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1172282

registered interest
date	21/01/2020
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Revenue and Customs: Staff
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the staffing complement is of the HMRC national minimum wage compliance unit; and how many posts in that unit were unfilled as of 20 January 2020.
tabling member constituency	Glasgow South West
tabling member printed	Chris Stephens
uin	6165
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/01/2020 answer text <p>The Government is determined that everyone who is entitled to the National Minimum Wage (NMW) receives it.</p><p> </p><p>HMRC investigate every complaint they receive from workers, and also carry out a number of targeted, risk-based investigations to tackle new and emerging threats.</p><p> </p><p>If anyone thinks they are not receiving at least the minimum wage, they can contact Acas, in confidence, on 0300 123 1100 or submit a query online using the link <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pay-and-work-rights-complaints" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pay-and-work-rights-complaints</a></p><p> </p><p>Based on the most recent available data, as at 30 December 2019 the HMRC National Minimum Wage Compliance Unit had 447 staff in post and 47 vacancies.</p><p> </p><p>In addition, staff across HMRC contribute to enforcing the NMW: these include lawyers, technical advisers, and those specialising in criminal investigations.</p> answering member constituency Hereford and South Herefordshire answering member printed Jesse Norman question first answered 27/01/2020 14:27:03 answering member 3991 label Biography information for Jesse Norman
tabling member	4463 label Biography information for Chris Stephens

1176006

registered interest
date	04/02/2020
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Infrastructure: Finance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the timetable is for the publication of the National Infrastructure Strategy.
tabling member constituency	Barnsley Central
tabling member printed	Dan Jarvis
uin	12270
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/02/2020 answer text <p>The Government will be publishing the National Infrastructure Strategy alongside the Budget on 11 March.</p><p> </p><p>The Strategy will set out further details of the Government’s plan to increase investment to transform the UK’s infrastructure; and respond to the recommendations made by the National Infrastructure Commission in the National Infrastructure Assessment.</p> answering member constituency Hereford and South Herefordshire answering member printed Jesse Norman question first answered 10/02/2020 11:21:28 answering member 3991 label Biography information for Jesse Norman
tabling member	4243 label Biography information for Dan Jarvis

1185880

registered interest
date	17/03/2020
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Self-employed: Coronavirus
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a tax holiday to defer payments from self-employed people ahead of the July deadline.
tabling member constituency	Ilford North
tabling member printed	Wes Streeting
uin	30891
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/03/2020 answer text <p>The Government has announced an unprecedented package of support for businesses and individuals affected by Covid-19, and remains committed to doing whatever it takes to support the economy as necessary.</p><p> </p><p>UK VAT registered businesses, including charities, can defer VAT payments due with their VAT returns between now and the end of June. No UK VAT registered business will have to make a VAT payment alongside their VAT return to HMRC in that period. They will have until the end of the financial year to repay.</p><p> </p><p>The Government will also give all eligible retail, hospitality and leisure businesses in England a 100% business rates holiday for the next 12 months. The Government also extended the support available to individuals and businesses, including a package of government-backed and guaranteed loans, which make available an initial £330 billion of guarantees – equivalent to 15% of GDP.</p><p> </p><p>For Income Tax Self-Assessment, payments due on the 31st of July 2020 will be deferred until the 31st of January 2021.</p><p> </p><p>Under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, employers (including charities) can put workers on temporary leave and the government will pay them cash grants of 80% of their wages up to a cap of £2,500 a month, providing they keep the worker employed. They will receive the grant from HMRC, covering the cost of wages backdated to 1 March 2020.</p><p> </p><p>Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) will be available for those unable to work because they are self-isolating in line with government advice; this is on top of the Prime Minister’s announcement that SSP will be payable from day 1 instead of day 4 for affected individuals. Support will be available through Universal Credit and Contributory Employment and Support Allowance for those not eligible for SSP.</p><p> </p><p>HMRC have scaled up their Time to Pay offer to all taxpayers, including charities, who are in temporary financial distress as a result of Covid-19 and have outstanding tax liabilities. Taxpayers can contact HMRC’s dedicated Covid-19 helpline to get practical help and advice on 0800 0159 559.</p><p> </p><p>The Chancellor will continue to review and make further announcements as events unfold if required.</p> answering member constituency Hereford and South Herefordshire answering member printed Jesse Norman grouped question UIN 30678 30719 30744 30831 31652 32287 question first answered 23/03/2020 17:28:46 answering member 3991 label Biography information for Jesse Norman
tabling member	4504 label Biography information for Wes Streeting

