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1306848

registered interest
date	13/04/2021
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Sanitary Products: VAT
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the effect on women's income of excluding reusable sanitary underwear from the new zero rate of VAT.
tabling member constituency	Wrexham
tabling member printed	Sarah Atherton
uin	178541
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/04/2021 answer text <p>A zero rate of VAT has applied to women’s sanitary products since 1 January 2021. This applies to those products which were previously subject to the reduced rate of 5 per cent, for example, tampons and pads, and to reusable menstrual products, such as keepers.</p><p> </p><p>The relief specifically excludes articles of clothing, such as “period pants”. Such exclusions are designed to ensure that the relief is properly targeted, since difficulties in policing the scope of the relief create the potential for litigation, erosion of the tax base and a reduction in revenue. Under existing rules “period pants” may already qualify for the zero rate, if they have been specifically designed to be worn by a child, meet the sizing criteria, and are held out for sale specifically for use by girls under the age of 14 years old.</p><p> </p><p>Details are provided in VAT Notice 714: zero-rating young children's clothing and footwear: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-notice-714-zero-rating-young-childrens-clothing-and-footwear/vat-notice-714-zero-rating-young-childrens-clothing-and-footwear#items-suitable-only-for-young-children" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-notice-714-zero-rating-young-childrens-clothing-and-footwear/vat-notice-714-zero-rating-young-childrens-clothing-and-footwear#items-suitable-only-for-young-children</a>.</p><p> </p><p>The Treasury, along with other relevant departments, carefully considers the impact of its decisions on those sharing protected characteristics, including at Budgets and other fiscal events, in line with both its legal obligations and with its commitment to promoting fairness.</p> answering member constituency Hereford and South Herefordshire answering member printed Jesse Norman question first answered 20/04/2021 15:03:53 answering member 3991 label Biography information for Jesse Norman
tabling member	4855 label Biography information for Sarah Atherton

1306914

registered interest
date	12/04/2021
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Betindex: Excise Duties
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many times HMRC confirmed with Betindex that they were able to meet their Betting Duty liabilities between 1 January 2020 and 1 March 2021.
tabling member constituency	Belfast South
tabling member printed	Claire Hanna
uin	178552
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/04/2021 answer text <p>HMRC treats information about any exchanges it has with individual customers as private and confidential. HMRC is unable to answer the question because to do so would breach this strict principle</p> answering member constituency Saffron Walden answering member printed Kemi Badenoch question first answered 15/04/2021 15:59:15 answering member 4597 label Biography information for Kemi Badenoch
tabling member	4827 label Biography information for Claire Hanna

1306936

registered interest
date	12/04/2021
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Empty Property: Business Rates
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 extending empty property business rates relief on properties that remain empty due to the covid-19 outbreak.
tabling member constituency	Battersea
tabling member printed	Marsha De Cordova
uin	178591
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/04/2021 answer text <p>The Government maintains an Empty Property Relief (EPR) to support property owners ahead of the reoccupation of vacated premises.</p><p> </p><p>Under EPR, owners of retail properties do not normally have to pay business rates on newly vacated buildings for three months.</p><p> </p><p>The Budget announced a three-month extension to the business rates holiday for eligible businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors that was provided at Budget 2020. From 1 July 2021, 66% relief will be available subject to a cash cap that depends on whether businesses have been required to close or were able to open.</p><p> </p><p>Properties which have closed temporarily due to the Government’s advice on COVID-19 should be treated as occupied for the purposes of the business rates holiday for retail, hospitality and leisure properties.</p> answering member constituency Hereford and South Herefordshire answering member printed Jesse Norman question first answered 20/04/2021 13:57:44 answering member 3991 label Biography information for Jesse Norman
tabling member	4676 label Biography information for Marsha De Cordova

1306937

registered interest
date	12/04/2021
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	UK Trade with EU: VAT
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 effect on small businesses of VAT charges on goods imported from the EU.
tabling member constituency	Battersea
tabling member printed	Marsha De Cordova
uin	178593
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/04/2021 answer text <p>Any businesses, including small businesses, that are registered for UK VAT have the ability to reclaim VAT charged on goods imported from the EU on their VAT return.</p><p> </p><p>As with all tax measures, where new changes have been introduced, the Government includes its assessment of the impacts of the changes in Tax Information and Impact Notes. Notes for measures recently legislated for in the Taxation (Post-transition Period) Act were published alongside that legislation.</p> answering member constituency Hereford and South Herefordshire answering member printed Jesse Norman question first answered 20/04/2021 13:58:46 answering member 3991 label Biography information for Jesse Norman
tabling member	4676 label Biography information for Marsha De Cordova

