Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to provide funding for economic development in Sheffield when (a) local growth and (b) EU funding ends.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
The government has guaranteed funding for all European Structural and Investment Fund projects signed before the UK leaves the European Union, provided they are value for money and in line with domestic priorities. Following the UK’s departure from the European Union, we will launch the UK Shared Prosperity Fund; this will use money returning from the EU to provide funding for economic development and local growth across the UK.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the rise in beer duty in the March 2017 Budget (a) on the price of beer for consumers and (b) in tax revenue.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The Government published its assessment of the impacts of the alcohol duty changes in the Tax Information and Impact Note, which can be found online at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/alcohol-duty-rate-changes/alcohol-duty-rate-changes
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he estimated the cost of freezing beer duty for 2017-18 prior to the introduction of the Spring Budget 2017.
Answered by Andrew Jones
The Chancellor of the Exchequer keeps all taxes, including alcohol duties, under review and considers a wide range of tax policy options before each Budget.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish the results of the research commissioned by his Department on the effect of current pricing structures used by foreign exchange providers on consumer value choices.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
In its Answer of 18 April 2017 to Question 69488, the Government stated that it was conducting research on the effects of transparency in overseas money transfers (involving foreign exchange), on consumer decisions. This research will help to inform the Government's response to the consultation on draft regulations for the implementation of the Second Payment Services Directive. This response will be published shortly.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans he has to introduce a UK shared prosperity fund; how much such a fund will contain; to whom that funding will be made available; and how those eligible for funding will apply for access to that funding.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
The government’s manifesto committed to create a UK Shared Prosperity Fund. Further details will be set out in due course. The government has provided a guarantee for all European Structural and Investment Fund projects signed before the UK leaves the European Union (EU) if they provide good value for money and are in line with domestic strategic priorities. This includes projects that continue beyond the UK’s departure from the EU.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will assess the potential merits of exempting all new zero-emissions taxis from VAT from 2018 to 2025.
Answered by Jane Ellison
There are no plans to alter the VAT treatment of new taxis.
Where a driver who owns or rents a taxi, or a business which operates a number of taxis, is registered for VAT, they will generally be able to recover any VAT they incur in the course of their business activities.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the Government's projected tax receipts are from North Sea oil and gas in the next 10 years; and what the total public liability for decommissioning costs will be in the next 10 years.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The forecasted Exchequer revenues up to 2021-22 (Offshore Corporation Tax and Petroleum Revenue Tax) arising from the production and extraction of North Sea oil and gas from the UK and UK Continental Shelf are presented in Table 4.6 of the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR’s) Economic and Fiscal Outlook: November 2016. This is available to view at: http://cdn.budgetresponsibility.org.uk/Nov2016EFO.pdf.
The OBR will be publishing updated forecasts on 8 March 2017.
Longer-term estimates of revenues from the production and extraction of North Sea oil and gas were published as a supplementary table of the OBR’s Fiscal Sustainability Report: June 2015. This is available to view at: http://budgetresponsibility.org.uk/docs/dlm_uploads/FSR_2015_Supplementary_Tables.xlsx.
It should be noted that the longer-term estimates are based on the March 2015 forecast and determinants.
There is considerable uncertainty in the costs, timing and the duration of decommissioning activity in the UK. The estimated Exchequer costs for the decommissioning of North Sea oil and gas infrastructure over the period 2015 to 2041 are £16 billion (nominal), as presented in Table 3.12 of the OBR’s Fiscal Sustainability Report: July 2016 analytical papers: http://budgetresponsibility.org.uk/docs/dlm_uploads/FSAP_July_2016_public_sector_balance_sheet_.pdf.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to tackle authorised push-payment scams.
Answered by Simon Kirby
In 2015 the Government established the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) to ensure that payment systems work well for those that use them.
Following Which?’s super-complaint about Authorised Push Payment (APP) Scams last year, the PSR has developed a programme of work to better protect consumers and increase awareness of payment scams. The banking industry will lead on the following work:
• Developing, collecting and publishing scam statistics to address the lack of clear data on the scale and scope of the problems, and to enable monitoring over time.
• Developing a common approach or best practice standards that banks should follow when responding to reported APP scams.
• Developing a common understanding of what information can be shared under the current law and any key legal barriers to sharing further information, liaising with the Information Commissioner’s Office as appropriate.
The PSR will monitor this work and review industry progress in the second half of 2017.
The PSR is also undertaking work to consider the potential for operators of the Faster Payments and CHAPS payment systems to play an expanded role in helping to minimise the consumer harm caused by APP scams.
In addition to this, the PSR has recognised the benefits that enhanced assurance data could bring in this space, and is currently undertaking work on a possible ‘Confirmation of Payee’ solution, whereby entering the account details would bring up the name of the account holder.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make it his policy for HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to keep records of the (a) number of people who have their tax credits erroneously suspended by Concentrix, (b) number of people who subsequently have those tax credits reinstated and (c) length of time it takes HMRC to subsequently process those payments.
Answered by Jane Ellison
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) collects a wide range of data in order to process a claim. However, this data is not currently held in a form that is accessible for bulk requests without incurring disproportionate costs. For that reason, HMRC is currently focused on resolving outstanding Concentrix cases, but will be preparing analysis which will be made available in due course.
Asked by: Gill Furniss (Labour - Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will amend his Department's official guidance to allow court-granted child arrangement orders to be used by HM Revenue and Customs as evidence of children's living arrangements when assessing applications for tax credits.
Answered by Jane Ellison
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) already accepts a court-granted child arrangement order as evidence when deciding who has main responsibility for a child but need to consider this alongside any other evidence provided before making a decision. HMRC has amended its guidance in the Tax Credits Technical Manual to refer to child arrangement orders.