Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an estimate of the number of buy-now-pay-later providers that are reporting their customers’ borrowing and repayment records to the credit reference agencies.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
HM Treasury regularly monitors the consumer credit market as part of its normal process of policy development.
Buy-Now Pay-Later (BNPL) is an interest-free product which gives consumers a time-limited means of spreading payments for their purchases. When used responsibly and provided affordably it can be a helpful way for consumers to manage their finances and make purchases.
Many consumers are attracted to BNPL because of its interest-free nature, which the Government considers makes it inherently lower risk than most other types of credit. The FCA’s most recent Financial Lives survey found that 46% of people of who had used BNPL in the past 12 months used it because it was interest-free.
As such, BNPL represents a popular alternative to traditional, interest-bearing forms of credit like credit cards and personal loans. For some financially vulnerable consumers it may also provide an alternative to high-cost and illegal lending. According to the FCA’s most recent Financial Lives survey, nearly 9 million adults in the UK have used BNPL in the past 12 months, and the average user had £160 outstanding across their BNPL purchases.
While the department does not hold precise information on the number of BNPL firms reporting information about their customers’ agreements to credit reference agencies, it understands that several of the UK’s major BNPL firms have reporting arrangements in place with at least one credit reference agency.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when his Department plans to bring forward proposals to regulate providers of buy-now-pay-later products.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
The Government’s consultation on proposed draft legislation to bring Buy-Now Pay-Later into regulation closed in April. Since then the Government has been carefully considering stakeholder feedback. The Government will publish a response to the consultation once it is finalised in due course.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of applying a VAT exemption to (a) period pants and (b) bed mats.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
A zero rate of VAT has applied to women’s Period Products, including some reusable products, since 1 January 2021 and applies to those products which were previously subject to the reduced rate of 5 per cent.
The Government has no plans to change the VAT treatment of wearable sanitary products or bed mats at present, but keeps all taxes under review
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing statutory provisions to enable small businesses to pay their taxes in flexible instalments.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Small businesses are already able to pay their taxes in flexible instalments. There is flexibility in Value Added Tax (VAT), Pay as You Earn (PAYE) Income Tax, and Income Tax Self-Assessment (ITSA).
The VAT Annual Accounting Scheme, open to all businesses with taxable supplies of less than £1.35 million (excluding VAT), allows small businesses to make payments on a monthly or quarterly basis.
Small businesses with PAYE liabilities lower than £1,500 per month can choose whether to make quarterly payments or make monthly payments, usually in line with their real-time information returns.
Small businesses with ITSA liabilities can make monthly or weekly payments toward their next ITSA bill through the Budget Payment Plan.
More details are available at the following links:
https://www.gov.uk/vat-annual-accounting-scheme
https://www.gov.uk/paye-for-employers
https://www.gov.uk/pay-self-assessment-tax-bill/pay-weekly-monthly
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the amount allocated as public spending to the devolved nations from the UK Apprenticeship Levy in 2019-20 was £460 million; and what estimate he has made of the figures for 2020-21 to 2023-24 inclusive
Answered by John Glen
The UK Government and devolved administrations agreed an Apprenticeship Levy funding deal, based on population share.
Under this agreement, the UK Government uplifted Spending Review 2015 settlements as set out in Block Grant Transparency to ensure the devolved administrations received a full population share of forecast Levy funding from 2017-18 to 2019-20. This population share amounted to £1.3 billion across all three devolved administrations over the three-year period, with £460 million allocated in 2019-20.
Beyond 2019-20, it was agreed that the normal operation of the population-based Barnett formula would deliver a similarly fair outcome rather than a bespoke arrangement being required.
The devolved administrations received record settlements at the 2021 Spending Review and are well funded to deliver devolved responsibilities. Those settlements are still growing in real terms this year, and over the three-year spending review period, despite inflation being higher than expected.