1189017

registered interest
date	21/04/2020
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of people who have been furloughed under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme being able to continue to work on critical elements of their employers' operations not related to income generation or trading; and when he plans to respond to the letter dated 31 March 2020 from the hon. Member for Edinburgh East on that subject.
tabling member constituency	Edinburgh East
tabling member printed	Tommy Sheppard
uin	38566
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/04/2020 answer text The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is designed to help those who otherwise would have been made unemployed and to provide support to businesses as quickly as possible. Allowing employers to move staff to part-time and claim the difference would be contrary to the policy goal and substantially increase the risk of fraud. It is also inconsistent with public health guidance for people to stay at home. However, there is flexibility in the scheme as employers can decide how many staff to furlough, and staff can be furloughed multiple times while the scheme is in operation, provided they are furloughed for a minimum of 3 weeks.<p> </p>The Honourable Member will appreciate that at this unprecedented time the Government is receiving very significant volumes of correspondence. HM Treasury officials are working to ensure that all Honourable Members receive a reply to correspondence as soon as possible.<p> </p> answering member constituency Hereford and South Herefordshire answering member printed Jesse Norman question first answered 27/04/2020 08:22:54 answering member 3991 label Biography information for Jesse Norman
tabling member	4453 label Biography information for Tommy Sheppard

1190754

registered interest
date	27/04/2020
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Revenue and Customs: Remote Working
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what reason HMRC is not rolling out telephony homeworking first to employees already working from home; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Glasgow South West
tabling member printed	Chris Stephens
uin	40674
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/05/2020 answer text <p>HMRC’s frontline teams of key workers are doing a very important job to support the UK; protecting people’s livelihoods, keeping cash in businesses, helping people to stay employed and supporting families.</p><p> </p><p>The safety of their staff is HMRC’s top priority. Staff who do not need to be in the office are working from home, and HMRC are following public health advice to keep their offices safe where services cannot be delivered from home.</p><p> </p><p>HMRC took steps quickly to enable as many colleagues as possible to work from home at this time, expanding their remote working network, moving work around, and training hundreds of their customer advisers on webchat, which can be worked on from home. This means that about 75% of HMRC’s people are working at home.</p><p> </p><p>Working telephony at home has been largely untested and presents potential risks that need to be managed carefully. In March, HMRC started a small-scale trial to look at this, and to understand in detail aspects like the experience and wellbeing of colleagues doing it, the customer experience, how secure and suitable home environments are for this type of work, and what extra equipment and network capacity would be needed.</p><p> </p><p>HMRC’s original plan was to evaluate their initial small-scale trial of home telephony before looking at next steps. However, as HMRC prepared for a large surge in customer calls for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), HMRC decided that there was an opportunity to push the home telephony trial further and faster than planned. HMRC have now expanded the home telephony testing to about 7,000 colleagues, supporting CJRS and some of their business as usual lines.</p><p> </p><p>The findings from this trial will help HMRC to understand how far they can increase the number of roles that can be done from home at any one time.</p><p> </p><p>HMRC remain focused on and committed to keeping their people safe, whether in an office or at home, while also protecting their vital services to taxpayers.</p> answering member constituency Hereford and South Herefordshire answering member printed Jesse Norman question first answered 04/05/2020 15:38:59 answering member 3991 label Biography information for Jesse Norman
tabling member	4463 label Biography information for Chris Stephens

1190757

registered interest
date	27/04/2020
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Revenue and Customs: Repairs and Maintenance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in which HMRC Regional Centre has construction work continued since the 17 March 2020; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Glasgow South West
tabling member printed	Chris Stephens
uin	40675
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/05/2020 answer text <p>Construction or fit out work currently continues at HMRC’s Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham, Cardiff, Birmingham and Stratford construction sites, in line with the guidance issued to employers and businesses on COVID-19 from the UK Government.</p><p> </p><p>HMRC are working with contractors across all UK sites to ensure that where work is continuing they are working diligently in line with the Safe Operating Procedures as issued by the Construction Leadership Council, in conjunction with BuildUK.</p><p> </p><p>All sites listed have been assessed in relation to Government guidelines in response to COVID-19, and procedures put in place. This meant that work was suspended initially at most sites. Where work continues, it does so under close management, and the strict controls are regularly reviewed to ensure social distancing on site. Controls in place include a cap on the number of people allowed on site, introduction of one-way systems, use of stairs not lifts, and staggered break times.</p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p> answering member constituency Hereford and South Herefordshire answering member printed Jesse Norman question first answered 04/05/2020 15:28:11 answering member 3991 label Biography information for Jesse Norman
tabling member	4463 label Biography information for Chris Stephens

