Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for West Lancashire of 27 November 2020 on business rates, reference ZA54614.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
HM Treasury has no record of receiving the letter of 27 November from the Honourable Member. The Member's follow up correspondence of 18 February is now receiving attention. HM Treasury apologises for the delay in responding and will respond to the Member as soon as possible.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what security measures his Department has put in place to secure funds that members of the public have deposited in tax-free childcare accounts.
Answered by Steve Barclay
Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) is delivered from GOV.UK alongside other government digital services through the secure Government Gateway. The Childcare Service (on GOV.UK) complies and adheres to the following best practice security measures which secure funds in TFC accounts:
• HMG Baseline Personnel Security Standard
• HMG Government Security Classifications
• HMG Personnel Security Controls
• HMG Security Policy Framework
• ISO20001: IT Service Management
• ISO22301: Business Continuity Management
• ISO27001:2013 Information technology, Security techniques,
Information security management systems, Requirements
• Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the options available to a customer whose funds have gone missing after deposit into their tax-free childcare account.
Answered by Steve Barclay
Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) is delivered from GOV.UK alongside other government digital services through the secure Government Gateway. Parents apply for TFC through the online Childcare Service, which HM Revenue & Customs deliver in partnership with National Savings & Investment.
If parents suspect their account is being misused they should contact the Childcare Service helpline to report their concerns. The Childcare Service will
investigate the matter immediately.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many reports he has received of deposited funds not appearing in tax-free childcare accounts; whether those incidents have been resolved; and what steps he is taking to prevent such incidents.
Answered by Steve Barclay
Tax-Free Childcare (TFC) is delivered from GOV.UK alongside other government digital services through the secure Government Gateway. Parents apply for TFC through the online Childcare Service, which HM Revenue & Customs deliver in partnership with National Savings & Investment (NS&I).
There have been two incidents of deposited funds not appearing in TFC accounts since the scheme started in April 2017. In August 2019 3,074 TFC customers were affected by a system error, of which all funds were remediated to the correct account. Since this incident, NS&I introduced a number of additional controls; including automated system scripts which alert them to any missed or unprocessed files. When alerted NS&I evoke their industry standard Incident (ITIL) process and conform to a Service Level Agreement set with HMRC, which has a range of response and resolution times depending on the scale of the incident (such as the number of customers impacted).
More recently in December 2020 198 customers were affected by a different processing issue, which is currently being remediated.
If parents suspect their account is being misused they should contact the Childcare Service helpline to report their concerns. The Childcare Service will investigate the matter immediately.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Government’s tax-free childcare scheme.
Answered by Steve Barclay
Tax-Free Childcare provides working parents with 20% support on childcare costs up to £10,000. Eligible working families with children under 12 (or under 17 if disabled) will receive up to £2,000 per child per year (or £4,000 per child per year for disabled children) towards their childcare bills.
While there was been a decrease in the use of TFC at the start of the pandemic, usage rapidly climbed back to pre-Covid levels. 227,000 families used Tax-Free Childcare for 263,000 children in September 2020 (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tax-free-childcare-statistics-september-2020), this compares with 172,000 families using childcare for 205,000 children in September 2019 (https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tax-free-childcare-statistics-september-2019). The government spent £26.5m on top-up for families in September 2020, compared to £19.0m in September 2019.
In addition, Tax-Free Childcare is fairer than its predecessor, Employer Supported Childcare (including Childcare Vouchers). Tax-Free Childcare broadens access to childcare support for more working families, including parents whose employer doesn’t offer vouchers and the self-employed who can’t use vouchers. TFC also provides support per child rather than per parent, meaning lone parent households get the same support as those with more than one parent.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will take steps to ensure that HM Revenue and Customs replies to the letter from the hon. Member for West Lancashire, dated 14 September 2020, on a constituent's tax issue, ref za53685.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
HMRC apologise for the delay in dealing with this case. They telephoned the constituency office of the Honourable Member on 2 December in order to resolve her constituent’s issue and have confirmed the position by email with her.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if his Department will publish the (a) terms of reference and (b) minutes of meetings of the Number 10 Health and Social Care Taskforce.
Answered by Steve Barclay
The No10 and HM Treasury Health and Social Care Taskforce was made up of civil servants from a number of Government departments, who met on a daily basis as part of their policy development work, from the beginning of June through to the end of October this year.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will publish the (a) terms of reference and (b) minutes of the meetings of his Health and Social Care Taskforce.
Answered by Steve Barclay
The No10 and HM Treasury Health and Social Care Taskforce was made up of civil servants from a number of Government departments, who met on a daily basis as part of their policy development work, from the beginning of June through to the end of October this year.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent discussions he has had with the (a) Secretary of State for Transport and (b) Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on the decarbonisation of the maritime industry.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
The Chancellor of the Exchequer meets Cabinet colleagues to discuss a range of issues as part of the policy making process.
The government continues to take its environmental responsibilities very seriously, and is committed to meeting its climate change targets. With this in mind, the government is considering how it can most effectively progress transport decarbonisation through the Spending Review.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he plans to respond to the correspondence from the hon. Member for West Lancashire of 20 April 2020 on furlough for agency or bank staff at NHS Professionals.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
The Treasury responded to the Member’s letter on 24 July 2020.