Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of reducing alcohol duty for independent wine merchants.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
At Spring Budget 2024, the Chancellor announced that alcohol duty will be frozen until 1 February 2025 to support alcohol producers, pubs, and consumers with cost of living pressures. This extends the six month freeze the Government announced at Autumn Statement 2023 to give businesses time to adapt to the new duty system introduced on 1 August 2023.
As with all taxes, the Government keeps the alcohol duty system under review during its yearly Budget process.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to tackle tax evasion.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Tax evasion is always illegal and HMRC’s aim is for everyone to pay the tax that is legally due, no matter who they are. HMRC’s role is to make it easy to get tax right for the compliant majority and make it hard for the dishonest minority to cheat the system.
HMRC has achieved a long-term reduction in the UK’s tax gap from 7.5% in 2005-06 to 4.8% (£35.8 billion) in 2021-22 (the latest estimate). The tax gap is composed of a range of customer behaviours: non-payment, use of avoidance schemes, legal interpretation, error, failure to take reasonable care, evasion, the hidden economy and criminal attacks on the tax system.
Evasion is when people or businesses deliberately do not declare or account for what they owe. It made up 0.6% or £4.7 billion of the £35.8 billion.
HMRC works to prevent fraud, tackle avoidance and evasion by designing policies and processes which minimise risk, by promoting good compliance with the tax system through education initiatives and responding with a range of interventions, capabilities and sanctions given to them by Parliament, including the exercising of strong civil and criminal investigation powers.
Since 2010, the Government has introduced over 200 measures to tackle tax avoidance and evasion, including 21 measures introduced since 2021 that are forecast to raise over £7 billion. Of these measures, 4 measures were announced at the Autumn Statement 2022 and are forecast to raise £5 billion in tax revenues over the next five years.
HMRC will continue to work hard, putting in place measures which mean we can go even further in reducing the tax gap, and making sure taxpayers and businesses meet their obligations and pay the tax they owe.
Published information: ‘Measuring tax gaps tables 2023’ (Table 7.1) at gov.uk.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will take steps to reduce taxes on lower earners.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
As with all aspects of the tax system, the Government keeps income tax and NICs rates under review. Any decisions on future changes will be taken by the Chancellor at fiscal events in the context of the wider public finances.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Government is taking to help digitally enfranchise the elder generation and vulnerable groups as cash use becomes less accepted in society.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government is committed to the aim of ensuring that people, regardless of their background or income, have access to useful and affordable digital financial products and services.
Access to a bank account is an important way to help achieve this. The government has legislated to require the nine largest personal current account providers in the UK to provide basic bank accounts, so customers are equipped with a bank card and can access digital banking and payment services. As of June 2022, 7.4 million basic bank accounts were open. In addition, like all service providers, banks and building societies are bound under the Equality Act 2010 to make reasonable adjustments, where necessary, in the way they deliver their services.
To facilitate the adoption of digital services more broadly, the government is also supporting the roll-out of digital connectivity across the UK and improving access to digital skills training for adults.
The government also recognises that cash continues to be used by millions of people across the UK including those in vulnerable groups. The government is taking legislation to protect access to cash across the UK through Parliament as part of the Financial Services and Markets Bill. Further details can be found on the Parliament website: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3326
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will consider the potential merits of taking steps to require providers of (a) goods and (b) services to accept cash payment.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
As technology and consumer behaviour changes, it should remain the choice of individual organisations as to whether to accept or decline any form of payment, including cash or card, based on their consideration of factors such as customer preference and cost.
Nonetheless, the government recognises that many people continue to transact in cash across the UK and engages closely with financial regulators to monitor and assess trends relating to cash. Research published by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in 2020 found that 98% of small businesses surveyed would never turn away a customer if they needed to pay by cash.
The government is currently taking legislation to protect access to cash across the UK through Parliament as part of the Financial Services and Markets Bill 2022. The legislation will establish the FCA as the lead regulator for access to cash with responsibility and powers to seek to ensure reasonable provision of withdrawal and deposit facilities. This will support local businesses to continue accepting cash.
Further details about the Financial Services and Markets Bill can be found on the Parliament website: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3326
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of using new and innovative methods to generate economic growth and revenue, in particular in relation to cryptocurrency such as bitcoin, in the context of the current economic climate.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The government’s ambition is to make the UK a global hub for cryptoasset technology and investment. In April 2022, the government set out a number of reforms which will see the regulation and aspects of tax treatment of cryptoassets evolve. This included confirming the intention to regulate cryptoassets known as stablecoins and to introduce a ‘financial market infrastructure sandbox’ to enable firms to experiment and innovate. The government will consult on its approach to regulating a broader set of investment-related cryptoasset activities in due course.
