Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the soft drinks industry levy on reducing obesity and related illnesses.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Government data shows that sugar levels in drinks in scope of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL) reduced by 47% between 2015 and 2024, removing approximately 57,000 tonnes of sugar from these drinks. This has had benefits across all socio-economic groups.
The National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS), an ongoing Government-funded survey of food consumption and nutrient status in the United Kingdom, shows that sugar intakes of older children and adolescents reduced between 2014 and 2019, and the amount of sugar coming from soft drinks reduced.
Academic modelling papers suggest that the following benefits may have been realised as a result of the reductions in sugar seen in drinks in scope of the SDIL:
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the new taxation of electric vehicles on reaching the UK's net zero targets.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government intends to create a fair tax system whilst ensuring that driving an electric vehicle (EV) remains an attractive choice for consumers; the transition to EVs is essential to meeting Net Zero targets.
As announced at Budget 2025, the Government is introducing Electric Vehicle Excise Duty (eVED) from April 2028. The rate of eVED for EVs will be half of the equivalent fuel duty rate paid by the average petrol/diesel driver, ensuring that EVs are cheaper to own and run for the majority of EV drivers. The Government is also providing generous additional support to incentivise the use of electric vehicles, including £1.3 billion of additional funding for the Electric Car Grant (ECG) and increasing the VED Expensive Car Supplement (ECS) threshold to £50,000 for EVs.
As set out by the OBR, the estimated net impact of eVED and other Budget measures, including the ECG and ECS, is 120,000 fewer new EV sales across the forecast period. This is against a baseline which assumes EV sales more than triple from 2025-26 levels by 2030-31, which means the net impact of eVED represents only 2% of total new EV sales in the period.
The Government has set out expected impacts from eVED and other Budget measures in the Budget 2025 Policy Costings document at GOV.UK: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/692872fd2a37784b16ecf676/Budget_2025-Policy_Costings.pdf
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the new taxation of electric vehicles on consumer uptake of electric vehicles.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government intends to create a fair tax system whilst ensuring that driving an electric vehicle (EV) remains an attractive choice for consumers; the transition to EVs is essential to meeting Net Zero targets.
As announced at Budget 2025, the Government is introducing Electric Vehicle Excise Duty (eVED) from April 2028. The rate of eVED for EVs will be half of the equivalent fuel duty rate paid by the average petrol/diesel driver, ensuring that EVs are cheaper to own and run for the majority of EV drivers. The Government is also providing generous additional support to incentivise the use of electric vehicles, including £1.3 billion of additional funding for the Electric Car Grant (ECG) and increasing the VED Expensive Car Supplement (ECS) threshold to £50,000 for EVs.
As set out by the OBR, the estimated net impact of eVED and other Budget measures, including the ECG and ECS, is 120,000 fewer new EV sales across the forecast period. This is against a baseline which assumes EV sales more than triple from 2025-26 levels by 2030-31, which means the net impact of eVED represents only 2% of total new EV sales in the period.
The Government has set out expected impacts from eVED and other Budget measures in the Budget 2025 Policy Costings document at GOV.UK: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/692872fd2a37784b16ecf676/Budget_2025-Policy_Costings.pdf
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential distributional impact of the new taxation of electric vehicles on households with lower incomes.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
As announced at Budget 2025, the Government is introducing Electric Vehicle Excise Duty (eVED) from April 2028, a new mileage charge for electric and plug-in hybrid cars, recognising that EVs contribute to congestion and wear and tear on the roads but pay no equivalent to fuel duty.
The Government set out estimated impacts on household incomes from tax, welfare and public service spending decisions taken at Budget 2025, including eVED. These impacts are available at GOV.UK: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69269c6222424e25e6bc31bb/Impact_on_households.pdf
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) will be responsible for delivering and administering eVED, so HM Revenue and Customs will not incur additional administrative costs.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate she has made of the future annual revenues from pay per mile vehicle tax schemes over the next five years.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
As announced at Budget 2025, the Government is introducing Electric Vehicle Excise Duty (eVED) from April 2028, a new mileage charge for electric and plug-in hybrid cars, recognising that EVs contribute to congestion and wear and tear on the roads but pay no equivalent to fuel duty.
