Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of bringing forward the next grant for the Self-employment Income Support Scheme to assist people who require support now.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government is committed to supporting the self-employed population during the COVID-19 pandemic through a substantial package of support.
The three Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) grants combined provided up to £21,570 of support for each individual, placing the SEISS among the most generous schemes for the self-employed in the world. As of 31 December, about 2.7 million individuals have made claims totalling over £18.9 billion so far across all three grants.
The claims window for the third grant closed on 29 January 2021. The Government committed on 24 September 2020 that there would be a fourth grant; details of which will be announced alongside other economic updates at Budget in March.
The SEISS is not intended to provide a month-by-month replacement of income. Due to the volatility of self-employed income and the lack of granular data that HMRC hold on self-employed trading profits, precise mapping of income replacement month by month is not possible. Instead, the SEISS provides a lump sum payment to support eligible self-employed individuals whose businesses have been affected by coronavirus.
The SEISS continues to be just one element of a substantial package of support for the self-employed. In addition to the SEISS, individuals may also have access to other elements of the package, including Bounce Back loans, tax deferrals, rental support, mortgage holidays, self-isolation support payments and other business support grants.
Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with representatives of the (a) theatre and (b) live event industry regarding the potential effect of an increase in VAT on ticket sales to 20 per cent.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The temporary VAT reduced rate came into effect on 15 July 2020 and was initially scheduled to end on 12 January 2021.
In order to continue supporting the cash flow and viability of over 150,000 businesses and to protect 2.4 million jobs, the Government extended the temporary reduced rate of VAT (five per cent) to goods and services supplied by the tourism and hospitality sectors until 31 March 2021.
The Government keeps all taxes under review, and all stakeholder views are carefully considered. Any future decisions on tax policy will be made at Budget.
Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of extending the reduced 5 per cent VAT rate on ticket sales for live events for financial year 2021-22.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The temporary VAT reduced rate came into effect on 15 July 2020 and was initially scheduled to end on 12 January 2021.
In order to continue supporting the cash flow and viability of over 150,000 businesses and to protect 2.4 million jobs, the Government extended the temporary reduced rate of VAT (five per cent) to goods and services supplied by the tourism and hospitality sectors until 31 March 2021.
The Government keeps all taxes under review, and all stakeholder views are carefully considered. Any future decisions on tax policy will be made at Budget.
Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with representatives of the self-catering accommodation industry on enabling professional self-caterers to access the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) was designed to support eligible self-employed individuals by providing, in its third phase, a taxable grant worth 80% of average monthly trading profits, paid out in a single instalment and capped at £7,500 in total. This is designed to ensure that support will be targeted to those self-employed individuals who need it most.
Those individuals who are ineligible for the SEISS may be eligible for other elements of the Government’s support package, including Bounce Back loans, tax deferrals, rental support, mortgage holidays, self-isolation support payments and other business support grants.
Other businesses, including those in the self-catering accommodation industry, may benefit from the additional funding for businesses worth £4.6 billion across the UK. All local authorities in England have received an additional £500 million of discretionary funding to support their local businesses. This builds on the £1.1 billion discretionary funding which local authorities had previously received to support their local economies and help businesses affected by the COVID-19 crisis. This is on top of support being offered to businesses required to close through the Local Restrictions Support Grant and additional one-off grants.
The Government encourages local authorities to use their Additional Restrictions Grant allocations to set up a discretionary grant scheme using this funding e.g. for those businesses who are affected by closures, but which are not legally closed. However, local authorities can also use it to support businesses indirectly including by providing additional guidance and support for businesses in their areas.
Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of HSBC's decision to stop offering Bounce Back loans to non-HSBC UK customers on the accessibility of that scheme; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government launched the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) to ensure that the smallest businesses could access loans of up to £50,000 in a matter of just days. As of 13 December, the scheme has provided unprecedented support to business across the UK, with more than 1.4 million businesses accessing facilities totaling over £43.5 billion.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been unprecedented demand for banking services, this accompanied with working restrictions due to social distancing has meant banks have faced significant capacity pressures which has limited their ability to meet demand.
