Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with businesses in Northern Ireland on the requirement to fill out declaration forms to trade with the rest of the UK under the Government's agreement with the EU.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Government has engaged and will engage closely with affected businesses and business representative organisations over the new deal, including those in Northern Ireland, to ensure that delivery of any new administrative requirements works for everyone.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the contribution has been from the public purse to the EU since 29 March 2019.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
The extension of Article 50 to 31 October 2019 will affect the size of the financial settlement because contributions to the EU that would have formed part of the settlement will be made while the UK remains a Member State, which reduces the size of the settlement. The UK will make further contributions in 2019 as a Member State until our exit, but there will be an equal reduction in contributions in 2019 under the financial settlement. The net effect on EU contributions is zero.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) estimated in its March 2019 Economic and Fiscal Outlook (EFO) that the UK’s net (public sector receipts) contribution to the EU over 2019/20 would be £11bn.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much money was accrued to the public purse from Air Passenger Duty in Northern Ireland in each of the last three years.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
As Air Passenger Duty (APD) is paid by airlines, information on revenues by region is not available. However, HMRC publishes an estimate of disaggregated tax receipts, including the share of APD relating to Northern Ireland:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/disaggregation-of-hmrc-tax-receipts
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions has he had with the Governor of the Bank of England on the level of interest rates.
Answered by John Glen
The independent Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has operational independence to set the level of interest rates in order to achieve their objectives as set out in the remit.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has regular discussions with the Governor of the Bank of England on a range of issues related to the UK economy.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to support economic growth in Northern Ireland in the event of the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
Securing a deal with the EU remains the Government’s top priority. However, a responsible Government must plan for every eventuality. The Northern Ireland Executive has received around £55 million in EU Exit preparation funding through the Barnett Formula.
To support the economic growth in Northern Ireland, we have also committed £350 million for a Belfast City Region Deal, £2 million to support regeneration of Belfast City Centre and accelerated the rollout of full fibre broadband. The early stage negotiations for a Derry/Londonderry and Strabane City Region Deal are progressing well. This builds on our work at Budget, when we also increased Northern Ireland Executive’s budget by £320 million.
Asked by: David Simpson (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions has he had with representatives from banks on branch closures.
Answered by John Glen
Treasury Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors, including banks, as part of the process of policy development and delivery. Details of ministerial and permanent secretary meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmt-ministers-meetings-hospitality-gifts-and-overseas-travel.