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 and what proportion of businesses are prepared for the completion of customs paperwork for export to the EU.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
For over a year, the Government has been working to help businesses to understand and prepare for their new obligations, including customs paperwork for export to the EU. The Government will continue to assess carefully how traders are adapting to the new customs arrangements over the next few weeks and months.
The Government undertook significant readiness activity prior to 1 January, identifying key customer groups and delivering a high volume of targeted communications and engagement, including sending over 11 million letters and emails and hosting 50 webinars with over 30,000 attendees to date, preparing businesses for the new rules.
Through the cross-Government campaign since August the Government has reached 41m adults (15+) and 16m business decision makers through radio, and 18m adults (15+) and 3.5m business decision makers through print and digital articles, promoting key readiness messaging for importers and exporters.
The Government will continue to run this comprehensive engagement campaign with regular (and increasingly directive) letters to VAT registered traders, targeted phone calls and emails, events, webinars and video tutorials. Regular engagement with business representative organisations and devolved governments continues, with emphasis on trader readiness.
As well as providing extensive communications and guidance helping traders, the Government has made available grants of up to £1,000 per organisation for any importer and or exporter who is new to customs to support the cost of customs training. The grants have in particular helped small businesses to understand customs processes and to provide accurate information to intermediaries; for example, for entries into declarants’ records.
Recognising the impact of coronavirus on businesses’ ability to prepare, the Government has taken the pragmatic and flexible decision to introduce new border controls in three stages up until 1 July 2021, giving industry extra time to adjust to the new procedures. The priority from 1 January is reminding traders and the border industry about staged controls for imports and other temporary contingency milestones and supporting them to embed the new processes.
The Government will continue to provide support for the rest of this year.
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 (a) meet representatives of the private coach industry to discuss the financial effect of the covid-19 outbreak on and (b) provide additional financial support to that industry.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
The Government recognises the challenging times facing the coach sector as a result of Covid-19, and firms experiencing difficulties are able to draw upon the unprecedented package of cross-economy measures the government has put in place, including Time to Pay flexibilities with tax bills, financial support for employees and tax deferrals. These measures have been designed to ensure that firms of any size receive the help they need to get through this difficult time.
As part of my regular engagement with industry leaders, I recently met with representatives of the coach sector to better understand their situation. I encourage the sector to continue to engage with the Department of Transport on the matters discussed.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus and Perthshire Glens)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he plans to respond to the letters of (a) 31 July 2020, (b) 31 August 2020 and (c) 29 September 2020 from the hon. Member for Angus on financial support for dental laboratories.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
The Treasury responded to the member’s letter on 9 October 2020.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus and Perthshire Glens)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when HMRC plans to respond to the letters of (a) 29 June 2020, (b) 29 July 2020, (c) 7 September 2020 and (d) 30 September 2020 from the hon. Member for Angus on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
HMRC have been in contact with Mr Doogan’s office in relation to these letters and are now working on their response as a priority. There has been a delay caused by the letters being sent to an incorrect email address.
Asked by: Dave Doogan (Scottish National Party - Angus and Perthshire Glens)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when HMRC plans to respond to the letters dated 18 May 2020 and 10 July 2020 from the hon Member for Angus on the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The HMRC Director responsible for the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme, Paul Riley, duly replied to the Honourable Member’s letter on 18 September 2020. HMRC apologise for the delay in responding.
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 reduce VAT on energy saving products after the end of the transition period.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
VAT is a broad based tax on consumption and the twenty per cent standard rate applies to most goods and services.
Relief from the standard rate is already available on the sale and installation of certain energy-saving materials such as insulation, draught stripping and solar panels if certain conditions are met.
Although there are no plans to extend the scope of the relief already in place, the Government keeps all taxes under review.