Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of increased business rates on grassroots music venues; and what steps they intend to take in response to the open letter sent to the Prime Minister by the Music Venue Trust on 10 December.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
At the Budget, the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) announced updated property values from the 2026 revaluation. Music venues are valued in the same way as any other class of non-domestic property, through applying the statutory and common law principles that apply across non-domestic rating.
Some properties, including in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors, have seen their rateable values increased. This is in part because the last revaluation updated rateable values to align with market values at 1 April 2021 – during the COVID pandemic. This meant rateable values were lower due to the atypical economic situation the pandemic created. This latest revaluation reflects a post Covid world, which has led to significant increases in rateable values for some properties.
To support with bill increases, at the Budget, the Government introduced a support package worth £4.3 billion over the next three years to protect ratepayers seeing their bills increase because of the revaluation. As a result, over half of ratepayers will see no bill increases, including 23% seeing their bills go down. Government support also means that most properties seeing increases will see them capped at 15% or less next year, or £800 for the smallest.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the Valuation Office Agency about valuations of grassroots music venues.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
At the Budget, the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) announced updated property values from the 2026 revaluation. Music venues are valued in the same way as any other class of non-domestic property, through applying the statutory and common law principles that apply across non-domestic rating.
Some properties, including in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors, have seen their rateable values increased. This is in part because the last revaluation updated rateable values to align with market values at 1 April 2021 – during the COVID pandemic. This meant rateable values were lower due to the atypical economic situation the pandemic created. This latest revaluation reflects a post Covid world, which has led to significant increases in rateable values for some properties.
To support with bill increases, at the Budget, the Government introduced a support package worth £4.3 billion over the next three years to protect ratepayers seeing their bills increase because of the revaluation. As a result, over half of ratepayers will see no bill increases, including 23% seeing their bills go down. Government support also means that most properties seeing increases will see them capped at 15% or less next year, or £800 for the smallest.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the accuracy of Home Office travel data used in determining immigration status; whether this has involved 24,000 families having their child benefit stopped; whether any failures in accurate determinations would breach the principles of accuracy, fairness and transparency set out in the UK General Data Protection Regulation; and whether they plan to cease the use of Home Office data in assessing immigration status.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC do not use Home Office international travel data to determine immigration status. HMRC uses the data as a starting point for identifying potential unreported absences from the UK. Undetected changes to an individual’s residency status are a leading cause of Child Benefit error and fraud.
HMRC’s Chief Executive wrote to the Treasury Select Committee on 14 November 2025 about this matter including the corrective action that HMRC is taking. This letter was subsequently published by the Committee on 18 November 2025.
It was understood from the outset and made clear by the Home Office that its international travel data could not be used in isolation to determine Child Benefit entitlement, therefore requiring HMRC to conduct its own checks and enquires with recipients to establish eligibility. The same data was used during a pilot in 2024 which allowed HMRC to focus their enquiries on less than 2% of recipients while preventing £17m in incorrect payments. This led to the expansion of the measure and investment in an additional 180 counter-fraud staff, announced at the Budget in 2024 and is expected to save around £350 million over the next five years.
When using international travel data complemented by a check of UK employment using the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) system, HMRC will no longer suspend payments at the outset of its enquiries. Instead, recipients will be given at least one month to evidence their entitlement. HMRC will continue to iterate the process where its monitoring and learning suggests that it should make further changes.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the economic cost of the outages of Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure in October.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government monitors systemic risks to UK critical national infrastructure, including resilience measures and contingency planning, including cloud providers. The Government recognises the importance of robust protections for the services essential to our society and economy. That is why we introduced the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill on 12 November. The Bill will make sure more types of essential and digital services adhere to robust cyber security practices.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government why His Majesty's Revenue and Customs has not published the business case and data protection impact assessments relating to projects 341 and 476 under the debt and fraud information sharing provisions of the Digital Economy Act 2017.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC has met the Digital Economy Act (2017) Statutory Code of Practice transparency requirement by recording information on data sharing between the two departments (Home Office and HMRC) on the Register of Information sharing agreements under Part 5 of the Digital Economy Act 2017.
HMRC’s Privacy Notice makes clear that it collects information from other Government Departments to fulfil its functions, which include administration of the Child Benefit system.
Publication of the Business Case and Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) for the data sharing are not requirements under the statutory code of practice. HMRC’s general policy is not to publish Business Cases or DPIAs because details they contain may jeopardise the outcomes sought when tackling fraud.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether Fujitsu would be a suitable supplier for the Trader Support Service contract with HMRC.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government does not comment on live procurements to protect the integrity of the process. In all its procurements, HMRC follows government procurement rules.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the veracity of any information provided by Fujitsu in the most recent tender process for the Trader Support Service contact with HMRC.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government does not comment on live procurements to protect the integrity of the process. In all its procurements, HMRC follows government procurement rules.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the propriety of awarding the Trader Support Service contract to a company that is under public scrutiny as part of the Post Office Horizon scandal.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
As a public contracting authority, HMRC follow government procurement rules when awarding contracts, ensuring value for money for taxpayers. The Trader Support Services contract was procured in compliance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. Existing service delivery is managed robustly by contract management teams in compliance with this legislation and to ensure that the requirements of UK traders are met under the Windsor Framework. HMRC keep the performance and conduct of all their suppliers under review.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether alternative suppliers are being considered in the re-tendering of the Trader Support Service, and whether they will take into account the risk profile of Fujitsu in those considerations.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC follow standard government procurement rules and keep the performance and conduct of all their suppliers under review. All of HMRC’s contract opportunities are publicly available through Contracts Finder and Find-a-Tender Service. Contract opportunities are available to any economic operator that is able to meet the requirements of the procurement in compliance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 or The Procurement Regulations 2024, as applicable.
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many automated decision-making systems currently in use by the Treasury are used (even partially) to make decisions that affect people’s legal rights or entitlements; and how many of those systems have publicly available equality impact assessments and/or data protection impact assessments.
Answered by Baroness Penn
I refer the Noble Lord to the answer given on 18 July 2023 to question UIN 194020.