1190758

registered interest
date	27/04/2020
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Revenue and Customs: Staff
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the amount of additional (a) staff and (b) labour required by HMRC to enable that organisation to implement the (i) Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme and (ii) Self-employment Income Scheme; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Glasgow South West
tabling member printed	Chris Stephens
uin	40676
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 04/05/2020 answer text <p>HMRC have implemented the CJRS scheme with the resources already within HMRC. HMRC are determining the number required for the SEISS, but that will come from existing HMRC resource.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Hereford and South Herefordshire answering member printed Jesse Norman question first answered 04/05/2020 15:31:30 answering member 3991 label Biography information for Jesse Norman
tabling member	4463 label Biography information for Chris Stephens

1193240

registered interest
date	05/05/2020
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme: Directors
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will amend the Treasury Direction in relation to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to enable directors who have furloughed themselves to undertake action beyond filing accounts.
tabling member constituency	East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow
tabling member printed	Dr Lisa Cameron
uin	43678
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/05/2020 answer text <p>As noted in the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme guidance, company directors are bound by the Companies Act 2006 to fulfil their statutory duties. The Government aims to ensure that salaried directors can be furloughed and supported through this scheme, while still being able to meet their statutory duties. The guidance is clear that furloughed directors should do no more work than would reasonably be judged necessary to meet their statutory requirements, and that they should not do work of a kind they would carry out in normal circumstances to generate commercial revenue or provide services to or on behalf of their company.</p><p> </p><p>This scheme supplements the other significant support announced for UK businesses, including the Bounce Back Loans Scheme for small businesses, the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, and the deferral of tax payments. More information about the full range of business support measures is available at <a href="http://www.businesssupport.gov.uk/coronavirus-business-support/" target="_blank">www.businesssupport.gov.uk/coronavirus-business-support/</a>.</p> answering member constituency Hereford and South Herefordshire answering member printed Jesse Norman question first answered 15/05/2020 12:19:45 answering member 3991 label Biography information for Jesse Norman
tabling member	4412 label Biography information for Dr Lisa Cameron

1194284

registered interest
date	11/05/2020
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Revenue and Customs: Remote Working
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of permitting HMRC staff to continue working from home after the covid-19 lockdown to minimise (a) redundancies and (b) excessive travel times to Regional Centres.
tabling member constituency	Glasgow South West
tabling member printed	Chris Stephens
uin	45307
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/05/2020 answer text HMRC have been clear that, if staff can move to a regional centre, transitional site or specialist site, and have the skills HMRC need, there will be a role for them. HMRC have a range of policies and support in place, including remote working, to facilitate this. HMRC are providing critical support to the country at this time, and they will seek to sustain any changes to their ways of working that are proven to lead to better outcomes in the long term for the vital public services that they deliver. answering member constituency Hereford and South Herefordshire answering member printed Jesse Norman question first answered 18/05/2020 16:00:09 answering member 3991 label Biography information for Jesse Norman
tabling member	4463 label Biography information for Chris Stephens

1194287

registered interest
date	11/05/2020
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Revenue and Customs: Coronavirus
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on the timeline for HMRC regional centres to come into operation.
tabling member constituency	Glasgow South West
tabling member printed	Chris Stephens
uin	45308
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/05/2020 answer text <p>HMRC recognise that COVID-19 is having an impact on construction and fit-out of their new regional centres, and that this poses a risk to scheduled delivery timescales.</p><p> </p><p>HMRC’s initial planning has been on the basis that construction activity will be delayed by about three months, with a further month to re-mobilise fully. However, delays will vary by location. HMRC are working with developers and contractors to monitor the impact on delivery timelines, and to assess any changes over the coming weeks and months.</p> answering member constituency Hereford and South Herefordshire answering member printed Jesse Norman question first answered 18/05/2020 16:09:11 answering member 3991 label Biography information for Jesse Norman
tabling member	4463 label Biography information for Chris Stephens