Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the contribution has been to the public purse from levying VAT on the 101 non-emergency police phone line.
Answered by Mel Stride - Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
The details that HMRC collects from taxpayers on their VAT returns are not specific enough to provide an estimate of VAT on 101 phone calls.
To minimise the administrative burden on businesses, they are only required to report the total VAT on all their taxable supplies of goods and services in the relevant period. It is therefore not possible to identify the types of supplies on which the VAT was charged.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many licensed stills have (a) been established and (b) ceased trading in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
HMRC licenses the businesses who use stills for distillation rather than the stills themselves. The number of licences issued in each year was:
2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 |
9 | 2 | 6 | 34 | 11 | 28 | 38 | 34 | 46 | 62 |
HMRC has no information on the number of licensed businesses that have ceased trading.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a reduced rate of duty for spirits produced by smaller distillers and producers.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
Under EU law a reduced rate of spirit duty can be applied to producers who make less than 1,000 litres of product a year.
The government is not minded to introduce such a relief as there is no compelling case to do so at this time given the risk of illicit production and excise duty fraud.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what support is available to borrowers seeking to access lower mortgage rates in the event that their proposed new lender or current lender is not signed up to the Government's voluntary agreement with UK Finance, the Building Socieities Association and the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association.
Answered by John Glen
67 lenders representing 95% of the UK’s residential mortgage market have signed up to the industry voluntary agreement to help mortgage prisoners.
As set out in my response to your PQ tabled 5th November 2018 officials in the Treasury continue to work closely with the FCA and industry to explore what more can be done. This will include where lenders are not signed up to the industry’s voluntary agreement.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of the EU Mortgage Credit Directive on access to lower mortgage rates.
Answered by John Glen
The EU Mortgage Credit Directive (MCD), which came into force in March 2016, prevents lenders waiving the affordability requirements when a borrower moves to a new lender. As a result some borrowers may find it harder to switch to a new lender to access lower rates.
While we must comply with the MCD, the Financial Conduct Authority have put in place exemptions which allow lenders to waive affordability requirements for customers that are remortgaging with their existing lender but not increasing the size of their debt. In addition in July 2018, UK Finance, the Building Socieities Association, and the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders Association, announced a cross industry voluntary agreement. Under this agreement lenders undertook to write by the end of 2018 to any borrowers on the reversion rate who are up to date with payments, and have a minimum of 2 years and £10,000 left on their mortgage, to let them know they can access lower mortgage rates with their existing lender. Officials in the Treasury continue to work closely with the FCA and industry to explore what more can be done.
Asked by: Tim Loughton (Conservative - East Worthing and Shoreham)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of the EU Mortgage Credit Directive on the cost of mortgages.
Answered by John Glen
The Government conducted an impact assessment when implementing the EU Directive in 2015 and assessed that there would be minimal costs incurred as a result of businesses absorbing the regulatory changes from the FCA.