Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of business rates revaluation and changes to the level of rates relief on high street pubs, bars and restaurants in Bolton West.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The amount of business rates paid on each property is based on the rateable value of the property, assessed by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), and the multiplier values, which are set by the Government. Rateable values are re-assessed every three years. Revaluations ensure that the rateable values of properties (i.e. the tax base) remain in line with market changes, and that the tax rates adjust to reflect changes in the tax base.
At the Budget, the VOA announced updated property values from the 2026 revaluation. This revaluation is the first since Covid, which has led to significant increases in rateable values for some properties as they recover from the pandemic. To support with bill increases, at the Budget, the Government announced a support package worth £4.3 billion over the next three years, including protection for 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. This means most properties seeing increases will see them capped at 15% or less next year, or £800 for the smallest.
Without our support, the pub sector as a whole would have faced a 45% increase in the total bills they pay next year. Because of the support we’ve put in place, this has fallen to just 4%.
The new RHL tax rates replace the temporary RHL relief that has been winding down since Covid. Unlike RHL relief, the new rates are permanent, giving businesses certainty and stability, and there will be no cap, meaning all qualifying properties on high streets across England will benefit.
The National Insurance Contributions (NICs) Employment Allowance has been more than doubled to £10,500, ensuring that over half of businesses with National Insurance liabilities, including those in the hospitality sector, will either gain or see no change this year. A Tax Information and Impact Note was published alongside changes to employer NICs.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the total value of fines imposed by anti-money laundering supervisors in response to money laundering breaches that were (a) retained by supervisors and (b) remitted to the Exchequer for financial years 2023-2024 and 2024-25.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Anti-money laundering supervisors retain a portion of the fines they issue to cover their enforcement costs, with the remainder being remitted to the consolidated fund. Information on the total value of fines remitted to the consolidated fund, including those by anti-money laundering supervisors, can be found in HM Treasury’s annual report and accounts.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hm-treasury-annual-report-and-accounts-2024-to-2025
Information on the total value of fines issued by anti-money laundering supervisors for 2023-24 can be found in HM Treasury’s annual supervision report.
The 2024-25 version of this report is due to be published later this year.
Each anti-money laundering supervisor also publishes an annual report on their accounts, including a breakdown of the fines they have issued.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much accrued to the Exchequer from money recovered by public bodies using powers under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 through unspent asset recovery incentivisation scheme receipts in financial year 2024-25.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Individual public bodies participating in the Asset Recovery Incentivisation Scheme are responsible for record-keeping of any unspent funds returned to the Consolidated Fund. As such, HM Treasury does not collate this information.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what proportion of the 3 fines worth £289 million imposed in the financial year 2024/2025 by the Financial Conduct Authority under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 in response to money laundering breaches were (a) retained by the FCA and (b) applied for the benefit of FCA regulated firms under the Financial Penalty Scheme.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) does not spend the revenue it collects from fines. The FCA is required to pass revenue from fines it imposes by the FCA to the Treasury. The Treasury must surrender it to the Consolidated Fund and it is then part of the Government’s total revenues, used to pay for all Government spending on public services.
The FCA is permitted to deduct an amount equal to the costs of its enforcement activity from penalty receipts. The money retained for this purpose must be used for the benefit of regulated firms: the FCA achieves this through the Financial Penalty Scheme, which provides a rebate for relevant firms, reducing the fee that they must pay to the FCA in a given year. Under the Scheme, the firms on which any penalty was imposed in a financial year will not receive any rebate to their fees in the following financial year.
The FCA’s 2025 Fees and Levies Policy Statement sets out that it reduced the total fees payable to meet its annual funding requirement by applying the £71.6m using the financial penalty revenues it retained from 2024-25. Further information about how this is distributed among FCA-regulated firms can be found on the FCA’s website.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will provide an overview of how the Financial Conduct Authority has spent the £173.5 million fines imposed on firms for breaches of the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 since 2017.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) does not spend the revenue it collects from fines. The FCA is required to pass revenue from fines it imposes by the FCA to the Treasury. The Treasury must surrender it to the Consolidated Fund and it is then part of the Government’s total revenues, used to pay for all Government spending on public services.
The FCA is permitted to deduct an amount equal to the costs of its enforcement activity from penalty receipts. The money retained for this purpose must be used for the benefit of regulated firms: the FCA achieves this through the Financial Penalty Scheme, which provides a rebate for relevant firms, reducing the fee that they must pay to the FCA in a given year. Under the Scheme, the firms on which any penalty was imposed in a financial year will not receive any rebate to their fees in the following financial year.
The FCA’s 2025 Fees and Levies Policy Statement sets out that it reduced the total fees payable to meet its annual funding requirement by applying the £71.6m using the financial penalty revenues it retained from 2024-25. Further information about how this is distributed among FCA-regulated firms can be found on the FCA’s website.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of including council tax debt collection in the scope of the Government Debt Fairness Charter.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Debt Fairness Charter outlines principles for the fair and reasonable treatment of individuals who owe personal debt to central government. The first version was published in March 2024, with a commitment to ongoing review and updates as needed, and a review is currently underway.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the backlog of applications for Specified Adult Childcare Credits.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
HMRC recognises the difficulties that delays can cause customers and are deploying additional resources to process Specified Adult Childcare Credits.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much revenue HMRC estimates has been lost due to tax evasion facilitated through overseas territories in the last five years.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) estimates the size of the tax gap, which is the difference between the amount of tax that should, in theory, be paid to HMRC, and what is actually paid. The tax gap statistics are published annually and are available at: Measuring tax gaps 2024 edition: tax gap estimates for 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Table 7.1 of the online tables shows the illustrative tax gap time series by behaviour, including evasion. The tax gap for evasion was £5.5 billion in tax year 2022 to 2023. The online tables are available at: Measuring tax gaps tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
HMRC does not separately estimate the tax gap due to tax evasion facilitated through overseas territories.
HMRC uses a wide range of civil powers to tackle evasion whilst it carries out criminal investigations for the most serious cases where it is appropriate to do so.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 17 January 2025 to Question 22789 on Fraud: Coronavirus, how many (a) civil and (b) criminal compliance actions has HMRC taken relating to tax offences suspected of having been committed by those seeking and fulfilling government contracts relating to the procurement and onward supply of Personal Protective Equipment and similar products during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
HMRC conducts thousands of civil and criminal compliance actions each year. A number of these relate to tax offences suspected of having been committed by those seeking and fulfilling government contracts relating to the procurement and onward supply of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and similar products during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our Management Information systems are not currently able to extract data to quantify the total figure.
Asked by: Phil Brickell (Labour - Bolton West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 17 January 2025 to Question 22789 on Fraud: Coronavirus, what the total number of staff is who work on recovering overpayments on business support schemes in each year since 2020-21.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The COVID-19 business support schemes that were administered by HMRC were the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), Self Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) and Eat Out to Help Out (EOHO).
Information on the resources deployed on these schemes can be found in the HMRC Annual Report and Accounts 2022/23, where HMRC expected to deploy over 2,500 staff by September 2023 through the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce.
HMRC are committed to working with COVID-19 Counter Fraud Commissioner.