Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much revenue his Department estimates will be raised as a result of charging VAT on deposits in each of the first three years of operation of the proposed Deposit Return Scheme for (a) England, Wales and Northern Ireland and (b) Scotland.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
VAT is charged on the supply of most bottled drinks and in such cases, where the price of a drink includes a deposit on the bottle, VAT is due on the whole price.
This is in line with the VAT principle that applies to deposits generally. It is also consistent with the rules in some other countries with a deposit return scheme.
The Government supports the environmental aims of the deposit return schemes and will continue working to ensure they operate effectively within the VAT rules, including exploring the issues with those involved in designing and implementing such schemes.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an assessment of whether VAT is charged on deposits made as part of deposit return schemes in other countries.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
VAT is charged on the supply of most bottled drinks and in such cases, where the price of a drink includes a deposit on the bottle, VAT is due on the whole price.
This is in line with the VAT principle that applies to deposits generally. It is also consistent with the rules in some other countries with a deposit return scheme.
The Government supports the environmental aims of the deposit return schemes and will continue working to ensure they operate effectively within the VAT rules, including exploring the issues with those involved in designing and implementing such schemes.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to exempt deposits collected as part of the Deposit Return Scheme from VAT.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
VAT is charged on the supply of most bottled drinks and in such cases, where the price of a drink includes a deposit on the bottle, VAT is due on the whole price.
This is in line with the VAT principle that applies to deposits generally. It is also consistent with the rules in some other countries with a deposit return scheme.
The Government supports the environmental aims of the deposit return schemes and will continue working to ensure they operate effectively within the VAT rules, including exploring the issues with those involved in designing and implementing such schemes.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps he plans to take to reduce the cost of fuel in Newport West constituency.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Recognising that fuel is a major cost for households and businesses, the government announced at the Autumn Budget 2021 that fuel duty rates would remain frozen on a UK-wide basis in 2022-23. Twelve consecutive years of the fuel duty freeze will save the average UK car driver around £15 in fuel duty per tank of fuel, compared to what would have been paid under the pre-2010 escalator.
The Government does not set pump prices or wider oil prices.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what fiscal steps he plans to take to reduce the cost of food.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The government is taking targeted action worth more than £4.2 billion a year over the next 5 years to help families with the cost of living. This includes the £500 million Household Support Fund (October 2021 to March 2022) to help vulnerable households with costs for essentials over the winter. The fund is ringfenced so that at least 50 per cent of it will be spent on households with children and should primarily be used to support households in the most need with food, energy, and water bills.
The government continues to maintain a zero-rate of VAT on many food and drink products, including fresh fruit, vegetables, cereals, meat, bread, milk, tea and coffee.
The government monitors consumer food prices using the ONS Consumer Price Index published statistics.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what forecast he has made of trends in food prices in the UK for 2022.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The government is taking targeted action worth more than £4.2 billion a year over the next 5 years to help families with the cost of living. This includes the £500 million Household Support Fund (October 2021 to March 2022) to help vulnerable households with costs for essentials over the winter. The fund is ringfenced so that at least 50 per cent of it will be spent on households with children and should primarily be used to support households in the most need with food, energy, and water bills.
The government continues to maintain a zero-rate of VAT on many food and drink products, including fresh fruit, vegetables, cereals, meat, bread, milk, tea and coffee.
The government monitors consumer food prices using the ONS Consumer Price Index published statistics.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the proposed increase in the rate of National Insurance on the level of unemployment in Newport West constituency.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Government has made several assessments of the overall impact of the introduction of the Health and Social Care Levy, which were published alongside the announcement. These include the distributional analysis of the impact of the combined tax and spending announcements, a technical annex in the Government’s plan for health and social care, and a Tax Information and Impact Note.
The Office for Budget Responsibility set out their assessment of the economic effects of the Levy, including the impact on labour supply and wages, in their latest Economic and Fiscal Outlook. This can be found here: https://obr.uk/efo/economic-and-fiscal-outlook-october-2021/
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the proposed increase in the rate of National Insurance on living standards in Newport West constituency.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Government has made several assessments of the overall impact of the introduction of the Health and Social Care Levy, which were published alongside the announcement. These include the distributional analysis of the impact of the combined tax and spending announcements, a technical annex in the Government’s plan for health and social care, and a Tax Information and Impact Note.
The Office for Budget Responsibility set out their assessment of the economic effects of the Levy, including the impact on labour supply and wages, in their latest Economic and Fiscal Outlook. This can be found here: https://obr.uk/efo/economic-and-fiscal-outlook-october-2021/
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether it remains his policy to increase the rate of National Insurance in April 2022.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Government announced the Health and Social Care Levy on 7 September 2021 and passed the legislation on 20 October 2021.
The Levy will allow the Government to implement necessary adult social care reform, tackle the elective backlog in the NHS as it recovers from Coronavirus, develop our pandemic response and preparedness, and ensure the NHS has the resources it needs throughout this Parliament.
The Government is committed to responsible management of the public finances and it is important that this spending is fully funded, particularly in the context of record borrowing and debt to fund the economic response to COVID-19.
A levy charged on the National Insurance Contributions base is the fairest way to raise the funds needed to support health and social care. It ensures the lowest earners are protected from increases as National Insurance has a threshold to protect the lowest paid. The highest earning 15 per cent will pay over half the revenue raised from the Levy and 6.1 million people earning less than the Primary Threshold (£9,880 in the year 2022-23), will not pay the Levy. In addition, using National Insurance as the basis ensures businesses will also pay the Levy. Businesses benefit from having a healthy workforce, so it is only fair that they contribute.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make it his policy to restore the £20 universal credit uplift.
Answered by Simon Clarke
The government has always been clear that the £20 per week increase to Universal Credit (UC) was a temporary measure to support households whose incomes and earnings were affected by the economic shock of COVID-19.
There have been significant positive developments in the public health and economic situation since the uplift was first announced. Now that the economy has reopened, the government is focusing on supporting people to move into and progress in work.
To continue to boost employment, wages and living standards, the government is continuing or enhancing the most successful Plan for Jobs schemes and introducing a new package of measures – taking the total DWP spend on labour market support to more than £6 billion over the next three years. This includes investing over £900m each year on work coaches, who will provide effective support to help job seekers on Universal Credit move into work and, for the first time ever, help people progress once in work, and funding for the Kickstart scheme, which has so far supported over 112,000 young people into Kickstart jobs.
The government has also taken decisive action to make work pay by cutting the Universal Credit taper rate from 63p to 55p, and increasing Universal Credit work allowances by £500 a year. This is effectively a tax cut for the lowest paid in society worth around £2.2bn in 2022-23 and strengthens incentives to move into and progress in work. 1.9m households will keep, on average, around an extra £1000 on an annual basis.