Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will list the ten most frequently (a) used commodity codes for imports and (b) types of goods imported from illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in 2024.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The information requested is not available.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many times HMRC recorded imported goods whose country of origin was falsely labelled as Israel in 2024 .
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The UK Government has a clear position that Israeli settlements in Palestine are illegal under international law. Goods produced in these settlements are not entitled to benefit from preferential tariff treatment under the UK’s current trade agreements with the Palestinian Authority and Government of Israel.
Where there are doubts about the origin of goods that have been declared as being of Israeli origin, HMRC will undertake checks to verify the origin of those goods to ensure fiscal compliance. HMRC does not however provide specific details regarding checks as it may serve to undermine compliance activity.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 2 July 2025 to Question 63473 on Origin Marking: Occupied Territories, how many compliance checks HMRC undertook to identify whether goods labelled as originating from Israel were produced in Israeli settlements located in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in 2024; and how many of those checks identified (a) non-compliance and (b) the mislabelling of goods.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The UK Government has a clear position that Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal under international law, and that goods produced in these settlements are not entitled to benefit from preferential tariff treatment under the UK’s trade agreements with the Palestinian Authority and Israel.
HMRC takes a risk-based and intelligence-led approach to tariff enforcement and routinely checks the accuracy of customs declarations. Such checks include checking material particulars such as the declared origin, value and classification of goods. Checks are conducted where risk analysis or intelligence indicates potential non-compliance, and in cases where there is a risk of customs duty under-declaration.
HMRC does not publish details of numbers of checks in relation to specific countries of origin or the outcomes of those checks. However, HMRC confirms that regular and proportionate checks are carried out on Israeli goods in which they are subject to verification to check their originating status.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 23 June 2025 to Question 61108 on Import Duties: Israeli Settlements, what compliance checks HMRC undertakes to identify goods whether goods labelled as originating from Israel were produced in Israeli settlements located in the Occupied Palestinian Territories; what estimate HMRC has made of the number and proportion of goods imported from Israel which are labelled as produced in Israel but were produced in Occupied Palestinian Territories; and whether HMRC levies sanctions in relation to the mislabelling of goods.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The UK Government has a clear position that Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal under international law. Goods produced in these settlements are not entitled to benefit from preferential tariff treatment under the UK’s current trade agreements with the Palestinian Authority and Government of Israel
Where there are doubts about the origin of goods that have been declared as being of Israeli origin, HMRC will undertake checks to verify the origin of those goods to ensure fiscal compliance. HMRC does not however provide specific details regarding checks as it may serve to undermine compliance activity
HMRC encourages members of the public to report cases of potentially fraudulent activity either via the ‘report fraud to HMRC’ function on GOV.UK or the HMRC fraud hotline on 0800 788 887 available Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. HMRC takes such matters seriously and investigates them in detail
The overseas business risk guidance, available on GOV.UK, provides information for UK operators on how goods from Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories should be labelled.
Data on imports from Israel are available from UK Trade Info: uktradeinfo.com/trade-data/.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what was the total value of imports from Israel that were deemed ineligible for preferential tariff treatment under the UK-Israel Trade and Partnership Agreement in 2024.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The UK Government has a clear position that Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal under international law. Goods produced in these settlements are not entitled to benefit from preferential tariff treatment under the UK’s current trade agreements with the Palestinian Authority and Government of Israel
Where there are doubts about the origin of goods that have been declared as being of Israeli origin, HMRC will undertake checks to verify the origin of those goods to ensure fiscal compliance. HMRC does not however provide specific details regarding checks as it may serve to undermine compliance activity
HMRC encourages members of the public to report cases of potentially fraudulent activity either via the ‘report fraud to HMRC’ function on GOV.UK or the HMRC fraud hotline on 0800 788 887 available Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. HMRC takes such matters seriously and investigates them in detail
The overseas business risk guidance, available on GOV.UK, provides information for UK operators on how goods from Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories should be labelled.
Data on imports from Israel are available from UK Trade Info: uktradeinfo.com/trade-data/.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much money the UK Government collected in 2024 from tariffs imposed on goods imported from illegal settlements within the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
HMRC only publish receipts at a national level, and they cannot be broken down further with sufficient accuracy, due to the way the information is captured.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of changes to orchestral tax relief on (a) the ability of orchestras to operate within the UK and (b) the ability of British orchestras to bring money from abroad to the UK through touring.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Orchestra tax relief is available for costs incurred on goods or services that are used or consumed in the UK. This replaces the previous rule that qualifying costs were those incurred on goods or services provided from the UK or the European Economic Area (EEA).
To ease the transition to the new rule, orchestras with concerts in train on 1 April 2024 were permitted to continue claiming relief on goods or services provided from within the EEA until 31 March 2025.
It is appropriate to refocus orchestra tax relief on UK expenditure now that the UK has left the EU. Under the new rule, the relief incentivises activity within the UK, rather than the UK and the EEA. This does not prevent qualifying productions from touring in the EEA (nor elsewhere).
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when the Chief Secretary to the Treasury plans to respond to the correspondence from the hon. Member for Tunbridge Wells on seizing frozen Russian assets, dated 16 January 2025.
Answered by Darren Jones - Minister for Intergovernmental Relations
The correspondence from the hon. Member for Tunbridge Wells is receiving urgent attention and a response will be issued by HM Treasury in due course.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of expanding the Terms of Reference for the Independent Review of the Loan Charge to include (a) the effectiveness of the terms of the Loan Charge, (b) lessons learned by her Department in relation to the introduction of the Loan Charge and (c) the role of scheme promoters in promoting tax avoidance schemes.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Government has commissioned an independent review of the Loan Charge to help bring the matter to a close for those affected whilst ensuring fairness for all taxpayers.
The Government does not think it is right for people affected by the Loan Charge to have to wait years for any progress on bringing this matter to a close for them and has therefore ensured that the review has a focused remit, allowing it to report by this summer. The Government will respond by Autumn Budget 2025.
Alongside the review, the Government is committed to tackling promoters of tax avoidance and will consult on measures to tackle promoters of marketed tax avoidance, including new powers focused on those who own or control promoter organisations and options to tackle legal professionals behind avoidance schemes.
Asked by: Mike Martin (Liberal Democrat - Tunbridge Wells)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of changes to orchestral tax relief on orchestras that rely on touring.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The UK provides world-leading support for orchestras: at Autumn Budget 2024, the Government confirmed that from 1 April 2025, the rate of OTR will be set at the generous rate of 45%.
From April 2024, qualifying expenditure for the orchestra tax relief (OTR) is expenditure incurred on goods or services that are ‘used or consumed in the UK’, replacing the previous rule that qualifying costs were those incurred on goods/services provided from the UK or EEA. To ease the transition to the new rule, orchestras with concerts in train on 1 April 2024 were permitted to continue claiming relief on goods/services provided from within the EEA until 31 March 2025.
It is appropriate to refocus orchestra tax relief on UK expenditure now that the UK has left the EU. Under the new rule, the relief incentivises activity within the UK, rather than the UK and the EEA. This does not prevent qualifying productions from touring in the EEA (nor elsewhere).