Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to enable litigants who win First Tier Tribunal cases to recover costs.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The tribunals of the unified tribunal system are designed to be an informal, accessible and low cost means of resolving disputes, in which legal representation is not needed. For this reason, costs are not generally recoverable between the parties in proceedings before the First-tier Tribunal.
Procedure rules for some chambers of the First-tier Tribunal do provide for costs to be awarded in certain circumstances, for example where a party has conducted the litigation unreasonably.
We have no plans to change the rules so that costs can be awarded routinely in proceedings in the First-tier Tribunal.
Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much HMRC spent on legal fees in tax litigation cases in each of the last five years.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Solicitors Office and Legal Services provide a range of legal and professional services to HMRC, including conduct of tax litigation.
The operating expenditure for HMRC’s Solicitors Office and Legal Services is published in HMRC’s annual reports and accounts and can be found for the last five years at
www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrcs-annual-report-and-accounts.
For 2022/23 accounts, details can be found on page 246.
Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many applications for R&D tax credits by companies in Northern Ireland were refused on the grounds they were fraudulent in each of the last three years.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC publish the estimated number of R&D claims and a breakdown of the number of claims by region. The latest figures, for 2021-2022, are published here: Research and Development Tax Credit Statistics September 2023.
HMRC do not publish the proportion of R&D claims rejected or the reasons for rejecting them.
All R&D claims go through a risk screening process before the payment process. Where risks are identified, HMRC open enquiries into those claims following the HMRC Enquiry manual, a detailed guidance framework on conducting compliance checks.
Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what scrutiny is given to technical reports submitted with R&D tax credit applications by companies in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC publish the estimated number of R&D claims and a breakdown of the number of claims by region. The latest figures, for 2021-2022, are published here: Research and Development Tax Credit Statistics September 2023.
HMRC do not publish the proportion of R&D claims rejected or the reasons for rejecting them.
All R&D claims go through a risk screening process before the payment process. Where risks are identified, HMRC open enquiries into those claims following the HMRC Enquiry manual, a detailed guidance framework on conducting compliance checks.
Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many applications for R&D tax credits by companies in Northern Ireland were refused in each of the last three years.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC publish the estimated number of R&D claims and a breakdown of the number of claims by region. The latest figures, for 2021-2022, are published here: Research and Development Tax Credit Statistics September 2023.
HMRC do not publish the proportion of R&D claims rejected or the reasons for rejecting them.
All R&D claims go through a risk screening process before the payment process. Where risks are identified, HMRC open enquiries into those claims following the HMRC Enquiry manual, a detailed guidance framework on conducting compliance checks.
Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many applications were made by companies in Northern Ireland for R&D tax credits in each of the last three years.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC publish the estimated number of R&D claims and a breakdown of the number of claims by region. The latest figures, for 2021-2022, are published here: Research and Development Tax Credit Statistics September 2023.
HMRC do not publish the proportion of R&D claims rejected or the reasons for rejecting them.
All R&D claims go through a risk screening process before the payment process. Where risks are identified, HMRC open enquiries into those claims following the HMRC Enquiry manual, a detailed guidance framework on conducting compliance checks.
Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what representations he has made to his Rwandan counterpart on the M23 rebel group operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo border region.
Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)
We regularly raise the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) with the governments of DRC and Rwanda. We continue to urge all parties to deliver on their commitments, agreed through the Nairobi and Luanda regional peace processes. I [Minister Mitchell] raised this with President Kagame and Foreign Minister Biruta during my visit to Rwanda in late August, and we continue to engage on this issue via our High Commission. The UK Special Envoy to the Great Lakes recently participated in a UN-led trip to the region alongside French and US counterparts, to encourage de-escalation and a return to regional peace processes over military solutions.
Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many tax litigation cases HMRC has taken to the Court of Appeal in each of the last five years.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC publishes data relating to decided appeals across all tribunals and courts in its annual report and accounts which can be found at www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrcs-annual-report-and-accounts.
Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what information his Department holds on the number of Greek troops that are stationed in southern Cyprus; and whether any personnel from the Greek (a) military and (b) intelligence community are hosted in the sovereign base areas of (i) Akrotiri and (ii) Dhekelia.
Answered by James Heappey
Further to the written answers to Questions 8179, 80904, and 80905, we do not propose to release details of any non-UK personnel participating in current or future operational activities in the Sovereign Base Areas. We do not hold information regarding the size of any Greek deployment in the Republic of Cyprus, this would be a matter for the Hellenic Armed Forces. We do not comment on intelligence matters.
Asked by: Sammy Wilson (Democratic Unionist Party - East Antrim)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what his planned timetable is to bring forward legislation to repeal section 10(1)(b) of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Government is working actively to deliver commitments made in the Safeguarding the Union command paper, which was published on 31 January (CP 1021). This includes the passing into law on 20 February of two statutory instruments to give effect to legislative assurances contained within the command paper. Any required further legislation will be brought forward as soon as parliamentary time allows.