Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of revising vehicle tax to reflect the lower emissions resulting from the adoption of E10 fuel.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
E10 is the standard grade petrol in the UK. Fuel duty is levied on E10 at the same rate as other types of petrol and diesel. This is currently 52.95 pence per litre.
Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) is a tax on vehicle ownership sometimes referred to as a ‘vehicle tax’. Cars first registered since April 2017 already pay a first year VED rate based on their CO2 emissions, with the least polluting models paying £10 on first registration, whilst the most polluting pay over £2,300.
This is based on CO2 emissions as measured through laboratory tests and recorded on a vehicle’s type approval certificate ensuring a consistent approach is used for all new cars. Since 2020, the government has used the improved Worldwide harmonized Light vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP) standard for measuring CO2 emissions, which aims to reflect real world driving conditions.
All taxes are kept under review.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will list the values of the Barnett consequential funding for Northern Ireland relating to his spending decisions in the Autumn Statement 2022.
Answered by John Glen
As a result of the decisions taken at Autumn Statement 2022, the Northern Ireland Executive’s funding is increasing by around £650m over 2023-24 and 2024-25.
The Block Grant Transparency publication will set out a full breakdown of funding for the Northern Ireland Executive in due course.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of reducing the £85,000 VAT threshold for businesses.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Government recognises that accounting for VAT can be a burden on small businesses. This is why at £85,000 the UK has a higher VAT registration threshold than any EU Member State and the second highest in the OECD. This keeps the majority of UK businesses out of VAT altogether.
In 2018, the Government consulted on how the design of the VAT registration threshold could better incentivise growth. However, there was no clear option for reform, and it was announced at Budget 2021 that the VAT threshold will be maintained at its current level of £85,000 until 31 March 2024.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether assessment he has made of the potential merits of levying a windfall tax on banks.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
Banks already face two additional taxes. The Bank Corporation Tax Surcharge is an additional charge on banking profit above a set allowance, and the Bank Levy is charged on banks’ balance sheets with equity and liabilities over £20 billion. Since the introduction of the Bank Levy in 2011, these two taxes have raised over £33 billion in additional revenue from the banking sector.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the impact of rising (a) inflation and (b) refinancing costs on the cost of servicing Government debt.
Answered by John Glen
Inflation has a range of impacts on the public finances and previous OBR forecasts have shown how inflation can increase spending on welfare and debt interest, as well as tax revenues. With respect to debt interest, the most recent OBR forecast in March projected that government spending on debt interest would reach £83.0 billion in 2022-23. The OBR also publish a ‘ready reckoner’ to estimate the effect of changes in economic determinants, such as inflation and gilt rates. This shows the estimated change in debt interest costs from a 1 percentage point increase in inflation and gilt rates throughout the forecast.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has been made of the potential merits of extending Tax Free Childcare to students embarking on studies in areas that are deemed economically or socially necessary for future UK skills needs.
Answered by John Glen
Tax-Free Childcare has been designed with the specific policy aim of supporting parents to return to paid work or work more, by providing support with their childcare costs. For this reason, to be eligible for Tax-Free Childcare, each parent must be in work and earning at least the equivalent of 16 hours’ work a week at the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage.
Students who are working alongside their studies and earning at least this minimum threshold are eligible for Tax-Free Childcare.
Alternative Government support is available for those who are studying and have childcare responsibilities, such as the Student Childcare Grant. This supports students with childcare costs by providing eligible full-time students with 85% of their childcare costs, up to a fixed maximum amount.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of levying a windfall tax on commercial banks.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
Banks already face two additional taxes. The Bank Corporation Tax Surcharge is an additional charge on banking profit above a set allowance, and the Bank Levy is charged on banks’ balance sheets with equity and liabilities over £20 billion. Since the introduction of the Bank Levy in 2011, these two taxes have raised over £33 billion in additional revenue from the banking sector.
Asked by: Stephen Farry (Alliance - North Down)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the Government's Energy Price Guarantee on the Barnett consequential entitlement for Northern Ireland.
Answered by Edward Argar
The Energy Price Guarantee is a scheme that will cap the unit price households pay for electricity and gas, which means that a typical household in Great Britain will have to pay bills equivalent to no more than £2500 a year on their energy bills this winter.
The Prime Minister announced that equivalent support will be available for Northern Ireland and this will be in place by November, and backdated to cover October bills from November.
As the UK Government is providing support directly across the UK, there will be no associated Barnett consequentials for the devolved administrations in line with the usual operation of the Barnett formula.