Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall and Bloxwich)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make a further assessment of the potential merits of a tax incentive to encourage music production in the UK.
Answered by Lucy Frazer
The Government keeps all tax policy under review and regularly receives proposals for sector-specific tax reliefs. When considering a new tax relief, the Government must ensure it supports businesses in a fair way and that taxpayer money is effectively targeted. A tax relief to encourage music production is not currently under consideration.
Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall and Bloxwich)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what additional support the Government will provide to self-employed peripatetic music teachers who remain unable to work and whose support from the Self-employment income support scheme will reduce to 20 per cent from 1 November 2020.
Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
The Government recognises the impact that the changing path of the virus has had on the self-employed, including those in peripatetic professions, and has taken action to increase the level of support available.
The support given to the self-employed via the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme Grant Extension (SEISS GE) will now be doubled, increasing the amount of profits covered from 20 per cent to 40 per cent. This means the maximum grant available has increased from £1,875 to £3,750. This will provide a further £3.1 billion of support to the self-employed through November to January alone, with a further grant to follow covering February to April. The Government is now providing broadly the same level of support for the self-employed as is being provided to employees through the Job Support Scheme (Open).
For those requiring further assistance, the SEISS continues to be just one element of a comprehensive package of financial support for the self-employed. The Government has temporarily increased the Universal Credit standard allowance for 2020-21 and relaxed the Minimum Income Floor for the duration of the pandemic meaning that where self-employed claimants' earnings have significantly fallen, their Universal Credit award will have increased to reflect their lower earnings. In addition to this, the self-employed also have access to other elements of the package, including Bounce Back loans, tax deferrals, rental support, mortgage holidays, and other business support grants.
Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall and Bloxwich)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has deprioritised any Statutory Instruments in relation to the UK leaving the EU; and if he will publish the criteria his Department uses to deprioritise those Instruments.
Answered by Robert Jenrick
To date HM Treasury and HMRC have laid 54 and 48 EU Exit Statutory Instruments (SIs), and both departments are confident of delivering essential legislation in time for Exit day. Our objective has always been to have a functioning statute book in place by Exit day and to ensure that the most critical secondary legislation was made by this point.
Across the two departments, a small number of SIs will come into force after Exit day; this was planned due to the fact that these SIs make minor technical amendments to earlier EU Exit legislation and were therefore not required to be in place by Exit day.
The laying of EU Exit SIs allows Parliament to fulfil its essential scrutiny role. The exact nature of this scrutiny, and the steps required before an SI completes its passage, is dependent on the type of SI.