Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent meetings he has had on the issue of non-domiciled tax status.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Government keeps all tax policy under review, and the Chancellor attends policy discussions with officials as part of this process.
Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, which industry stakeholders his Department met with ahead of the Bank of England's review of its approach to setting a minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL).
Answered by Richard Fuller - Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Treasury Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery.
Details of ministerial and permanent secretary meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available at:
Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what industry stakeholders his Department met with in advance of the announcement in the Queen's Speech 2022 that the Government will bring forward legislative proposals on ensuring access to cash.
Answered by Richard Fuller - Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Treasury Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery.
Details of ministerial and permanent secretary meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available at:
Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish a timeline for taking forward reforms to the UK’s financial services regulatory framework for capital markets.
Answered by Richard Fuller - Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
As the Chancellor laid out in his speech at Mansion House on Tuesday 19th July, the Government will take forward reforms to the UK’s regulatory framework for capital markets in the Financial Services and Markets Bill.
In particular, the Bill will increase the competitiveness of our capital markets, allowing us to reform the Prospectus Regime, as recommended by Lord Hill. It will also take forward outcomes of the Wholesale Capital Markets review, stripping away poorly crafted EU rules like the double volume cap and the share trading obligation.
The roadmap for the delivery of the full set of reforms under the WMR is set out in detail in the recent consultation and consultation response document, which are both available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/uk-wholesale-markets-review-a-consultation.
While the Government has set out its prioritisation for its capital markets reforms, the exact timeline for delivery will rely on Parliamentary timetabling.
Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, which industry stakeholders his Department met with ahead of the 4 April 2022 announcement on the regulation of crypto-assets.
Answered by Richard Fuller - Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Treasury Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery.
Details of ministerial and permanent secretary meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmt-ministers-meetings-hospitality-gifts-and-overseas-travel.
Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has met the (a) Taxpayer Protection Taskforce or (b) National Crime Agency to discuss fraud in the covid-19 support schemes since his appointment as Chancellor.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
Treasury Ministers and officials regularly engage with the National Crime Agency and Taxpayer Protection Taskforce to discuss shared policy interests, such as the response to fraud.
The Government has invested over £100 million in the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce to combat fraud on the HMRC Covid-19 schemes, one of the largest and quickest responses to a fraud risk by HMRC.
In 2021-22 the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce prevented more than £350 million from being lost through error and fraud in the COVID-19 financial support schemes. Overall, since the start of the schemes, the amount of money either recovered or blocked from being paid out totals more than £1.2 billion, with compliance activity still ongoing.
Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the value of fraudulent loans and grants recovered by the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce is since its inception.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
At Spring Budget 2021 the Government announced a £100 million investment into the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce. The taskforce was established to extend HMRC’s work to tackle fraud and error in the COVID support schemes that they administered (Self Employment Income Support Scheme, Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, and Eat Out to Help Out). The taskforce does not deliver compliance across schemes administered outside HMRC.
Anyone who keeps grant money despite knowing they were not entitled to it, faces having to repay up to double the amount they received, plus interest and potentially criminal prosecution.
HMRC identifies claims for compliance checks where the amount of the claim is out of step with other information. The risk that the claim is incorrect may be due to either an honest mistake or fraud, therefore, the value of recovered grants does not distinguish between error and fraud.
As of July 2022, the taskforce was made up of 1,155 full-time equivalent staff (FTE). The FTE will vary across the year. The resource commitment is proportionate to the number of high-risk claims made and the risks posed by error and fraud in the HMRC administered schemes.
The taskforce commenced activity from April 2021 and will build on the £536 million already recovered in 2020-21. Taskforce performance for 2021-22 is covered in HMRC’s Annual Report and Accounts for 2021-22, which are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmrc-annual-report-and-accounts-2021-to-2022. This is in addition to the amounts that HMRC prevented from being paid out on incorrect claims.
Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many full-time equivalent staff the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce employed as of 12 July 2022.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
At Spring Budget 2021 the Government announced a £100 million investment into the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce. The taskforce was established to extend HMRC’s work to tackle fraud and error in the COVID support schemes that they administered (Self Employment Income Support Scheme, Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, and Eat Out to Help Out). The taskforce does not deliver compliance across schemes administered outside HMRC.
Anyone who keeps grant money despite knowing they were not entitled to it, faces having to repay up to double the amount they received, plus interest and potentially criminal prosecution.
HMRC identifies claims for compliance checks where the amount of the claim is out of step with other information. The risk that the claim is incorrect may be due to either an honest mistake or fraud, therefore, the value of recovered grants does not distinguish between error and fraud.
As of July 2022, the taskforce was made up of 1,155 full-time equivalent staff (FTE). The FTE will vary across the year. The resource commitment is proportionate to the number of high-risk claims made and the risks posed by error and fraud in the HMRC administered schemes.
The taskforce commenced activity from April 2021 and will build on the £536 million already recovered in 2020-21. Taskforce performance for 2021-22 is covered in HMRC’s Annual Report and Accounts for 2021-22, which are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmrc-annual-report-and-accounts-2021-to-2022. This is in addition to the amounts that HMRC prevented from being paid out on incorrect claims.
Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether ministerial responsibilities in his Department have changed following the recent appointment of new ministers.
Answered by Alan Mak - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
All ministerial responsibilities are published on gov.uk.
Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many (a) direct employees, (b) contractors, and (c) agency workers who work in their Department and relevant agencies and public bodies, receive a wage below that of either (i) the UK Real Living Wage outside of Greater London, or (ii) the London Living Wage inside of Greater London, as determined by the Living Wage Foundation.
Answered by Alan Mak - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
As of 31/03/2022, the total number of full-time employees in HM Treasury earning below the London Living Wage rate of £11.05 per hour was 17. This number is comprised mainly of apprentices. The Living Wage rate is a suggested rate of pay by the Living Wage Foundation, rather than a legislated minimum wage.
All HM Treasury employees are paid above the statutory minimum wage. Since 31/03/2022 we have been conducting a review of all pay ranges across the department in line with this year’s Cabinet Office remit guidance.
As pay and conditions are set between employee and employer, the rate of pay for agency workers and contractors will be determined by the company for which they work and not HM Treasury.