The Government has set out the expected impacts, including Exchequer impacts and behavioural changes, from eVED and other Budget measures in the Budget 2025 Policy Costings document at GOV.UK: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/692872fd2a37784b16ecf676/Budget_2025-Policy_Costings.pdf
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate she has made of tax revenues from the new tax on electric vehicles announced in the Autumn Budget 2025 over the next five years.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
As announced at Budget 2025, the Government is introducing Electric Vehicle Excise Duty (eVED) from April 2028, a new mileage charge for electric and plug-in hybrid cars, recognising that EVs contribute to congestion and wear and tear on the roads but pay no equivalent to fuel duty.
The Government has set out the expected impacts, including Exchequer impacts and behavioural changes, from eVED and other Budget measures in the Budget 2025 Policy Costings document at GOV.UK: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/692872fd2a37784b16ecf676/Budget_2025-Policy_Costings.pdf
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate she has made of the administrative costs to HM Revenue and Customs of implementing the new taxation of electric vehicles.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
As announced at Budget 2025, the Government is introducing Electric Vehicle Excise Duty (eVED) from April 2028, a new mileage charge for electric and plug-in hybrid cars, recognising that EVs contribute to congestion and wear and tear on the roads but pay no equivalent to fuel duty.
The Government set out estimated impacts on household incomes from tax, welfare and public service spending decisions taken at Budget 2025, including eVED. These impacts are available at GOV.UK: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69269c6222424e25e6bc31bb/Impact_on_households.pdf
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) will be responsible for delivering and administering eVED, so HM Revenue and Customs will not incur additional administrative costs.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many compliance inspections of money service businesses have been carried out by HM Revenue and Customs in the last twelve months.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC does not record ‘Money Service Businesses’ (MSBs) as a category in its compliance data across all tax regimes. It is therefore not possible to accurately identify the total number of compliance checks in this area of business without manually reviewing case records. Available figures cover compliance checks under the Money Laundering Regulations (MLR).
As a statutory supervisor under the MLR, HMRC has carried out 1,008 compliance checks of supervised businesses across all supervised sectors in the period from 1 December 2024 to 30 November 2025. These interventions form part of the responsibility to protect the UK from money laundering and the financing of terrorism and proliferation, which includes providing guidance and education to support legitimate businesses, fit and proper operating checks, and desk-based and onsite interventions.
Further details on HMRC’s inspection processes are available on GOV.UK: Money laundering regulations: business inspections.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will publish all correspondence between herself and the Chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility between 1 October and 1 December.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Chancellor engages regularly with the OBR’s Budget Responsibility Committee (BRC), including its Chair, in preparation for fiscal events. The OBR publishes a log of its contact, including with the Chancellor, in the Foreword of the Economic and Fiscal Outlook (EFO).
On Wednesday 26 November, Richard Hughes wrote to the Chancellor to apologise for the early release of the OBR’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook and to announce an investigation into the incident.
Richard Hughes resigned as Chair of the OBR on 1 December and the Chancellor wrote to thank him for his dedicated public service and leadership of the OBR over the last 5 years.
These letters are published on the OBR website and on gov.uk, respectively.
Asked by: Sarah Pochin (Reform UK - Runcorn and Helsby)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions she had with the former Chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility on his giving evidence to the Treasury Select Committee following the Budget before his resignation; and if she will publish all written correspondence between them on this issue.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Richard Hughes resigned as Chair of the OBR on 1 December and the Chancellor wrote to thank him for his dedicated public service and leadership of the OBR over the last 5 years.
These letters are published on the OBR website and on gov.uk, respectively.