Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many responses his Department has received to its consultation on the Statutory Debt Repayment Plan.
Answered by Richard Fuller
The Government’s public consultation on draft regulations for the Statutory Debt Repayment Plan (SDRP) was launched on 13 May and will close on 5 August.
As of 18 July, the Government has received 5 formal responses to this consultation. However, this is highly unlikely to be representative of the total number of responses that will be received, as it is expected that many of those will be received closer to the deadline.
There has been significant interest in the consultation so far, from a wide range of stakeholders in the debt advice and consumer credit sectors, and the Government continues to engage closely with these stakeholders to support the development of the scheme.
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish a timeframe for when his Department will respond to the call for evidence on the umbrella company market.
Answered by Alan Mak - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade) (jointly with the Cabinet Office)
The Government recently ran a Call for Evidence on the umbrella company market to ensure it has a detailed and up to date understanding of the market. This Call for Evidence, which was issued jointly by HM Treasury, HMRC and BEIS, closed on 22 February 2022. Officials in the three departments are working closely together to consider the evidence submitted and will publish the Government's response in due course.
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many responses his Department has received to its consultation on the proposed reform of the UK’s sovereign immunity from direct tax policy.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The sovereign immunity consultation was launched on 4 July and will close on 12 September. As of 15 July, the Government has not received any consultation responses.
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many responses his Department received to its consultation on the methodology the Government uses to set the SCAPE discount rate.
Answered by Simon Clarke
The SCAPE discount rate is used in the valuation of unfunded public service pension schemes to set employer contribution rates and is set by HM Treasury following a prescribed methodology. A consultation was published in June 2021 seeking views on the objectives for the SCAPE discount rate and the most appropriate methodology going forward.
Following the consultation’s publication, the Government ran engagement sessions to ensure stakeholders were given the opportunity to express their views. Meetings were also held with members of Scheme Advisory Boards from across the UK relating to each public service workforce, and views were sought from the Government Actuary. Most stakeholders have followed up with formal written responses.
The Government has received 51 responses from a broad range of respondents. These include individuals, trade unions and other member representative bodies, Scheme Advisory Boards, employers and employer representative bodies, actuarial and pensions specialists, and pensions administrators.
The consultation response will be published in due course.Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many (a) consultations and (b) calls for evidence issued by his Department are closed but have not been responded to as on 12 July 2022.
Answered by Alan Mak - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade) (jointly with the Cabinet Office)
All Government consultations and calls for evidence are published on gov.uk, which also provides an update on whether Government has responded to these.
In this Parliament, we have identified 15 calls for evidence or consultations which are closed, but which Government has not yet responded to.
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many compliance checks the HMRC Taxpayer Protection Taskforce has carried out as of July 2022.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
HMRC designed the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), The Self Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) and the Eat Out To Help Out Scheme (EOTHO) to prevent fraud and error, both in the eligibility criteria and the claim process itself whilst making sure the grant payments reached claimants as quickly as possible. HMRC also put in place a series of checks on claims before they were paid, so they blocked those that were highly indicative of criminal activity.
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.
At Spring Budget 2021 the Government announced a £100m 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 (CJRS, SEISS and EOTHO). The taskforce does not address compliance risks in schemes that have been administered outside HMRC.
Up to the end of March 2021, over 12,000 compliance checks had been carried out, this was prior to the formation of the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce.
Further information on the number of compliance checks carried out and taskforce performance for 21/22 is covered in HMRC’s Annual Report and Accounts (AR&A) for 21/22 and will be published before recess.
HMRC expects to publish its 2022-23 Annual Report & Accounts in Summer 2023.
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when HMRC plans to publish its annual report and accounts for the financial year 2022-23.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
HMRC designed the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), The Self Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) and the Eat Out To Help Out Scheme (EOTHO) to prevent fraud and error, both in the eligibility criteria and the claim process itself whilst making sure the grant payments reached claimants as quickly as possible. HMRC also put in place a series of checks on claims before they were paid, so they blocked those that were highly indicative of criminal activity.
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.
At Spring Budget 2021 the Government announced a £100m 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 (CJRS, SEISS and EOTHO). The taskforce does not address compliance risks in schemes that have been administered outside HMRC.
Up to the end of March 2021, over 12,000 compliance checks had been carried out, this was prior to the formation of the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce.
Further information on the number of compliance checks carried out and taskforce performance for 21/22 is covered in HMRC’s Annual Report and Accounts (AR&A) for 21/22 and will be published before recess.
HMRC expects to publish its 2022-23 Annual Report & Accounts in Summer 2023.
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference Draft legislation: Energy (Oil and Gas) Profits Levy Bill published on 21 June 2022 by his Department, what his timescale is for publishing a Tax Information and Impact Note for the Energy Profits Levy.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The legislation for the Energy Profits Levy will be formally introduced in Parliament shortly, and the Government will publish a Tax Information and Impact Note alongside its introduction.
Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what analysis his Department has undertaken of how much has been invested by the UK Infrastructure Bank in (a) each nation of the UK and (b) each region of England; and if he will place a copy of that analysis in the Library.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The UK Infrastructure Bank has operational independence in its day-to-day activity, including investment decisions. As it builds its pipeline the UKIB will take a long-term approach to its interventions, aiming to achieve a broadly balanced portfolio where investments are reasonably distributed among different sectors within its remit and across different regions and nations of the UK. In the medium term the UKIB will develop a framework for monitoring its impact. So far the UKIB has completed seven investments. Details on the quantum of each investment and its location is published on the Bank’s website.Asked by: Rachel Reeves (Labour - Leeds West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the UK Infrastructure Bank will take to ensure public funds invested in third party funds will directly support levelling up and help reduce emissions.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The UK Infrastructure Bank operates within a strategic framework set by government but has operational independence in its day-to-day activity, including investment decisions. UKIB has dual objectives of investing in projects to help mitigate and adapt to climate change, and to support regional economic growth across the UK. The Bank is required to have regard to both of these objectives in setting its investment policies and assessing all transactions, including any that involve investment in third party funds. I have asked the Bank to write to you directly on the approach that it takes in making decisions on investments in third party funds.