Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish a list of rateable values for airports and ancillary uses in England.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Rateable values (RVs) for all rateable non-domestic properties in England are published in the rating lists. The latest RVs can be found here: https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/business-rates-find.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the number of vehicle checks that will be required daily from (a) Great Britain to Northern Ireland and (b) Northern Ireland to Great Britain after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Jesse Norman
No such estimate is available. The deal agreed with the EU will enable the Government to ensure that no tariffs are payable for goods moving from Northern Ireland to the rest of the United Kingdom and that there is no hard border on the island of Ireland. The deal also ensures that unfettered access for goods moving from Northern Ireland to the rest of the UK can be maintained.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to increase protection for small businesses taking out finance.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
On 1 April 2019 the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) widened eligibility to take a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) to include ‘small businesses’ who have:
an annual turnover of less than £6.5m; and
an annual balance sheet total of less than £5m; or
fewer than 50 employees.
‘Micro-enterprises’ were already eligible, and over 99% of businesses are now within the remit of the FOS. The FCA also increased the maximum FOS award limit to £350,000.
The banking industry have also committed to establishing a new Dispute Resolution Service to resolve both future complaints from businesses with a turnover between £6.5m and £10m, and unresolved historic complaints.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking through the business rate system to support large retailers that act as anchor stores.
Answered by Jesse Norman
From April 2018 the Government switched the annual indexation of the business rates multiplier from RPI to the lower rate of CPI inflation.
This change is worth almost £6bn over the next five years and benefits all ratepayers, large and small.
The Government is also increasing the frequency of property revaluations, from every five years to every three, so that bills are fairer and more closely reflect properties’ current rental values.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to improve the protection of funds held by companies for prepaid funerals.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
HM Treasury launched a call for evidence on the regulation of pre-paid funeral plans in June 2018. The call for evidence has confirmed that consumer detriment is present in the pre-paid funeral plan sector and that there is broad demand for the sector to come under compulsory regulation.
Consequently, the government intends to bring the pre-paid funeral plan market within the remit of the Financial Conduct Authority and is currently consulting on the proposed legislative framework to implement this proposal. This will allow the FCA to establish a robust regulatory regime which will apply to all funeral plan providers, and improve protection for consumers.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the 1 February 2019 Local Government Association's news article entitled £8 billion funding black hole by 2025 will swallow up popular council services, dated 1 February 2019, what representations his Department has received on funding for local government in the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
As Chief Secretary to the Treasury, I regularly hear from councils across the country on matters related to local government funding. I have also attended events organised by the sector to discuss local government funding.
Future funding for local government will be considered at the next Spending Review.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the value of tax receipts as a result of the decision to delay reducing the Fixed Odds Betting Terminal stake.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
As the Chancellor set out to the Treasury Select Committee on 5 November, changes to Fixed Odds Betting Terminals and Remote Gaming Duty will be implemented simultaneously. This ensures that regardless of when changes to Fixed Odds Betting Terminals and Remote Gaming Duty are implemented, there will be no significant change to the exchequer impact.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the merits of introducing an internet or online sales tax.
Answered by Mel Stride - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Government has made clear through HM Treasury position papers that international corporate tax rules need to be updated to reflect the value digital businesses create value.
Pending global reform those papers also set out the Government’s receptiveness to exploring interim measures to tax certain digital businesses.
The Government has also provided support for all businesses through, for example, reforms and reductions to business rates worth over £10bn by 2023.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much funding, in real terms, has been allocated from the public purse to transport infrastructure in the north of England in each year since 1993.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
Information on funding allocated from the public purse to transport infrastructure in the north of England in each year since 1993 is not available. However, estimates of capital expenditure including transport by country and region are available.
HM Treasury published the Country and Regional Analysis of public expenditure in November 2017 featuring capital and current functional expenditure by region for the five-years of outturn from 2012-13 to 2016-17. These are available in table A.8e. A link to the HM Treasury data are available below. Click on the further link to the ‘A’ tables:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/country-and-regional-analysis-2017
For a longer time series the ONS have published country and regional public sector finances in May 2017. The dataset shows public expenditure by functions that include transport by each region from 1999-2000 to 2015-16. A link to ONS data are available here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/governmentpublicsectorandtaxes/publicsectorfinance/datasets/countryandregionalpublicsectorfinancesexpendituretables
Both the HMT and ONS datasets are in nominal terms.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West and Royton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people were charged with tax evasion in each year from 2010 to date; and how many of those people served a custodial sentence as a result of that tax evasion.
Answered by Mel Stride - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
HM Revenue and Customs is not itself a prosecuting authority. All prosecutions have to be authorised by the relevant independent prosecuting authority, which for England and Wales would be the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS); for Scotland, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS); and for Northern Ireland, the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland (PPSNI).
The custodial sentences handed down in a particular financial year may be in respect of charging decisions made in previous years, due to the length of time individuals can take to proceed through the judicial system from charging decision to outcome. They therefore do not correlate directly to the number of charging decisions in that financial year.
| Positive Charging Decisions | Number of Custodial Sentences Handed Down |
2011/12 | 501 | 241 |
2012/13 | 739 | 227 |
2013/14 | 880 | 241 |
2014/15 | 1254 | 247 |
2015/16 | 1067 | 272 |
2016/17 | 1067 | 292 |