Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - North West Durham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking to ensure that cash is always an accepted as a means of payment.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government recognises that widespread access to cash remains extremely important to millions of people across the UK. That is why, at the March 2020 Budget, the Chancellor announced that the Government will bring forward legislation to protect access to cash, which builds on industry initiatives.
LINK, the scheme that runs the UK’s largest ATM network, has existing arrangements in place to protect free-to-use ATMs that do not have another free-to-use ATM or Post Office within 1 kilometre. LINK’s members have also made £5 million available to fund ATMs at the request of communities with poor access to cash.
The Government is also closely engaging with the financial regulators to monitor and assess risks around cash relating to COVID-19. In order to work safely, retailers have been recommended to minimise contacts around transactions. However, it remains the individual retailer’s choice as to whether to accept or decline any form of payment, including cash or card.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - North West Durham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent steps he has taken to (a) protect and (b) increase access to free-to-use cash machines.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government recognises that widespread access to cash remains extremely important to millions of people across the UK. That is why, at the March 2020 Budget, the Chancellor announced that the Government will bring forward legislation to protect access to cash, which builds on industry initiatives.
LINK, the scheme that runs the UK’s largest ATM network, has existing arrangements in place to protect free-to-use ATMs that do not have another free-to-use ATM or Post Office within 1 kilometre. LINK’s members have also made £5 million available to fund ATMs at the request of communities with poor access to cash.
The Government is also closely engaging with the financial regulators to monitor and assess risks around cash relating to COVID-19. In order to work safely, retailers have been recommended to minimise contacts around transactions. However, it remains the individual retailer’s choice as to whether to accept or decline any form of payment, including cash or card.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - North West Durham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has plans to change the (a) introductory date for and (b) rules on IR-35 off-payroll working as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Jesse Norman
On 17 March 2020, the Government announced that the reform to the off-payroll working rules that would have applied for people contracting their services to large or medium sized organisations outside the public sector will be delayed for one year from 6 April 2020 until 6 April 2021.
The Government has legislated this measure in Finance Bill 2020 and will implement it in April 2021 in order to address the unfairness of non-compliance with the existing off-payroll working rules.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - North West Durham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Government is taking to monitor and regulate card payment fees charged by banks for transactions involving small retailers.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government remains committed to helping businesses and workers through the present very difficult time, and has announced unprecedented support, including a range of grant and tax deferral schemes, and £300 billion of guarantees, equivalent to 15 per cent of UK GDP. Some acquirers (the financial services firms which enable retailers to process card payments) are taking voluntary measures to support their business customers, for example through waiving fees, and the Government welcomes such action.
The Payment Systems Regulator is currently carrying out a market review into card-acquiring services. Its review is examining how competition is working, including looking at the fees retailers pay for card-acquiring services and the quality of service they receive. Its interim findings will be published in Q3 2020.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - North West Durham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Government has made an assessment of the potential merits of forcing banks to freeze card payment fees temporarily, for transactions involving small retailers in response to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government remains committed to helping businesses and workers through the present very difficult time, and has announced unprecedented support, including a range of grant and tax deferral schemes, and £300 billion of guarantees, equivalent to 15 per cent of UK GDP. Some acquirers (the financial services firms which enable retailers to process card payments) are taking voluntary measures to support their business customers, for example through waiving fees, and the Government welcomes such action.
The Payment Systems Regulator is currently carrying out a market review into card-acquiring services. Its review is examining how competition is working, including looking at the fees retailers pay for card-acquiring services and the quality of service they receive. Its interim findings will be published in Q3 2020.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - North West Durham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether grants under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme can be used to cover redundancy costs.
Answered by Jesse Norman
As per the latest updates to the guidance for the Coronavirus Job Retention scheme, grants cannot be used to substitute redundancy payments.
HMRC will continue to monitor businesses after the scheme has closed.
Full guidance can be found on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wage-costs-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - North West Durham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much revenue is raised annually for the public purse from VAT on sales of silver bullion (a) coins and (b) bars.
Answered by Jesse Norman
HM Revenue and Customs do not hold data on VAT collected specifically from the sale of silver bullion, as information on supplies of specific commodities is not required on VAT returns.
HMRC record and publish annually details of VAT receipts across trade sectors and subsectors, but not of specific commodities.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - North West Durham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the (a) gross and (b) net savings accrued to the public purse of the UK not being a member of the EU in each of the next four years.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Having left the EU, from 2021 the UK will no longer contribute to the EU budget as a Member State, leaving only payments due as part of Financial Settlement obligations. As set out at Spring Budget 2020, the government has accounted for this when setting its spending plans, allowing it to determine how an additional £14.6 billion of spending by 2024-25 can be allocated to its domestic priorities, rather than be sent in contributions to the EU. This will be allocated as part of the overall spending envelope at the next Comprehensive Spending Review.
The OBR’s March 2020 Economic and Financial Outlook provides a forecast of the direct fiscal impact of leaving the EU. This is expected to be £4.3bn in 2020-21, £5.0bn in 2021- 22, £7.1bn in 2022-23, £11.3bn in 2023-24 and £14.6bn in 2024-25. The OBR forecast is calculated relative to their forecast of what the UK would have contributed as member state. The future contributions of member states is currently under review in the negotiation of the next MFF.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - North West Durham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the UK's (a) gross and (b) net contributions to the EU in the event that the transition period is extended for (i) 2021 and (ii) 2022.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government has been very clear that it will not accept an extension to the transition period. Indeed, Section 33 of the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 prohibits the Government from extending the transition period.
Both the EU and the UK have committed to agreeing a future partnership by the end of 2020 in the Political Declaration and that is clearly in the interests of both sides.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - North West Durham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the net increase in £million per week of the budget for the NHS will be following the passing of the NHS funding bill for the years (a) 2020-1 (b) 2021-22, (c) 2022-3 and (d) 2023-4.
Answered by Steve Barclay - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The NHS funding bill placed into law the historic increases to the NHS resource budget which were agreed for the five years from 2019-20.
The NHS resource budget is set on an annual basis with the NHS determining the weekly profile of their spending, but the bill guarantees- as a minimum- the following annual cash increases as compared to the 2018-19 year:
(a) 2020-21: £12,404m
(b) 2021-22: £18,680m
(c) 2022-23: £25,387m
(d) 2023-24: £33,864m