Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 9 June 2025 to Question 56135, on Motor Insurance, what recent progress the cross-Government taskforce on motor insurance has made.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The cross-government Motor Insurance Taskforce published its final report in December 2025, setting out actions being taken by government, regulators and industry to help reduce premium costs. Departments and regulators are now taking forward the relevant actions.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made with the Secretary of State for Business and Trade of the adequacy of the accessibility of the Government Gateway for small business owners.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Government Gateway is a service managed and operated by HM Revenue and Customs. HMRC keeps the accessibility of the service under ongoing review in line with statutory requirements for public sector digital services.
While no formal joint assessment has been undertaken with the Department for Business and Trade specifically on the accessibility of Government Gateway for small business owners, HMRC routinely engages with user groups, including small businesses, to identify barriers and improve the service experience.
The latest accessibility statement, updated on 8 April 2024, sets out the current level of compliance, known issues, and planned improvements. It is available here:
https://www.access.service.gov.uk/accessibility
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has had discussions with hospitality businesses on the potential impact of the timeframe for completing rateable evaluations of business that have had their premises renovated on businesses completing such renovations.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Legislation sets the route for ratepayers to notify the Valuation Office Agency of changes, including renovations, through the Check Challenge Appeal service. The timeframe for the VOA to complete reviews is also set out in legislation; for Check cases it is up to 12 months and Challenges up to 18 months, although the VOA aims to respond sooner.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her department has made of the potential impact of (a) business rates, (b) VAT thresholds (c) Employer National Insurance Contributions and (d) other employer costs on non-alcoholic drink price inflation.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Forecasting the economy, including the impact of Government policy decisions on inflation, is the responsibility of the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). The OBR set out its assessment of policy measures in its Autumn Budget 2025 published on the 26th of November. In their assessment, the OBR forecast that inflation had passed its peak and measures taken by the government at Budget will reduce Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation by 0.4 percentage points in 2026-27. This is the biggest near-term reduction in inflation due to Government policy ever forecast by the OBR at a single fiscal event, outside of a crisis, the OBR does not include a separate forecast for non-alcoholic drink price inflation
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether telephone bookmakers will be subject to the increase to Remote Gaming Duty to 40% from 1 April 2026.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Telephone bookmakers will be subject to the new General Betting Duty rate of 25% for remote bets from 1 April 2027. This rate will not include telephone bets placed on UK horseracing, pool bets or spread bets.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of introducing a progressive remote betting duty on small, independent bookmakers.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government launched a consultation on proposals to simplify the current gambling tax system which closed on 21 July 2025. Responses are now being analysed and impacts are being assessed, and the Government will respond at Budget.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of HMRC's Child Benefit verification checks on the timelines of Self Assessment tax repayments.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Child Benefit is a non-means tested benefit payable to families as a contribution towards the cost of raising children. It is claimed through the Child Benefit service, which is separate to Self Assessment, so for the majority of families Child Benefit checks should have no impact on the timelines of Self Assessment tax repayments.
There are no further impacts anticipated.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of (a) delays in HMRC Self Assessment tax repayments and (b) the non-fulfilment of published complaint response timeframes on taxpayers awaiting refunds.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
HMRC recognise that repayments are important for customers. They prioritise them to ensure they are processed as quickly and securely as possible.
HMRC balance the provision of prompt payments to eligible customers with effective revenue protection from fraudsters.
For Self Assessment repayments, once the repayment is created it goes through automated fraud and compliance checks. In 2024-25, after these checks, 93.1% of the repayments were paid automatically within a few days.
HMRC continues to invest in automation and to review their internal processes to ensure repayments are issued as quickly as possible.
HMRC recognise too the importance of keeping the customer, and where appropriate the customer’s representative, informed of progress, and are exploring ways of doing that more effectively.
In the meantime, HMRC’s online ‘Where’s My Reply’ tool can help customers understand when they can expect to receive a response.
HMRC aim to respond to complaints within six weeks.
In 2024-25, HMRC responded to 73% of new complaints within this timeframe. HMRC are committed to prioritising customer experience and are reviewing their complaints processes. The Adjudicator’s Annual Report was published on 20 October 2025 and HMRC are using the insight in the report to make further improvements.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department is taking to help ensure that the Financial Conduct Authority responds in full to complainants against companies it has given permits to operate.
Answered by Lucy Rigby - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The FCA does not generally have a role in relation to managing or intervening with individual complaints between the firms it regulates and their customers.
Under the independent Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA’s) Dispute Resolution Rules, firms that are regulated by the FCA are required to operate complaints handling procedures to deal with complaints promptly and fairly.
Where complaints are not resolved through a firm’s own complaints procedures, the customer can contact the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). The FOS is an independent body established by Parliament to provide consumers with a cost-free and quick route to resolve disputes with financial services firms. Firms are required under the FCA’s rules to co-operate with the FOS and comply promptly with any decision that the FOS may make.
The FCA is directly involved in some types of complaint, for example where a person has information about potential wrongdoing or misconduct, or an individual wants to raise a whistleblowing concern. People who are worried they have been the victim of relevant scams can also make a report to the FCA. While the FCA cannot resolve individual disputes, it can take information provided into account as part of its ongoing supervision of a firm and wider monitoring of practices in the sector. The FCA is required not to disclose confidential information it receives in the course of carrying on its functions, and will not normally be able to discuss this with the person making the complaint due to statutory restrictions on disclosing certain information.
Anyone directly affected by the way in which the FCA has exercised, or failed to exercise, its functions (other than its legislative functions) under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 may also complain about the FCA using the Financial Regulators Complaints Scheme. This would include, for example, complaints about the FCA’s actions supervising a relevant firm. The FCA website gives details of how to make a complaint about the regulators at https://www.fca.org.uk/about/complain-about-regulators
The FCA is fully accountable to Parliament for how it discharges its statutory functions, and there are a range of mechanisms in place to provide accountability and oversight. Treasury Ministers and officials meet regularly with the FCA to discuss a wide range of issues, including its overall performance in furthering its statutory objectives.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the Answer of 22 September 2025 to Question HL10544 on Digital Technology: Taxation, what discussions she has had with her international counterparts on the development of an international approach to taxing digital services.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
International discussions have taken place throughout 2025 and continue at OECD level over the Two-Pillar solution.The UK remains committed to finding a multilateral solution to the challenges that digitalisation has created for the fair allocation of taxing rights over multinational profit.