Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Autumn Statement 2023, whether his Department has appointed advisers to review the potential merits of a NatWest retail share offer.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
At Autumn Statement 2023, the Chancellor set out that, as part of the plan to return NatWest to the private sector, the government will explore options to launch a share sale to retail investors in the next 12 months, subject to supportive market conditions and achieving value for money. Commercial advisers will be required to support the government’s assessment of options for a retail offer and any decisions regarding the merits of an offer will be taken by ministers in due course.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the VAT registration threshold on incentives for small businesses to increase their turnover above that threshold.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The Government recognises that accounting for VAT can be a burden on small businesses. This is why, at £85,000, the UK has a higher VAT registration threshold than any EU Member State and the second highest in the OECD. This keeps the majority of UK businesses out of VAT altogether. Nearly half of businesses that are VAT registered are voluntarily registered under the threshold.
Views on the threshold are divided and the case for change has been regularly reviewed over the years. While some businesses have argued that a higher threshold would reduce administrative and financial burdens, others contend that a lower threshold would provide a fairer competitive environment.
Following the Office of Tax Simplification report published on 7 November 2017, the Government published a call for evidence on 13 March 2018 inviting views on the effect of the current threshold and what policy options could better incentivise growth. A summary of responses was published at Budget 2018. The responses did not provide a clear option for reform.
While the Government continues to keep all taxes under review, it was announced at Autumn Budget 2022 that the VAT threshold will be maintained at its current level of £85,000 until 31 March 2026.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an estimate of the potential impact of increasing the VAT registration threshold by the retail price index in each year to March 2026 on annual VAT revenues.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The UK has a higher VAT registration threshold than any EU member state and the second highest in the OECD at £85,000. This keeps the majority of businesses out of VAT altogether. Any business with turnover of £85,000 or less does not have to register for VAT.
At Autumn Statement 2022 the Government announced that the VAT Registration Threshold would be frozen for two further years until March 2026. The Exchequer impact of this measure is shown in Table 4.2, Spring Budget 2023: Spring Budget 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). This costing has been certified by the Office for Budget Responsibility.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will estimate the number of businesses that are not required to register for VAT at the current threshold that would be required to register if the threshold were increased to (a) £90,000 and (b) £100,000 as of 23 May 2023.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The numbers of VAT registered businesses in various turnover ranges can be found in Table 5a of this statistical publication on the GOV.UK website here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/value-added-tax-vat-annual-statistics. Out of a total of 2,554,470 businesses registered for VAT in 2021-2022, a total of 1,222,240 were voluntarily registered below the threshold, representing slightly less than half the total.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the impact of the VAT threshold on small business growth.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The UK has a higher VAT registration threshold than any EU member state and second highest in the OECD – which keeps the majority of UK businesses out of VAT altogether.
The Government have also put in place a generous package of Business Rates relief worth £13.6 billion.
The Government has demonstrated its long-standing commitment to supporting small businesses. At Spring Budget, the Government confirmed that, from April 2023, the Small Profits Rate will mean 70 per cent of businesses will see no increase in Corporation Tax this April. In fact, the UK has the lowest corporation tax rate in the G7.
In addition, the Government continues to invest in the 38 Growth Hubs providing businesses across England with free one-to-one support and advice. Growth Hubs offer a triage, diagnostic and signposting service to make sure that all businesses, whatever their size or sector, know what help is available and can access the most appropriate support.
While the Government keeps all taxes under review, it was announced at Autumn Budget 2022 that the VAT threshold will be maintained at its current level of £85,000 until 31 March 2026.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on the capital budget for the NHS new hospitals programme.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
I discuss a range of priorities on health with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, including delivery of the new hospital programme.
The Hon Member will know that the programme was funded at Spending Review 2020 with £3.7bn for 4 years up to 2024/25 with further funding to be announced at the next Spending Review.
I know the Hon Gentleman has particular concerns around the issue of RAAC concrete which is affecting hospitals in his constituency and that the Health Secretary has made ensuring safety for patients and staff at affected sites a top priority.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care on capital funding for the new hospitals programme.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
I discuss a range of priorities on health with DHSC SoS, including delivery of the New Hospital Programme.
The programme was funded at Spending Review 2020 with £3.7bn for 4 years up to 2024/25.
Capital funding for the New Hospitals Programme beyond 2025 will be announced at the next Spending Review, as is standard practice.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent estimate he has made of the number of companies in North West Norfolk that are exporting to other countries.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
HMRC is responsible for the collection and publication of data on imports and exports of goods to and from the UK. HMRC releases this information monthly as National Statistics called the Overseas Trade in Goods Statistics and quarterly as the Regional Trade in Goods Statistics (RTS). Both are available via their dedicated website: https://www.uktradeinfo.com/.
HMRC also publishes an annual disaggregation of the RTS by smaller geographical areas. An estimate of exporter business counts for North and West Norfolk (as determined by the UK’s International Territorial Level ITL3) for trade in 2020, which is the latest available year, can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/regional-trade-in-goods-statistics-disaggregated-by-smaller-geographical-areas-2020.
The ‘Notes’ section at the beginning of this statistical publication should be read in full to understand the methodology, scope, and limitations of any statistics used.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
What fiscal steps he is taking to provide support to energy intensive industries.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Energy-Intensive Industries receive extensive support from the government.
Since 2013, we have provided over £2 billion to help them with the costs of electricity.
We have additional funds in place to support such sectors cut their bills, including the £315 million Industrial Energy Transformation Fund.
We also allocate free allowances to reduce the costs they pay under the emissions trading scheme, around £3bn per year based on recent prices.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of exempting volunteer drivers from HMRC mileage rates for travel over 10,000 miles.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Volunteer drivers who are reimbursed for their reasonable out of pocket expenses are not liable for Income Tax or National Insurance contributions (NICs). HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) accept that generally, allowances paid to volunteer drivers do no more than reimburse them for their actual expenses. Tax is only paid on any allowances received which exceed expenses and result in a profit.
In order to support the voluntary sector, the Government allows voluntary organisations to make payments under the Approved Mileage Allowance Payments (AMAPs) scheme to their volunteer drivers. The current AMAPs rate for cars and vans is 45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles and 25p per mile for each subsequent mile. The Passenger Payment is 5p per mile. The rates are set by Parliament and are reviewed regularly.