The Government have always made clear to lenders that they should open to new customers as soon as it is operationally possible for them to do so. Lenders are fully aware of the current urgency, so we would expect them to respond appropriately to their customers’ needs. Whilst BBLS is 100% guaranteed by the Government, decisions about what products are offered to specific businesses remain commercial decisions for banks and building societies.
The British Business Bank has so far accredited 29 BBLS lenders, including several non-banks and alternative lenders. Some lenders are still inviting applications from new customers, and many of those that are still only open to existing customers are regularly reviewing that position.
Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the employment by HMRC of debt collection companies based in off-shore tax havens; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Jesse Norman
HMRC do not hire Debt Collection Agencies (DCAs) directly. DCAs are hired via the Debt Market Integrator (DMI) Framework, currently with Indesser. As a tax authority HMRC adopt a strengthened approach to tax compliance for their own procurements, conducting robust checks on each of the DCAs engaged through the DMI. None of the DCAs onboarded to the HMRC panel (of which there are 8) is based in offshore tax havens; all are registered and based in the UK.Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of the IR35 off-payroll working rules on self-employed contractors during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The off-payroll working rules (commonly known as IR35) have been in place for nearly 20 years and are designed to ensure that individuals working like employees but through their own company pay broadly the same Income Tax and National Insurance contributions (NICs) as those who are employed directly.
These rules only apply to individuals who are working like employees under the current employment status tests, and do not apply to the self-employed.
As part of the support the Government provided for businesses and individuals to deal with the economic impacts of COVID-19, the reform to the off-payroll working rules was delayed for one year, from 6 April 2020 until 6 April 2021.
Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what equality impact assessments his Department has carried out on the effect of the IR35 off-payroll working rules on the BAME community.
Answered by Jesse Norman
As set out in the Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) published in July 2019, the reform of the off-payroll working rules is not anticipated to have a specific impact on groups sharing protected characteristics.
The TIIN can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rules-for-off-payroll-working-from-april-2020/rules-for-off-payroll-working-from-april-2020.
Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of delaying the implementation of the IR35 off-payroll working rules during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Jesse Norman
The Government made the decision to delay the reform of the off-payroll working rules until April 2021 in response to the COVID-19 crisis. There is no rationale for further delay. The legislation has now received Royal Assent as part of Finance Act 2020, and the reform will be implemented in April 2021 as announced.
The reform was originally announced at Budget 2018. Many businesses would have been prepared for the reform to be implemented in April 2020 as originally planned, and HMRC have undertaken a significant programme of education and support to ensure that large and medium-sized businesses are ready to implement the reform.
Further delaying implementation of these changes would have very significant drawbacks. It would prolong the fundamental unfairness of taxing two people differently for the same work, in addition to the fiscal cost. It would also extend the disparity between the private and voluntary sectors, and the public sector, where the reform has been in place since 2017.
Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with representatives of the financial sector on allowing non-banks to access direct funding for the Bounce Back Loan Scheme, as is available to high street banks.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government launched the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) to ensure that the smallest businesses could access loans of up to £50,000 in a matter of just days. As of 15 November, the scheme had supported nearly 1.4 million businesses with facilities totaling over £42 billion.
The British Business Bank has so far accredited 29 lenders for BBLS, including several challenger banks and non-bank lenders.
The Treasury recognises the vital role that non-banks and challenger banks play in the provision of credit to SMEs. It is grateful for the way the sector has responded to the current crisis, and remains committed to promoting competition, and widening the funding options available to UK businesses.
The Government does not provide funding to lenders who are participating in the government loan schemes; lenders must source their own funding, as they do for standard business lending.
We have made changes to allow the transfer and assignment of the Government guarantee for all government-guaranteed loan schemes loans, which is something that NBLs have requested, to support their ability to access funding. We will continue to work with non-bank lenders to support their participation in the loan schemes.