Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will allocate a fixed proportion of fuel duty receipts for the repair of roads.
Answered by Simon Clarke
Fuel Duty receipts are collected for the consolidated fund. However, all English Vehicle Excise Duty revenues will be set aside for the £28.8bn National Roads Fund from 2020 to provide long term certainty for roads investment.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans he has to reduce beer duty; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Simon Clarke
The Government supports consumers, pubs and breweries. To this end, the Government has cut or frozen beer duty at six of the last seven Budgets. These actions have ensured the price of a pint of beer is 14p lower than it otherwise would have been since ending the beer duty escalator in 2013.
All taxes are kept under review and the impact of a change to beer duty is considered at each fiscal event, including its effect on pubs and the wider economy.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential benefits to football pools of reducing betting duty to 10 per cent.
Answered by Simon Clarke
No assessment of the impact of reducing the rate of Pool Betting Duty to 10% has been made. Pool Betting Duty covers a range of gambling activity that goes wider than the football pools.
Due to the ease of changing between pools betting and regular betting the Government considers it would put a significant portion of the General Betting Duty receipts at risk – which totalled £619m in 2018-19.
However, all taxes are kept under review.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent steps he has taken to ensure the preparedness of HMRC for the UK leaving the EU.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
The Government remains confident we will agree a mutually advantageous deal with the EU.
It is however the duty of a responsible Government to continue to prepare for a range of potential outcomes including the unlikely event of no deal.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer therefore continues to work closely with HMRC officials and has made funding available to ensure the department is ready for EU exit, whatever the outcome of negotiations.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to remove financial disincentives for people on low incomes to form lasting couple relationships.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
The government is fully committed to helping families stay together, and introduced the Marriage Allowance in 2015 to recognise marriage through the tax system.
Marriage Allowance allows taxpayers to transfer 10% of their tax free personal allowance to a spouse or civil partner, and is worth up to £238 per year. At Autumn Budget we further extended Marriage Allowance, so that personal representatives can apply on behalf of deceased partners.
Asked by: Jonathan Lord (Conservative - Woking)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to increase uptake of the marriage allowance.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
Marriage Allowance was introduced in April 2015, to recognise the importance of marriage in the tax system, and support those on low incomes by helping them keep more of the money they earn.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) ran a number of advertising campaigns to raise awareness of the savings Marriage Allowance can bring to eligible couples. The first campaign ran between October 2015 to March 2016, and the second between November 2016 to March 2017. A variety of channels were used including press, radio adverts, and digital advertising.
2.8 million couples have successfully claimed Marriage Allowance since its introduction. In 2018-19, eligible couples can receive a tax reduction of £238, or £900 if they make a backdated claim to 2015-16. Couples who have yet to claim will not lose out as they have until 5 April 2020 to backdate it. Marriage Allowance can be claimed through the personal tax account, on the GOV.UK website, or by telephone to HMRC.