Asked by: David Mundell (Conservative - Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation prioritises urgent licence applications from start-up businesses that are unable to secure further funding without an approved application.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
As set out in its published guidance, the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation prioritises licence applications at times of high demand, and, in particular, where there are issues of personal basic needs and/or wider humanitarian issues at stake which are of material impact or urgency, or which are deemed to be of particular strategic, economic or administrative importance.
Asked by: David Mundell (Conservative - Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the expected processing time is for an asset freeze licence application by the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) prioritize urgent licence applications including those which concern humanitarian issues and basic personal needs, or where there is a severely detrimental impact such as a threat to life. As every licence application is unique, OFSI take a tailored approach to cases, and there is no standard processing time.
Asked by: David Mundell (Conservative - Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has conducted research on the potential economic impact of duty-free shopping in other countries for arriving passengers; and if he will make an assessment of the potential economic impact of introducing duty-free shopping for passengers arriving in the UK.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Duty-free on arrival would place additional pressure on the public finances to which excise duty makes a significant contribution.
Any loss in tax revenue would have to be balanced by a reduction in public spending, increased borrowing or increased taxation elsewhere.
Although there are no plans to introduce such a scheme, the Government keeps all taxes under review and considers all available evidence as part of the tax policymaking process.
Asked by: David Mundell (Conservative - Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the withdrawal of tax-free shopping for passengers travelling to non-EU destinations on spending by non-EU international visitors since 1 January 2021; and what data his Department holds on spending by non-EU international visitors (a) in each of the five years before and (b) since 1 January 2021 in (i) France and (ii) Italy.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Chancellor announced on 17 October 2022 that the Government will not be proceeding with plans to introduce a new VAT-free shopping scheme.
Introducing VAT-free shopping would come at a significant fiscal cost as it would subsidise a large amount of tourist spending which already occurs without a tax relief in place.
The independent Office of Budget Responsibility published their assessment of the withdrawal of the previous VAT-free shopping schemes in November 2020. This showed that the withdrawal of VAT-free shopping would raise a significant amount of revenue and have a limited behavioural effect on decisions to visit, or spend, in the UK.
Asked by: David Mundell (Conservative - Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to track levels of cash acceptance among retailers.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government recognises that the ability to transact in cash remains important to millions of people across the UK and has committed to legislating to protect access to cash.
The Government does not collect information on the levels of cash acceptance among retailers. Nonetheless, it remains closely engaged with the financial regulators, including through the Treasury-chaired Joint Authorities Cash Strategy Group, to monitor and assess trends relating to cash.
The FCA has published research on cash acceptance by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which found that the primary motivation for accepting cash is to provide customers with choice. While it remains the individual retailer’s choice as to whether to accept or decline any form of payment, including cash or card, nearly all (98%) of surveyed businesses stated they would never turn away a customer if they needed to pay by cash.
Asked by: David Mundell (Conservative - Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has plans to bring forward legislative proposals on protecting access to cash in next year's Queen's Speech.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government recognises that cash has ongoing importance to the daily lives of millions of people across the UK, particularly to those in vulnerable groups. That is why the Government has committed to legislate to protect access to cash for those who need it and ensuring that the UK's cash infrastructure is sustainable for the long term.
To support the development of legislation, the Government has undertaken an Access to Cash Consultation seeking views on proposals for new laws to make sure people only need to travel reasonable distances 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 consultation closed on 23rd of September, and the Government will set out next steps in due course.
Alongside the Government’s commitment to legislate, industry also has an important role to protect access to cash. The Government therefore welcomes the announcement to fund additional shared service Bank Hubs and the direction set by the recent announcement from the Cash Action Group on industry commitments to support access to cash. The Government looks forward to seeing what results these industry initiatives deliver in protecting cash facilities for local communities across the UK.
HM Treasury does not make direct assessments of banks’ or building societies’ branch networks, and decisions on opening and closing branches are a commercial decision for firms. The Financial Conduct Authority expects firms to carefully consider the impact of planned branch closures on their customers’ everyday banking and cash access needs and consider possible alternative access arrangements. Alternative options for access include the Post Office, where 95% of business and 99% of personal banking customers can carry out their everyday banking.
Asked by: David Mundell (Conservative - Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what comparative assessment he has made of the effectiveness of (a) voluntary commitments and initiatives from the payments industry and (b) statutory Government and regulatory oversight in protecting access to cash; and what his planned timetable is for bringing forward legislative proposals on that matter.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government recognises that cash has ongoing importance to the daily lives of millions of people across the UK, particularly to those in vulnerable groups. That is why the Government has committed to legislate to protect access to cash for those who need it and ensuring that the UK's cash infrastructure is sustainable for the long term.