The UK is committed to creating a regulatory environment in which firms can innovate, while crucially maintaining financial stability and regulatory standards so that people and businesses can use new technologies both reliably and safely. Recent events in the crypto market reinforce the case for timely, clear and effective regulation.
These measures will help to ensure firms can invest, innovate and scale up in this country.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to help ensure that age discrimination is removed from financial services.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to tackling financial exclusion and discrimination and aims for everyone, whatever their background, age or income, to be able to access useful and affordable financial products and services. The Government works closely together with regulators, the financial services industry and other stakeholders, to ensure that all consumers of financial services are appropriately protected.
In February 2021, the FCA published its finalised guidance for firms on the fair treatment of vulnerable customers, setting out a number of areas of best practice. This guidance explores, among other things, how firms can understand the needs of vulnerable customers and provide targeted services for this cohort.
In addition, like all service providers, financial services firms are bound under the Equality Act 2010 to make reasonable adjustments, where necessary, in the way they deliver their services.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing a loss and damage fund as part of his Autumn Statement.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The Government is working with vulnerable countries to improve their resilience and response to climate shocks and is already funding activities that avert, minimise and address losses and damages incurred from climate shocks, including: adaptation, disaster risk reduction and improving responses following climate shocks and disasters.
In response to discussions with vulnerable countries, the Prime Minister announced at COP27 that the UK was tripling its adaptation spend to £1.5bn by 2025 to help communities be better prepared and reduce the impacts of climate change.
We are committed to helping developing countries deliver on their own green growth pathways. The UK, as the world leading sustainable finance centre, is helping developing countries raise finance for their green growth, including COP27 host Egypt’s $750mn first sovereign green bond issuance on the London Stock Exchange in 2020. We have also continued to build on the commitments we made at COP26 in Glasgow to support countries’ green growth, through Just Energy Transition Partnerships. The UK is delivering a $1.8bn guarantee for South Africa, as the largest sovereign donor in the total $8.5bn package, which will support coal plant decommissioning, ensuring affected communities are not left behind, and investing in renewables.
The UK is a strong supporter of Disaster Risk Finance (DRF) helping people better manage the impacts of disasters. The UK committed £120m at Carbis Bay and have invested over £200m in DRF since 2014. Pre-arranged finance such as contingent credit or insurance enable quicker responses that can pre-empt damage. Early action is more cost-efficient and enables communities to recover more quickly.
The UK government has also led in measures to help improve the financial resilience of vulnerable countries such as low-income countries and small island developing states in the face of severe climate shocks. At COP27, UK Export Finance announced they would become the first export credit agency in the world to offer climate resilient debt clauses (CRDCs) in its direct sovereign lending. CRDCs will allow countries to defer debt payments in the event of a severe climate shock or natural disaster and enable them to focus on responding and recovering from a crisis. The UK is working the multilateral development banks and the private sector to embed CRDCs into standard loan and bond contracts.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will reduce VAT in the hospitality sector to help pubs and restaurants trade successfully in the context of the cost of living crisis.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
The VAT reduced rate for the hospitality sector was a temporary measure designed to support the cash flow and viability of sectors that have been severely affected by COVID-19. It was appropriate that as restrictions were lifted and demand for goods and services in these sectors increased, the temporary tax reliefs were first reduced and then removed in order to rebuild and strengthen the public finances.
VAT is the UK’s third largest tax forecast to raise £154 billion in 2022/23 helping to fund key spending priorities such as important public services, including the NHS and policing. In addition, this request should be viewed in the context of over £50 billion of requests for relief from VAT received since the EU referendum.
While there are no plans to reduce the rate of VAT on food, beverages, pubs or the wider hospitality industry, the Government keeps all taxes under review.
Asked by: Julian Sturdy (Conservative - York Outer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he will take to help protect people who rent from the potential detrimental effects caused by changes to the UK economy.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Ensuring a fair deal for renters remains a priority for this government. The government has committed to the ban on section 21 ‘no fault’ evictions to protect tenants and the government is carefully considering next steps to support the rental market.
The government understands that people across the UK are worried about the cost of living, and are seeing their disposable incomes decrease as they spend more on the essentials. That is why the government has announced £37 billion of support for the cost of living this financial year. It has taken decisive action to support millions of households and business with rising energy costs this winter through the Energy Price Guarantee and the Energy Bill Relief Scheme.
In addition to the Energy Price Guarantee, millions of the most vulnerable households will receive £1200 of support this year through the £400 Energy Bills Support Scheme, £150 Council Tax rebate and one-off £650 Cost of Living Payment for those on means-tested benefits, with additional support for pensioners and those claiming disability benefits. The Government has also extended the Household Support Fund in England until March 2023. The fund supports households that are not eligible for one-off Cost of Living Payments or for families that need additional support.
The Government is continuing to keep the situation under review and focus support on the most vulnerable whilst ensuring it acts in a fiscally responsible way.