Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he is taking steps to help ensure that financial institutions (a) provide insurance for property owners using carbon-free cement in new buildings and (b) support the use of innovative low and zero carbon products and services.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is fully committed to delivering on our net zero legal obligations by 2050 and has set out a comprehensive range of measures to support investment into the transition in Powering Up Britain and the Green Finance Strategy. These will help leverage around £100 billion of private investment as we develop new industries and innovative low carbon technologies and support up to 480,000 jobs by 2030.
The package of measures recently set out at Autumn Statement 2023 will further build the enabling environment for investment, which will be vital to delivering net zero. This included making Full Expensing permanent, speeding up grid connections, and reforming the planning system. It also included £4.5bn in advanced manufacturing support, with £960m for a new Green Industries Growth Accelerator focused on clean energy sectors.
Insurers make commercial decisions about the types of products they will cover, as well as the terms and conditions they set, when offering insurance. While the Government does not intervene in these commercial decisions by insurers, it recognises the important role insurance plays in supporting the transition to more sustainable products and will continue to monitor the availability and affordability of relevant insurance products.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people earn an annual salary less than £38,700 in each English constituency.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC does not publish this information.
Statistics on employment income are published annually as part of the Survey of Personal Incomes. Outturn data for the tax year 2020 to 2021 is the latest available.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what information his Department holds on (a) how many people earn less than £38,700 a year in (i) Wales, (ii) England, (iii) Scotland and (iv) Northern Ireland and (b) what proportion of people earn less than that sum in each constituency in Wales.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC does not publish this information.
Statistics on employment income are published annually as part of the Survey of Personal Incomes. Outturn data for the tax year 2020 to 2021 is the latest available.
Specifically, Table 3.15 contains the latest constituency-level breakdown of taxpayer numbers. This covers individuals with employment income by Parliamentary Constituency. Breakdowns by country and region are also available in this table.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing an investment allowance for the renewable energy sector within the Electricity Generator Levy.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
As announced at Autumn Statement from January 2023 a 45% tax is being levied on the extraordinary returns being realised by certain electricity generators. At Spring Statement it was forecast to raise around £14 billion over the next 5 years which will help fund support for households and business with their energy bills as well as vital public services.
The Electricity Generator Levy (EGL) and the Electricity Profits Levy (EPL) are designed very differently. Unlike the EPL, the EGL is not a tax on a comprehensive measure of profit that is calculated after recognition of total revenues and costs. Instead, it is payable on the portion of revenues that exceed the long-run average for electricity prices. Rather than providing an investment allowance the government has taken into account the potential impact on investment in the design of the levy with the benchmark price, £75/MWh, being set at 1.5 times the pre-crisis level and indexed to CPI.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of the Electricity Generator Levy on investment in (a) onshore and offshore wind infrastructure and (b) other sources of renewable energy.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
As announced at Autumn Statement from January 2023 a 45% tax is being levied on the extraordinary returns being realised by certain electricity generators. This is forecast to raise around £14 billion over the next 5 years to help fund support for households and business with their energy bills as well as vital public services.
The levy will only be applied to extraordinary returns defined as returns from selling electricity for a period at an average price of more than £75/MWh. This is approximately 1.5 times the average price of electricity over the last decade. The Government considers this to be a proportionate approach to recovering a share of the extraordinary returns electricity generators are receiving while leaving generators a share of the revenue from high electricity prices. The Office for Budget Responsibility considered the impact of the levy on its economic and fiscal forecasts which was published at Autumn Statement in its economic and fiscal outlook. Further information on the impact of the policy is set out in a Tax Information Impact Note which is available on www.gov.uk
The Government continues to provide considerable support for investment in renewables Since 2014 the Contracts for Difference scheme has enabled around 26GW of new low-carbon capacity, with generators receiving almost £6 billion net in price support. The UK has reduced emissions faster than any other G7 nation, with 41% of our electricity coming from renewables last year, compared to 22% in the USA.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the impact of the Electricity Generator Levy on energy security and net zero objectives.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
As announced at Autumn Statement from January 2023 a 45% tax is being levied on the extraordinary returns being realised by certain electricity generators. This is forecast to raise around £14 billion over the next 5 years to help fund support for households and business with their energy bills as well as vital public services.
The levy will only be applied to extraordinary returns defined as returns from selling electricity for a period at an average price of more than £75/MWh. This is approximately 1.5 times the average price of electricity over the last decade. The Government considers this to be a proportionate approach to recovering a share of the extraordinary returns electricity generators are receiving while leaving generators a share of the revenue from high electricity prices. The Office for Budget Responsibility considered the impact of the levy on its economic and fiscal forecasts which was published at Autumn Statement in its economic and fiscal outlook. Further information on the impact of the policy is set out in a Tax Information Impact Note which is available on www.gov.uk
The Government continues to provide considerable support for investment in renewables Since 2014 the Contracts for Difference scheme has enabled around 26GW of new low-carbon capacity, with generators receiving almost £6 billion net in price support. The UK has reduced emissions faster than any other G7 nation, with 41% of our electricity coming from renewables last year, compared to 22% in the USA.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what information his Department holds on the VAT rates of deposit return schemes operated in non-UK countries.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The precise operation of the schemes varies from country to country.
HMRC and HMT have contacted a number of other countries regarding their drink deposit return schemes. All of these countries operate their deposit return scheme differently and as such there is a variety of approaches in how they go about accounting for VAT on their schemes. Some countries charge VAT on the deposit at the same rate as the drink itself and others treat the deposit as outside the scope of VAT.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in the context of the EU's exclusion of energy-from-waste incineration projects from its green finance taxonomy, whether he plans for energy-from-waste incineration projects to be in or out of the scope of the UK’s Green Taxonomy.
Answered by Simon Clarke
In the coming months, the Government will be launching a consultation on the Technical Screening Criteria which underpin the Taxonomy. I encourage any interested parties to engage with that consultation.
After the consultation has concluded, the Government will make a final decision on which activities will be included in the taxonomy and the criteria they will need to meet.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress his Department has made on developing the UK’s Green Taxonomy; and when he plans to publish those proposals.
Answered by Simon Clarke
In the coming months, the Government will be launching a consultation on the Technical Screening Criteria which underpin the Taxonomy. I encourage any interested parties to engage with that consultation.
After the consultation has concluded, the Government will make a final decision on which activities will be included in the taxonomy and the criteria they will need to meet.
Asked by: Geraint Davies (Independent - Swansea West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of allocating a greater proportion of the revenue generated from the plastic packaging tax to recycling and collection infrastructure in advance of the implementation of (a) deposit return schemes and (b) extended producer responsibility reforms in 2025 and beyond.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As set out at Budget 2018 when the tax was first announced, future revenues raised from the Plastic Packaging Tax and the Packaging Producer Responsibility reforms will enable investment to address single-use plastics, waste and litter. Some businesses have already started reformulating their packaging to include recycled content in response to the tax, with many signing up to the UK Plastics Pact which has a target of 30% average recycled content by 2025.
Since March 2021, the Government has committed a total of £30 billion for the green industrial revolution in the UK, including more than £300m capital funding at the 2021 Spending Review to implement free, separate food waste collections in every English local authority from 2025.