Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh and Atherton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many data incidents were recorded by HMRC in each of the last four years.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
The information requested is provided in the table below:
Year | Number of personal data Incidents |
2014/15 | 38 |
2015/16 | 31 |
2016/17 | 15 |
2017/18 | 30 |
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh and Atherton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many representations for additional funding he has received from the National Cyber Security Centre in the last 12 months.
Answered by Elizabeth Truss
The National Cyber Security Centre receives part of its funding from the National Cyber Security Programme, which received a £1.9bn investment for 2016-2021. The only representation that the National Cyber Security Centre has made for funding is as part of the standard National Cyber Security Programme annual funding allocation process.
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh and Atherton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent steps have been taken to secure the Government Gateway service from cyber attack.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
The Government Gateway infrastructure has been deployed and developed in line with security principles and best practice. It has also been reviewed by Security Accredited Professionals. In addition, regular health checks and software upgrades are undertaken to maximise system security and reduce vulnerability to cyber-attack.
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh and Atherton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 23 July 2018 to Question 165182, by what means HMRC plans to distinguish between a good settled in its final destination in the UK and a good destined to travel on to the EU.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
Under the Facilitated Customs Arrangement, the UK will apply the EU’s tariffs and trade policy for goods intended for the EU; while applying its own tariffs and trade policy for goods intended for the UK.
Where a good reaches the UK border, and the destination can be robustly demonstrated by a trusted trader, it will pay the UK tariff if it is destined for the UK and the EU tariff if it is destined for the EU. This is most likely to be relevant to finished goods, and we will seek to maximise the number of trusted traders who can pay the correct tariff at the border.
Where the destination of the good cannot be demonstrated at the point of import, the higher of the UK or EU tariff will be due. Where the good’s destination is later identified to be the lower tariff jurisdiction, it will be eligible for a repayment from the UK equal to the difference between the two tariffs. This is most likely to be relevant to intermediate goods.
The FCA, including how goods destined for the UK and the EU will be distinguished, will be designed to make it as simple as possible for businesses to engage with. The final details will be subject to negotiations with the EU.
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh and Atherton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to paragraph 16b on page 17 of the white paper, The Future Relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union, cm. 9593, what estimate his Department has made of the (a) financial cost and (b) potential job losses resulting from the Government's policy to require refunding of tariffs on four per cent of UK goods trade.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
On 12 July, the government published a White Paper setting out a clear proposal for the future relationship the UK wants to build with the European Union. In this paper the government proposed a new Facilitated Customs Arrangement (FCA) with the EU. The FCA seeks to ensure that we promote the greatest possible trade with both the EU and the rest of the world.
The government is seeking to maximise the number of traders who will not need to interact with a voluntary repayment mechanism. For businesses that would be eligible for a tariff repayment, the government assesses that this would lead to neither net costs nor job losses for these businesses. This is because businesses would only enter into the voluntary repayment mechanism if they stand to benefit overall from the UK’s independent trade policy. The Government assesses that the eligibility for a repayment is most likely relevant to imports of intermediate goods from non-EU countries for which a tariff differential could arise which is equivalent to around 4% of total UK trade in goods. Further detail is set out in section 1.2.1 of the publication.
Asked by: Jo Platt (Labour (Co-op) - Leigh and Atherton)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the document The future relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union, page 49, paragraph 162, what preparations are being made to create an enforcement system to prevent the wrongful payment of tariffs; and how much the Government has allocated to fund those preparations.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
Under the Facilitated Customs Arrangement, where there is a material risk of circumvention of the higher UK tariff, the UK would make it illegal to pay the wrong tariff.
To enforce this, HMRC would carry out risk-based and targeted checks across the country, rather than at the border, according to intelligence and threat assessment that draw on a variety of information sources. This would protect against fraud, ensure that the UK has an effective trade remedies regime and strengthen the UK’s position in trade negotiations.
HMRC has a strong track record in tackling all kinds of avoidance, evasion and non-compliance and already has an established approach to customs compliance involving pre and post clearance activity away from the border, and would use this approach for the Facilitated Customs Arrangement.
HMRC has been allocated £260m of funding in 2018-19 to support the department in preparing for departure from the EU. The finalised allocation for 2018-19 will be confirmed at Supplementary Estimates in early 2019.