Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 4 December 2023 to Question 4137 on Child Trust Fund: Walsall South, what assessment he has made of the reasons for which Child Trust Funds have not been claimed.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
There could be several reasons why matured Child Trust Fund (CTF) accounts have not been accessed by those who are entitled to the funds. The National Audit Office in its report titled Investigation into Child Trust Funds published in March 2023 (www.nao.org.uk/reports/investigation-into-child-trust-funds/) considers some of these.
Primary responsibility for communicating with account holders and their registered contact (usually a parent) lies with the CTF account providers. The government is committed to helping people identify and access the savings they are entitled to and continues to explore new routes to reunite young people with their matured CTFs.
HMRC actively engages with the industry, other government departments, organisations such as the Money and Pensions Service, and youth focused charities to raise awareness of CTFs amongst young people. HMRC also issues a range of communications and provides resources for key intermediaries such as the University and Colleges Admissions Service, who have greater influence and visibility amongst the CTF audience.
Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the number of Child Trust Fund accounts (a) created and (b) claimed by 18-21 year olds in Walsall South constituency.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
Information on Child Trust Funds are available in HMRC’s Annual Savings Statistics. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/annual-savings-statistics-2023
A geographical and age breakdown of the data for open accounts and matured accounts that have been claimed could only be provided at a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department is taking steps to review mileage allowance rates to reflect increases in the cost of (a) living and (b) fuel.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
Approved Mileage Allowance Payments (AMAPs) are used by employers for administrative ease as a means of reimbursing an employee’s expenses for business mileage in their private vehicle.
Like all taxes and allowances, the Government keeps the AMAP rate under review.
Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of (a) lowering the rate of VAT on motor fuel for low paid workers and (b) abolishing fuel duty.
Answered by Alan Mak - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade) (jointly with the Cabinet Office)
The temporary 5p cut to duty on petrol and diesel represents a £2.4 billion tax cut in 2022-23, to help consumers with high fuel prices.
VAT is a broad-based tax on consumption and the 20 per cent standard rate applies to most goods and services. It would cost over £6 billion to cut VAT on road fuel from 20% to 5%.
The Government keeps all taxes under review.
Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made on the potential merits of increasing the reimbursement of business travel in fully electric company cars.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The government introduced the Advisory Electric Rate (AER) in 2018. It applies to employees who use a fully electric vehicle as a company car.
The Advisory Electric Rate (AER) was changed in December 2021 from 4 pence per mile (ppm) to 5ppm. This was calculated using published consumption rates, adjusted to reflect real driving conditions, and the average cost of electricity.
However, employers are not required to use the AER. Instead, they can use different rates to reflect their employee’s circumstances. Provided they show that the bespoke rates do not result in a profit for the employee, there will be no tax to pay. Otherwise, when employers reimburse employees at a higher rate than the published AER (5ppm), the excess is subject to Income Tax and NICs.
The government keeps this policy under review.
Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what support is available to small hospitality businesses affected by rising (a) fuel costs and (b) VAT from 1 April 2022.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The government has prioritised support for SMEs by cutting business rates by 50% for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure businesses, providing a 95% subsidy for apprenticeships, and supporting them to invest and grow by increasing the Annual Investment Allowance to £1 million. The Help to Grow scheme provides eligible SMEs with a 90% subsidy for world class management training and subsidises the cost of new software up to £5,000.
The Spring Statement 2022 went further and cuts the cost of employment for half a million small businesses, by increasing the Employment Allowance from £4,000 to £5,000. This means that from April, 670,000 businesses will not pay NICs and the Health and Social Care Levy. In addition, the main rates of petrol and diesel duty will be cut by 5 pence per litre, the largest cash terms cut that has ever been applied to fuel duty rates at once.
Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall South)
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 - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
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 South)
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
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 South)
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.
Asked by: Valerie Vaz (Labour - Walsall South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much funding his Department has provided to the Landfill Communities Fund in each of the last five years.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The taxpayer-funded, credit element of the Landfill Communities Fund has contributed the following amounts to the fund over the last five years for which full data is available:
2011/12 - £68.7m
2012/13 - £66.1m
2013/14 - £79.6m
2014/15 - £61.7m
2015/16 - £52.3m