Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what support he is making available for people who are mortgage prisoners and are subject to significant payment rises.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government has worked with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on changes to regulation, making it possible for lenders to offer products to a greater number of mortgage prisoners. We have also put resources in place so that mortgage prisoners can understand their options better, including their ability to switch, and access advice through MoneyHelper.
The Treasury continues to work with industry to determine if there are any further solutions which would meaningfully benefit mortgage prisoners and are fair to other borrowers in the wider mortgage market, including those who are also paying variable rates.
On the cost of living more broadly, the Government has introduced over £15bn of additional support, targeted particularly at those with the greatest need. This package builds on the over £22bn announced previously, with government support for the cost of living now totalling over £37bn this year. Millions of the most vulnerable households will receive at least £1,200 of one-off support in total this year to help with the cost of living.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who owns the freehold for the Benton Park View site in Newcastle upon Tyne that is used by HMRC.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Newcastle Estates Partnership, part of the Semperian Group, own the freehold for the Benton Park View site in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 19 January 2018 to Question 123106 and the Answer of 26 October 2021 to Question 60363, if he will provide further detail on what VAT relief the Government maintains for community defibrillators and associated equipment such as batteries and casing.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Government maintains VAT reliefs to aid the purchase of Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs), including VAT relief on purchases made by local authorities and those made through voluntary contributions, where the AED is donated to eligible charities or the NHS. Otherwise, they attract the standard rate of VAT.
Defibrillator batteries and pads attract the standard rate of 20 per cent, which may be recoverable if purchased by a business, subject to the normal rules on VAT recovery.
Any new VAT relief would come at a cost to the exchequer and the Government has received over £50 billion worth of requests for relief from VAT since the EU referendum.
The Government however keeps all taxes under constant review.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what support his Department is making available for brewery taprooms affected by reduced footfall caused by the spread of the omicron variant over the festive period.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is committed to supporting hospitality venues throughout this challenging period.
The COVID-19 Additional Relief Fund (CARF) is designed to provide support to businesses affected by COVID-19 that have not been covered by existing support linked to business rates. This relief will be awarded through funding for Local Authorities (LAs), taking into account the economic impact COVID-19 has had on specific sectors. It is for LAs to award relief based on their local schemes and applications received, while having regard to the guidance.
The Government is also providing an Omicron Hospitality and Leisure Grant (OHLG) worth up to £6,000 to eligible businesses. If a hospitality venue generates more than 50% of its income from providing in-person food and drink services, then they will be eligible to receive this. Hospitality venues not eligible for the OHLG may be able to apply for support from the Additional Restrictions Grant, which was increased by over £100 million in response to the Omicron variant.
Furthermore, as announced at Autumn Budget 2021, the duty rates on alcohol, including beer, will be frozen for another year. This is expected to save consumers £3 billion over the coming years and will save beer drinkers £900 million. Beer duty rates are now at their lowest level in real terms since the 1990s.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what enforcement action his Department takes on companies which issue minimum spend card payment charges.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
It remains the individual merchant or retailer’s choice whether to set a certain ‘minimum spend’ for a certain type of payment instrument, and whether to accept or decline any form of payment.
Surcharging, the practice of merchants or retailers charging a fee to the customer for using a certain payment instrument (e.g., a debit card or credit card) has been banned since 2018 through amendments made to the Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012. For most UK retail payments, these Regulations ban merchants from charging a fee in addition to the advertised price of a transaction on the basis of a consumer’s choice of payment instrument payments.
The Regulations give consumer enforcement authorities (including local authority Trading Standards and the Northern Ireland Department for Enterprise, Trade and Investment) the power to take civil enforcement action against traders who breach the Regulations. Customers are also entitled to receive a refund of any unlawful surcharge they have paid and, if necessary, to take legal action to recover any such surcharge.
For further information on surcharging, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has published guidance at the following webpage: www.gov.uk/government/publications/payment-surcharges
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what support he is making available for small businesses paying high bank card processing fees to prevent them reverting to cash-only transactions.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) was established in 2015, with statutory objectives to promote competition, innovation, and to ensure that payment systems are operated in a way that considers the interests of all the businesses and consumers that use them.
The PSR is currently carrying out a market review into card acquiring services to examine how effectively competition is working in the provision of these services. This includes an assessment of the fees that small and medium-sized businesses pay, including card scheme and interchange fees, and the quality of service they receive. The Government looks forward to the final PSR report and recommendations later this year.
Furthermore, the Government has legislated to ensure the interchange fees businesses pay remain capped for all UK domestic card transactions where both the card issuer and acquirer are located in the UK. This was facilitated through the Interchange Fee (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 made under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. UK interchange fee caps are therefore at the same levels as before the end of the Transition Period.
It remains the individual retailer’s choice as to whether to accept or decline any form of payment, including cash or card.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether there have been bilateral discussions between the UK Government and individual EU states on cross-border workers, similar to agreements between France and partners on exemptions to Article 13 of EC Regulation 883/2004.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government has been working with the EU to protect the social security position of workers moving between the UK and the EU. Reciprocal arrangements have been put in place covering all EU member states which allow HMRC to disregard changes to individuals’ work locations caused solely by COVID-related restrictions when deciding where these workers pay their social security contributions.
This includes multi-state workers who are covered by Article 13 of Regulation (EC) 883/2004 under the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement or by Article SSC.12 of the Protocol on Social Security Coordination in the Trade and Cooperation Agreement.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has taken steps to establish exemption rules with the EU for cross-border workers during the covid-19 pandemic from Article SSC.12 of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement Protocol on Social Security Coordination.
Answered by Jesse Norman
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government has been working with the EU to protect the social security position of workers moving between the UK and the EU. Reciprocal arrangements have been put in place covering all EU member states which allow HMRC to disregard changes to individuals’ work locations caused solely by COVID-related restrictions when deciding where these workers pay their social security contributions.
This includes multi-state workers who are covered by Article 13 of Regulation (EC) 883/2004 under the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement or by Article SSC.12 of the Protocol on Social Security Coordination in the Trade and Cooperation Agreement.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that cash machines in deprived areas are free to use.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
LINK (the scheme that runs the UK's largest ATM network) has commitments to protect the broad geographic spread of free-to-use ATMs and is held to account against these commitments by the Payment Systems Regulator.
Specifically, LINK has committed to protect free-to-use ATMs more than one kilometre away from the next nearest free ATM or Post Office, and free access to cash on high streets (where there is a cluster of five or more retailers) that do not have a free-to-use ATM or a Post Office counter within one kilometre. Furthermore, LINK's members have made £5 million available to fund ATMs at the request of communities with poor access to cash.
More broadly, the Government recognises that cash is important to the daily lives of millions of people across the UK, and has therefore committed to legislating to protect access to cash for those who need it and ensuring that the UK's cash infrastructure is sustainable for the long term.
The Government made legislative changes to support the widespread offering of cashback without a purchase by shops and other businesses as part of the Financial Services Act 2021, and has announced that it will consult this summer on further legislative proposals for protecting cash for the long term.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment his Department has made of the need to simplify the PAYE system; and whether the Government plans to take any steps to simplify that system.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Between now and 2020, the Government’s vision is to build a transparent and accessible UK tax system that is fit for the digital age and reduces the burden on taxpayers. HM Revenue and Customs has embarked on a major transformation programme – Making Tax Digital – to do this.
The successful introduction of PAYE Real Time Information (RTI) represented the biggest change to the UK payroll process since PAYE began in 1944. It provided an important step for the Government towards Making Tax Digital and the creation of digital accounts which will enable taxpayers to see and manage their tax affairs online in real time.