Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 6 July 2018 to Question 158255, on Import Duties: Western Sahara, for what reasons the Western Sahara Campaign UK is included in the list of consultees when it states that it was not consulted.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
I refer the hon. Member to my answer of 6 July to PQ UIN 158256. It is for the European Commission to respond to any questions about its report.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what time target his Department has for the answer of Departmental correspondence relating to constituency cases.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
The Treasury’s target to answer correspondence relating to constituency cases is 15 working days. In 2017 we achieved this in 77% of cases.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the 21 December 2016 ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union in Polisario vs Council, whether imports from Western Sahara are subject to the preferential tariffs under the EU's trade agreement with Morocco.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
On 21 December 2016 the European Court of Justice ruled that the EU-Morocco trade agreement (known as the Association Agreement) did not apply to Western Sahara and that preferential tariffs could not therefore be applied to products originating in Western Sahara.
The European Union has negotiated with Morocco following the court ruling. The EU has put forward a proposal to the Council to amend the relevant protocols of the Association Agreement to amend the territorial scope of the origin of products which could benefit from tariff preferences. The EU has consulted a wide spectrum of Western Saharan representatives, stake-holders, civil society, and other organisations.
The proposed Council Decisions and report of the EU’s consultations are publicly available on the EU’s website:
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/FR/TXT/?qid=1528727963950&uri=COM:2018:479:FIN,
and
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/FR/TXT/?qid=1528728345252&uri=COM:2018:481:FIN, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/FR/TXT/?qid=1528728473699&uri=SWD:2018:346:FIN
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the 21 December 2016 ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union in Polisario v Council, whether all products from Western Sahara entering the UK under the ISO code EH are classed as Moroccan products.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
ISO code ‘EH’ is the international code for Western Sahara. It should be used when importing goods from Western Sahara into the UK.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much has been lost from the public purse as a result of HM Revenue and Customs errors in respect of tax credits in (a) the UK and (b) Wansbeck constituency in the last seven years.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
The Child and Working Tax Credits Annual Error & Fraud statistics measure the value of error and fraud at the end of the tax credits year. They do not include any errors that are corrected before the end of the year. The statistics are published every June.
An estimated £80 million has been paid out in tax credits payments as a result of HMRC errors favouring the claimant between 2010/11 and 2015-16. Figures for 2016/17 are not available yet.
Figures for Wansbeck constituency are not available as error statistics are estimated based on a sampling exercise for the UK. There is not the level of detail available to break this down by constituency.
The figure above has been calculated using the figure in table 5 from the previous six publications. The latest error & fraud statistics are published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/child-and-working-tax-credits-annual-error-and-fraud-statistics-2015-to-2016
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much has been spent from the public purse in compensation to recipients of tax credits for errors caused by HM Revenue and Customs in the last seven years in (a) the UK and (b) Wansbeck constituency.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will consider offering redress payments for a variety of reasons, including: poor complaint handling, costs incurred, worry and distress and actual financial loss. Redress payments made under HMRC’s complaints policy are ex-gratia and they are not intended in any way to equate to compensation or damages awarded by the courts. HMRC are unable to break down the data to show redress payments made specifically in relation to error.