Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps HMRC is taking to improve communication with Child Trust Fund beneficiaries.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
HMRC assists young people in accessing their matured CTFs through its online tracing service and through targeted communications appropriate to the age group. It will continue its work with providers, industry representatives and other stakeholders, exploring ways of increasing the profile of CTFs and enabling account owners to be aware of and trace their accounts.
HMRC encourages anyone unsure about their situation to get in touch with their account provider. If people don’t know their account provider, they can easily locate their Child Trust Fund accounts online by using the “Find my CTF” page on GOV.UK https://www.gov.uk/child-trust-funds/find-a-child-trust-fund
Information on Child Trust Funds is available in HMRC’s Annual Savings Statistics.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/annual-savings-statistics-2024
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of matured Child Trust Funds have not been claimed.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
HMRC assists young people in accessing their matured CTFs through its online tracing service and through targeted communications appropriate to the age group. It will continue its work with providers, industry representatives and other stakeholders, exploring ways of increasing the profile of CTFs and enabling account owners to be aware of and trace their accounts.
HMRC encourages anyone unsure about their situation to get in touch with their account provider. If people don’t know their account provider, they can easily locate their Child Trust Fund accounts online by using the “Find my CTF” page on GOV.UK https://www.gov.uk/child-trust-funds/find-a-child-trust-fund
Information on Child Trust Funds is available in HMRC’s Annual Savings Statistics.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/annual-savings-statistics-2024
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many matured Child Trust Funds are unclaimed.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
HMRC assists young people in accessing their matured CTFs through its online tracing service and through targeted communications appropriate to the age group. It will continue its work with providers, industry representatives and other stakeholders, exploring ways of increasing the profile of CTFs and enabling account owners to be aware of and trace their accounts.
HMRC encourages anyone unsure about their situation to get in touch with their account provider. If people don’t know their account provider, they can easily locate their Child Trust Fund accounts online by using the “Find my CTF” page on GOV.UK https://www.gov.uk/child-trust-funds/find-a-child-trust-fund
Information on Child Trust Funds is available in HMRC’s Annual Savings Statistics.
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/annual-savings-statistics-2024
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what her Department's budget is for (a) advertising, (a) marketing and (c) communications in each year of this Parliament.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
HMT sets its budgets annually. Budgets have not been finalised for future financial years.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many full time equivalent staff are employed in (a) each Ministerial office and (b) the Permanent Secretary's office.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
HM Treasury has seven ministers, two of which work jointly with other departments.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Private Office has thirteen permanent full-time members of staff.
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury Private Office has six permanent full-time members of staff.
The Financial Secretary to the Treasury’s Private Office has six permanent full-time members of staff.
The Economic Secretary to the Treasury’s Private Office has six permanent full-time members of staff.
The Exchequer Secretary’s Private Office has six permanent full-time members of staff.
The Minister for Pensions works jointly with the Department of Work and Pensions. He has one permanent full-time member of staff who is a HM Treasury employee.
The Minister for Investment works jointly with the Department of Trade. She has one permanent full-time member of staff who is a HM Treasury employee.
The Permanent Secretary’s Office has four permanent full-time members of staff.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to her Department's consultation Strengthening the Soft Drinks Industry Levy, published on 28 April 2025, what estimate she has made of the annual revenue which would be generated from the proposed changes set out in the consultation.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
At Autumn Budget 2024 the Chancellor announced her intention to review the Soft Drinks Industry levy (SDIL) – which has incentivised producers to remove almost half (46%) the sugar in relevant drinks – to further drive product reformulation.
The ‘Strengthening the Soft Drinks Industry Levy’ consultation follows this commitment. Specifically, it sets out proposals to reduce the minimum sugar threshold at which the levy applies from 5g to 4g sugar per 100ml, and to remove the current exemptions for milk-based and milk substitute drinks with added sugar.
The government welcomes feedback on the proposed changes as part of the consultation, which is open until 21 July 2025 and will inform decisions at a future Budget.
The exchequer impact of any changes to SDIL will be confirmed following the consultation and certified by the Office of Budget Responsibility as part of a Budget.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps regulators sponsored by her Department are taking to reduce the reporting requirements for firms.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Our Regulation Action Plan included a whole of Government target to cut the administrative costs of regulation for business, including costs posed by reporting requirements, by a quarter by the end of the Parliament.
As first steps to contribute to the delivery of this target:
· The Prudential Regulation Authority has committed to working with industry to deliver a more streamlined approach to banking regulatory reporting;
· The Financial Conduct Authority published a consultation on removing certain reporting and notification requirements on 16 April; and,
· We are considering changes to the Money Laundering Regulations, to ensure requirements are proportionate and targeted at high-risk activity.
We are completing a baselining exercise in parallel to understand how much regulation is costing and where reforms can be targeted to streamline processes and remove unnecessary burdens.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions her Department has had with the Crown Estate on using the borrowing powers in the Crown Estate Act 2025.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Treasury and The Crown Estate continue to have regular dialogue, including on The Crown Estate’s business plan and the use of the borrowing powers contained in the Crown Estate Act 2025.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress has been made on negotiating a partnership agreement between the Crown Estate and Great British Energy.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Crown Estate and Great British Energy have maintained a continuous dialogue as the Great British Energy Bill progresses through Parliament.
The partnership agreement will be finalised following the conclusion of legislative scrutiny to ensure all amendments are accounted for and the agreement aligns with the final legislative framework.
Asked by: James Wild (Conservative - North West Norfolk)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 1 April 2025 to Question 40654 on Income Tax: Pensioners, what estimate she has made of the number of pensioners that will be affected in each year.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
HMRC publish the number of income tax payers by age. This information can be found in Table 2.1 of the collated income tax liabilities statistics tables for the years up to 2024-25, available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66798d4797ea0c79abfe4b83/Collated_Income_Tax_liabilities_statistics_tables_-_2.1_to_2.6.ods. Data on future years will be published in the usual way.
As I set out in my previous answer, the Personal Allowance - the amount an individual can earn before paying tax - will continue to exceed the basic and full new State Pension in the coming tax year. This means pensioners whose sole income is the full new State Pension or basic State Pension without any increments will not pay any income tax.