Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of reclassifying sunscreen products as essential healthcare items for VAT purposes.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
VAT rules do not distinguish between supplies on the basis of whether they might be considered essential. The standard rate of VAT applies to most goods and services, including sun safety products.
High-factor sunscreen is on the NHS prescription list for certain conditions and therefore is provided VAT free when dispensed by a pharmacist.
The Government keeps all taxes under review, however, there are currently no plans to change the VAT treatment of sunscreen products.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help (a) young people with disabilities and (b) other children to access (a) Child Trust Funds and (b) Junior ISAs.
Answered by Andrew Griffith - Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Trade
The government is committed to helping people access the savings and money they are entitled to, including the money held in Child Trust Funds (CTF) and Junior ISAs (JISA).
While primary responsibility for communicating with account holders and their registered contact lies with CTF providers, HMRC works closely with providers, the wider industry and the Money and Pensions Service to ensure that young people are aware of, and can access, their CTFs, particularly those opened by HMRC on their behalf.
The government’s current plans will reunite the vast majority of CTF accounts with their owners, but there may be some cases where further action will be required. The government will monitor how many accounts remain open and judge when it is appropriate to intervene in other ways.
Only parents or a guardian with parental responsibility can open a JISA for an under 16-year old. Young adults are likely to be aware of JISAs opened for them.
If the child lacks the mental capacity to manage their account when they turn 18 then the parent, or a close friend or relative, needs to apply to the Court of Protection (or equivalents in Scotland and Northern Ireland) for a financial deputyship order. This allows them to manage the young person’s adult ISA or matured CTF account or take out money on their behalf once they turn 18. Responsibility for the process and legislation relating to mental capacity rests with the Ministry of Justice and devolved administrations.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, If he will publish the findings of his Department's review of the issuing of a special licence to Yevgeny Prigozhin by the Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
HM Treasury does not comment on specific licensing cases.
HM Treasury’s Office for Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) takes operational decisions relating to the implementation of financial sanctions in line with the relevant regulations. However, OFSI has not considered it appropriate for the Treasury to effectively decide on whether a case has sufficient merit to be permitted to proceed by deciding whether to license legal fees. Rather, OFSI's position has been that the merits should be decided by the appropriate court. OFSI assesses cases on a costs-basis only, ensuring that the fees requested are reasonable in accordance with the derogations available under the sanctions regimes.
We need to carefully balance the right to legal representation - which is a fundamental one - with wider issues, including the aim and purpose of the sanctions. It is right therefore that HM Treasury are examining whether there are any changes that can be made to this policy. We will update the House in due course.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many VAT de-registrations there were by VAT quarter between 2015 and 2022.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
VAT de-registrations statistics can be found in the publication HMRC Value Added Tax (VAT) annual statistics, in Table 2 of the publication tables.
A summary is provided below showing the total number of VAT de-registrations from January 2015 to September 2021 by calendar year and quarter.
Number of VAT de-registrations by year and quarter | |||||||
Year | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
Q1 | 48,699 | 50,189 | 71,520 | 55,291 | 76,011 | 58,292 | 49,981 |
Q2 | 47,382 | 52,611 | 88,656 | 57,100 | 66,985 | 46,448 | 67,695 |
Q3 | 45,446 | 50,158 | 58,727 | 44,619 | 56,392 | 49,875 | 49,901 |
Q4 | 46,744 | 48,109 | 50,381 | 59,842 | 57,322 | 48,104 | N/A |
| |||||||
Total | 188,271 | 201,067 | 269,284 | 216,852 | 256,710 | 202,719 | N/A |
The latest published de-registration statistics in the HMRC VAT annual statistics publication provide figures up to the month of September 2021.
There will be an update to these statistics as part of the next HMRC VAT annual statistics publication which has been announced for release on 24 January 2023 and this publication will provide more up to date figures.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many VAT de-registrations took place in VAT quarter (a) one, (b) two and (c) three of 2022.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The number of successful VAT de-registrations for the first three quarters of 2022 is set out in the table below.
Year | 2022 |
Q1 | 77095 |
Q2 | 70990 |
Q3 | 64672 |
Total | 212757 |
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many VAT de-registrations took place by VAT quarter in (a) 2015, (b) 2016, (c) 2017, (d) 2018, (e) 2019, (f) 2020 and (g) 2021.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The data requested is set out in the table below.
Number of Successful De-registrations made In Year | ||||||
Year | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
Q1 | n/a | 72822 | 54464 | 70579 | 56791 | 50266 |
Q2 | 46143 | 84380 | 56799 | 65662 | 45308 | 67064 |
Q3 | 47068 | 56394 | 45351 | 49609 | 49972 | 49528 |
Q4 | 45252 | 49026 | 60750 | 53155 | 48193 | 52167 |
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Total | 138463 | 262622 | 217364 | 239005 | 200264 | 219025 |