Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential relationship between the cost of shipping containers on international routes and domestic inflation rates.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
Record energy prices and supply chain pressures (including shipping costs) have driven inflation up globally. Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation was at a near 40-year high of 9.9% in August. Price pressures have become more widespread since March, with a broader range of items in the CPI basket of goods and services seeing increases that exceed the headline 2% CPI inflation target.
Shipping cost increases have been caused by a combination of pressures from increased demand for goods and from logistical issues impeding shipping from adequately addressing elevated demand - such as port closures, congestion, and operational efficiency. These pressures and resulting elevated shipping prices continue to ease from their post pandemic peaks but remain elevated compared to historical averages.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he has taken to assess the extent of (a) domestic tax base erosion and profit shifting and (b) tax avoidance by multinational shipping companies registered in the UK.
Answered by Richard Fuller - Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Government has not carried out any sector-specific assessment of the extent of base erosion and profit shifting or tax avoidance by multinational shipping enterprises. However, the UK has led on international measures to combat base erosion and profit-shifting by multinationals. In particular, the UK has played a leading role in the OECD base erosion and profit shifting project. Since 2015, the UK has introduced a number of key measures to combat multinational tax planning, including diverted profits tax, corporate interest restriction, hybrid mismatch rules, and rules dealing with offshore receipts from intangible property.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many shipping companies that qualify for tonnage tax operate container lines from UK ports.
Answered by Richard Fuller - Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The information requested is not available. It is not possible to identify which shipping companies qualifying for tonnage tax operate container lines from UK ports, because companies paying tonnage tax are not required to declare this information in tax returns.
HMRC does publish the total number of companies paying tonnage tax in its publication on non-structural tax reliefs, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/main-tax-expenditures-and-structural-reliefs. In 2018-19, in total 415 companies paid tonnage tax.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will take steps to introduce a windfall tax on the profits of container shipping companies operating from the UK.
Answered by Richard Fuller - Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Government currently has no plans to introduce new windfall taxes on businesses operating from the UK.