It is for the devolved administrations to decide how to allocate their funding in devolved areas.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the budget allocation for the Money and Pensions Service for community-based debt advice in the period between 2023 and 2025 on the number of compulsory redundancies of advisors; and whether he has had recent discussions with (a) the Citizen's Advice Bureau and (b) other providers on this issue.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
The Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) recently extended grants for community-based debt advice for 26 months starting from 1 February, as part of a £76 million total package for debt advice services in England this year. The package includes three-year contracts to provide national and business debt advice and administration of debt relief orders and is expected to increase the volume of debt advice sessions.
As part of the transition phase of implementing the new grant arrangements and contracts, MaPS are in regular discussions with their funded providers, which includes discussions about resourcing arrangements. The Government continues to work closely with MaPS to monitor the transition to these new arrangements.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an estimate of the cost of not requiring employers to pay national insurance contributions for apprentices under the age of 25 in England since the introduction of that relief.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The National Insurance Contribution (NICs) for apprentices under the age of 25 was introduced in financial year 2016 to 2017. Annual estimated costs for this relief are published by HM Revenue and Customs in their Non-Structural Tax Relief Statistics publication which can be found online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/main-tax-expenditures-and-structural-reliefs.
This information is for the UK, and HMRC does not provide a break-down of these costs for England.
Asked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much money from the public purse was spent on child benefit payments to parents of 16-19 year olds in full-time further education at (a) school and (b) college in (i) the UK and (ii) England.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
This information is only available at disproportionate cost as the available Child Benefit data does not distinguish between young persons who are 16 and not in further education and those who are. Information on the educational setting (school or college) attended by young people aged 16 or over is not held.Child Benefit statistics are published using August data from each year, detailing the number of children receiving Child Benefit payments by age and region. Figures from 2019-2021 for children aged 16-19 are summarised in the table below:
Number of children in (i) the UK and (ii) England receiving Child Benefit payments as of August of each year
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | |||
Age | UK | England | UK | England | UK | England |
161 | 643,915 | 542,490 | 656,640 | 554,150 | 660,420 | 557,185 |
17 | 500,560 | 423,980 | 517,110 | 439,520 | 528,280 | 450,065 |
18 | 418,565 | 361,175 | 422,505 | 366,560 | 440,745 | 383,845 |
19 | 95,830 | 80,305 | 90,610 | 75,490 | 84,015 | 70,080 |
Note 1: not all 16 year olds will remain in further education from the following September
The Child Benefit annual statistics are published on GOV.UK at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/child-benefit-geographical-statisticsAsked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many and what proportion of parents with 16-19 year olds in full-time further education at school and college were in receipt of child benefit in (a) England and (b) the UK in each of the last three years.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
This information is only available at disproportionate cost as the available Child Benefit data does not distinguish between young persons who are 16 and not in further education and those who are. Information on the educational setting (school or college) attended by young people aged 16 or over is not held.Child Benefit statistics are published using August data from each year, detailing the number of children receiving Child Benefit payments by age and region. Figures from 2019-2021 for children aged 16-19 are summarised in the table below:
Number of children in (i) the UK and (ii) England receiving Child Benefit payments as of August of each year
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | |||
Age | UK | England | UK | England | UK | England |
161 | 643,915 | 542,490 | 656,640 | 554,150 | 660,420 | 557,185 |
17 | 500,560 | 423,980 | 517,110 | 439,520 | 528,280 | 450,065 |
18 | 418,565 | 361,175 | 422,505 | 366,560 | 440,745 | 383,845 |
19 | 95,830 | 80,305 | 90,610 | 75,490 | 84,015 | 70,080 |
Note 1: not all 16 year olds will remain in further education from the following September
The Child Benefit annual statistics are published on GOV.UK at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/child-benefit-geographical-statisticsAsked by: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Haltemprice)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he held discussions on the potential merits of allocating additional funding to further education colleges before the publication of the Autumn Statement on 17 November 2022.
Answered by John Glen
At the Autumn Statement, the government set out a plan to support economic stability. The government is taking a responsible and disciplined approach to spending, while prioritising vital public services. Ahead of the Autumn Statement, the Chancellor considered a broad range of spending options across public services.
The government recognises the important role that further education colleges play in boosting skills and contributing to productivity. This is reflected in the Spending Review 2021 settlement, which announced an additional £3.8 billion for skills by 2024-25.