To support the development of legislation, the Government has undertaken an Access to Cash Consultation seeking views on proposals for new laws to make sure people only need to travel reasonable distances 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 consultation closed on 23rd of September, and the Government will set out next steps in due course.
Alongside the Government’s commitment to legislate, industry also has an important role to protect access to cash. The Government therefore welcomes the announcement to fund additional shared service Bank Hubs and the direction set by the recent announcement from the Cash Action Group on industry commitments to support access to cash. The Government looks forward to seeing what results these industry initiatives deliver in protecting cash facilities for local communities across the UK.
HM Treasury does not make direct assessments of banks’ or building societies’ branch networks, and decisions on opening and closing branches are a commercial decision for firms. The Financial Conduct Authority expects firms to carefully consider the impact of planned branch closures on their customers’ everyday banking and cash access needs and consider possible alternative access arrangements. Alternative options for access include the Post Office, where 95% of business and 99% of personal banking customers can carry out their everyday banking.
Asked by: David Mundell (Conservative - Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of recent analysis from Which? on the rate of bank branch closures; and what his planned timetable is for bringing forward legislative proposals on protecting access to cash.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government recognises that cash has ongoing importance to the daily lives of millions of people across the UK, particularly to those in vulnerable groups. That is why the Government has committed to legislate to protect access to cash for those who need it and ensuring that the UK's cash infrastructure is sustainable for the long term.
To support the development of legislation, the Government has undertaken an Access to Cash Consultation seeking views on proposals for new laws to make sure people only need to travel reasonable distances 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 consultation closed on 23rd of September, and the Government will set out next steps in due course.
Alongside the Government’s commitment to legislate, industry also has an important role to protect access to cash. The Government therefore welcomes the announcement to fund additional shared service Bank Hubs and the direction set by the recent announcement from the Cash Action Group on industry commitments to support access to cash. The Government looks forward to seeing what results these industry initiatives deliver in protecting cash facilities for local communities across the UK.
HM Treasury does not make direct assessments of banks’ or building societies’ branch networks, and decisions on opening and closing branches are a commercial decision for firms. The Financial Conduct Authority expects firms to carefully consider the impact of planned branch closures on their customers’ everyday banking and cash access needs and consider possible alternative access arrangements. Alternative options for access include the Post Office, where 95% of business and 99% of personal banking customers can carry out their everyday banking.
Asked by: David Mundell (Conservative - Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans he has to ensure that the (a) Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and (b) Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) (i) make consumers aware of FCA Comp rule 7.4.1, (ii) do not financially disadvantage consumers by not disclosing that rule and (iii) compensate consumers in the event that they are financially disadvantaged as a result of not disclosing that rule.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) seeks to recover some or all of the cost of compensation from financial firms that have failed. This benefits both the levy payers that fund the FSCS, and claimants who have been already been paid compensation by the FSCS but still have uncompensated losses. Since the start of the 2015-16 financial year, the FSCS has recovered more than £280mn from failed firms.
The Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) Compensation Manual, which sets out the rules regarding the FSCS’s duty to seek recoveries, is published and accessible to consumers on the FCA’s website. The FSCS also publishes information for consumers about its approach to recoveries on its website.
Asked by: David Mundell (Conservative - Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans he has to extend the tax return deadline to support (a) SMEs and (b) small accountancy practices during the January 2021 covid-19 lockdown period.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government has carefully considered the arguments for extending the Self-Assessment filing date from 31 January but presently has no plans to extend that deadline.
The Government encourages as many people as possible to file on time even if they cannot pay their tax straight away. Only by filing a Self-Assessment return will taxpayers and their agents be able to determine the tax due for 2019/20 and the amount of any payments on account for 2020/21.
The Government recognises that some taxpayers will have difficulty submitting their Self-Assessment return due to the impact that COVID-19 has had on their personal or business circumstances.
HMRC do not charge penalties for failure to submit a return on time where taxpayers have a reasonable excuse. HMRC’s guidance explains that they will accept the impact of COVID-19 as a reasonable excuse for submitting a return late, provided that taxpayers explain how they were affected and submit the return as soon as they can. More information is available in the HMRC online guidance covering the reasonable excuse provisions.