaranteed Minimum Pensions by Public Service Pension Schemes, including for the period from 2016 to 2019, are set out in Directions made by HM Treasury under section 59A of the Social Security Pensions Act 1975. These provide for the full indexation of Guaranteed Minimum Pensions earned as part of a public service pension in circumstances where those Guaranteed Minimum Pensions are not increased through the State Pension. The latest Section 59A direction is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/975793/Treasury_Direction_30.03.2021_FINAL.pdf
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus and Perthshire Glens)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many pensioners affected by the Guaranteed Minimum Pension reconciliation exercise had their pensions (a) reduced and (b) increased; and what was the (a) highest loss, (b) lowest loss and (c) average loss of pension for those pensioners.
Answered by Richard Fuller - Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
This question is being answered assuming the Hon. Member for Angus is referring to the Scheme Reconciliation Service that ended in 2021 and that the pension information requested relates to occupational pensions. HMRC are unable to provide the data requested.Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus and Perthshire Glens)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, under what circumstances the (a) Department for Work and Pensions or (b) HMRC may change an individual’s Guaranteed Minimum Payment information.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
An individual’s National Insurance record is a living entity that can be updated at any time through routine ‘business as usual’ reviews or if additional information is received from Pension Scheme Administrators and/or employers. Any of these updates to the National Insurance record could result in a change to the Guaranteed Minimum Pension value held on HMRC records.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus and Perthshire Glens)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much the Scottish Government has received in Barnett consequentials as a direct result of the London Crossrail Project; whether that project has been treated as an exceptional; and to what extent the calculation of Crossrail-related Barnett has differed from the calculation of standard transport-related funding as laid out in the Statement of Funding Policy.
Answered by Simon Clarke
The Barnett formula has been applied to spending on Crossrail as set out in the Statement of Funding Policy. Crossrail is classified as local transport, which is devolved in Scotland, so spending on Crossrail feeds through into Barnett-based funding for the Scottish Government.
The Barnett formula determines changes in the Scottish Government’s funding, not the overall funding, and is applied at departmental level at Spending Reviews. Barnett consequentials don’t therefore reflect the funding provided to the Scottish Government in relation to specific programmes or projects.
The Block Grant Transparency publication sets out the breakdown of Barnett consequentials for the Scottish Government.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus and Perthshire Glens)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make a comparative assessment of how much potash was imported into the UK in the last six months and during the same period in the last three years.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
HMRC is responsible for the collection and publication of data on imports and exports of goods to and from the UK. HMRC releases this information monthly, as a National Statistic called the Overseas Trade in Goods Statistics (OTS), which is available via their dedicated website: www.uktradeinfo.com. From this website, it is also possible to build your own data tables based upon bespoke search criteria: https://www.uktradeinfo.com/trade-data/ots-custom-table.
Potash falls within commodity code chapter heading 281520: ‘Sodium hydroxide “caustic soda”, potassium hydroxide “caustic potash”; peroxides of sodium or potassium’. Forms of potash are also used in fertilisers and fall within commodity code chapter heading 3104. The full commodity code would depend on the specific compounds of the potash.
A data table showing the volumes of potash and fertilisers containing potash that were imported into the UK in the last six months compared to the last three years is provided separately.