Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Answer of 5 September 2023 to Question 197760 on Royal Mint: Fraud, what information his Department holds on whether the investigation by law enforcement agencies into fraudulent transactions made on the Royal Mint website since 2022 has concluded.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The investigation by law enforcement agencies into an external fraud incident impacting the Royal Mint website remains ongoing. Therefore, I am unable to provide further detail at this time.
The incident did not impact Royal Mint customers details and there was no risk to customer data.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of rules on duty-free shopping on demand for flights (a) to and (b) from EU destinations at airports in (i) Northern Ireland and (ii) the rest of the UK.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government remains committed to supporting the travel and tourism industries. As part of our support for the aviation industry, the Government regularly reviews flight data and considers it as part of policy making.
From 1st January 2021, British passengers travelling to EU countries have been able to take advantage of duty-free shopping, bringing our approach to the EU in line with the rest of the world. Inbound personal allowances were also substantially increased.
The Government keeps all taxes under review as part of the tax policy making cycle and Budget process.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make it his policy to permit the sale of duty free goods to people on flights between Northern Ireland and EU airports.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to preserving frictionless movement of people and goods between Northern Ireland and Ireland. This is important to communities across Northern Ireland and would otherwise undermine the Belfast Good Friday Agreement.
Enabling duty-free shopping between Northern Ireland and the EU (of which Ireland is a member) without also introducing border controls on the island of Ireland would lead to significant distortions of trade as well as a significant revenue loss for both UK and Ireland. This is because it would create a legal route for unlimited amounts of alcohol and tobacco to flow into the UK market duty-free.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will commission an independent investigation into the annual review issued by the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) published its Annual Review for the 2022-23 financial year on 14 December available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ofsi-annual-reviews.
HM Treasury has no plans to request an independent investigation.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will hold discussions with major banks on interest rates on savings accounts compared to other financial institutions.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Chancellor has made clear his expectation that savers benefit from higher interest rates, and earlier this year he secured agreement from the FCA to review the savings market. The review was published in July and set out 14 actions for the FCA and firms to take to ensure customers were not losing out on higher interest rates.
The FCA recently shared an update on this work to acknowledge improvements in the market, meaning that more savers are now benefiting from higher interest rates. It also reaffirmed its commitment to continue working with industry to ensure savers are receiving fair value. This includes working with banks and building societies to review the fair value assessments they have already submitted
The retail savings market currently offers a range of options to savers, who can now access the highest rates in recent years on a variety of instant access and fixed-term products.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has had recent discussions with the International Monetary Fund on levels of national global debt.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
As the Government’s lead on sovereign debt, HM Treasury maintains regular engagement with the International Monetary Fund on a bilateral basis, as well as in international fora – including the G7, G20, and the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable – to discuss global debt levels and coordinate on strengthening the international debt architecture.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many pensioners who do not pay income tax as their state pension is their sole income will start to pay tax from April 2024.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
From April 2024, the full weekly rate of the basic State Pension will be £169.50 and the new State Pension will be £221.20. The Personal Allowance – the amount of income that each individual may receive before paying income tax – is currently set at a level high enough (£12,570) to ensure that those pensioners whose sole income is the basic or new State Pension, and who have not deferred or receive protected payments, do not pay any income tax.Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the changes announced in the Autumn Statement 2023 to allow multiple subscriptions in each year to individual savings accounts (ISAs) of the same type from 6 April 2024 will apply to Junior ISAs.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The subscription rules for Junior ISAs differ in a number of ways to those of an adult ISA, and are intended to ensure that tax-free savings made on behalf of children are managed and maintained efficiently and there is no complexity of 'small pots', which would create problems as those children reach adulthood. The government will publish draft amendments to the ISA rules early in 2024.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the average income was of families paying the High Income Child Benefit Charge in 2020-21.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The information is only available at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people (a) applied for and (b) received Specified Adult Childcare credits in each of the last three years.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The table below shows the total number of applications received for Specified Adult Childcare (SAC) credits in each of the last three years, and numbers that are approved and rejected. Applications for SAC credits can be made from the October following the tax year being applied for.
An application for SAC credits can only be successful where there is a claim for Child Benefit and all other eligibility criteria are met.
These figures have been taken from management information available at this time and are not official statistics. This means that they have not been subjected to full Quality Assurance procedures.
SAC reporting year | Applications approved |
Oct 2022 -Sept 23 | 22,575 |
Oct 2021 - Sept 22 | 17,329 |
Oct 2020 – Sept 21 | 15,927 |