1306942

registered interest
date	12/04/2021
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Fringe Benefits: Taxation
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans he has in 2021 to publish benefit in kind tax rates beyond the financial year 2024-25.
tabling member constituency	Nottingham South
tabling member printed	Lilian Greenwood
uin	178602
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/04/2021 answer text <p>Company car tax appropriate percentages beyond 2024-25 remain under review and will be announced at future fiscal events. The Government aims to announce appropriate percentages at least two years ahead of implementation to provide certainty for employers, employees and fleet operators.</p> answering member constituency Saffron Walden answering member printed Kemi Badenoch question first answered 15/04/2021 14:46:40 answering member 4597 label Biography information for Kemi Badenoch
tabling member	4029 label Biography information for Lilian Greenwood

1306945

registered interest
date	12/04/2021
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Capital Gains Tax
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the evidential basis was for not raising the Capital Gains Tax in line with Income Tax as part of Budget 2021.
tabling member constituency	Coventry South
tabling member printed	Zarah Sultana
uin	178615
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 15/04/2021 answer text <p>The Government keeps all taxes under review, and any changes are made at fiscal events within the context of wider public finances. As demonstrated in last month’s Budget, the Government’s priority is supporting jobs and the economic recovery from the pandemic.</p><p> </p><p>Any changes to the tax system will balance the need to raise revenue with the principles of fairness and market efficiency.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency Hereford and South Herefordshire answering member printed Jesse Norman question first answered 15/04/2021 14:35:28 answering member 3991 label Biography information for Jesse Norman
tabling member	4786 label Biography information for Zarah Sultana

1306864

registered interest
date	31/03/2021
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Self-employment Income Support Scheme
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of bringing forward the fourth grant payment for Self-Employment Income Support Scheme from the current scheduled date.
tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Ladywood
tabling member printed	Shabana Mahmood
uin	178567
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 20/04/2021 answer text <p>The Government announced at Budget 2021 that the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) will continue until September, with a fourth and a final fifth grant.</p><p> </p><p>The Government also announced a major improvement in access to the self-employed scheme. As the deadline for 2019-20 tax returns has now passed, HMRC will use these tax returns for the fourth and fifth grants, provided they were submitted by 2 March. This means that 600,000 people, many of whom became self-employed in 2019-20, may now be able to claim the fourth and fifth grants, bringing the total number of people who could be eligible to 3.7 million.</p><p> </p><p>Using these returns requires time to deliver due to the increased population and new data. In order to allow HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) time to process 2019-20 tax returns it has not been possible to invite applications or open the claims service earlier.</p><p> </p><p>HMRC will open the online claims service for the fourth SEISS grant from late April 2021 and expect to notify potentially eligible people of their personal claim date from mid-April.</p><p> </p><p>Guidance on how to claim the fourth grant is now available online: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-a-grant-through-the-coronavirus-covid-19-self-employment-income-support-scheme" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-a-grant-through-the-coronavirus-covid-19-self-employment-income-support-scheme</a>.</p><p>The SEISS is just one part of a wider package of support for the self-employed, which includes automatic, self-serve time-to-pay arrangements, loans, welfare support, and other business support grants.</p> answering member constituency Hereford and South Herefordshire answering member printed Jesse Norman grouped question UIN 178690 179074 question first answered 20/04/2021 14:13:39 answering member 3991 label Biography information for Jesse Norman
tabling member	3914 label Biography information for Shabana Mahmood

1306211

registered interest
date	25/03/2021
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Public Sector Debt: China
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much and what proportion of the UK's national debt is owed to Chinese financial institutions.
tabling member constituency	Strangford
tabling member printed	Jim Shannon
uin	175848
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/04/2021 answer text <p>Most of the Government’s debt is in the form of publicly traded bonds (‘gilts’). The most recent data release by the Office for National Statistics indicates that, at the end of 2020, overseas investors held £708 billion of gilts, a minority of the total stock of outstanding gilts (28%). These data are not broken down by country.</p> answering member constituency Salisbury answering member printed John Glen question first answered 19/04/2021 08:47:01 answering member 4051 label Biography information for John Glen
tabling member	4131 label Biography information for Jim Shannon

1306236

registered interest
date	25/03/2021
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Personal Income: 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 (a) average household incomes and (b) trends in the level of mean household disposable income in (i) Coventry North East constituency, (ii) Coventry, (iii) the West Midlands and (iv) England.
tabling member constituency	Coventry North East
tabling member printed	Colleen Fletcher
uin	175890
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/04/2021 answer text <p>The Government continues to monitor and publish trends in households’ circumstances across the UK. The Household Below Average Income (HBAI) publication looks at household incomes in the UK, but the latest available figures only cover up to the financial year 2019/20 and so do not measure the time period in which COVID-19 has had an impact.</p><p> </p><p>The Office for National Statistics (ONS) also produce estimates of household income for the whole of the UK. Whilst the latest data published is not broken down by region, it indicates that for the UK as a whole, real household disposable income in 2020 Q4 was 0.7% higher than the same quarter in 2019.</p><p> </p><p>However, throughout the pandemic, the Government has sought to protect people’s jobs and livelihoods across the UK, including in the Coventry North East constituency, Coventry, the West Midlands and England. This includes unprecedented measures such as the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) and the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS).</p><p> </p><p>For the latest HMRC statistics on the use of the CJRS, see the table below (from published HMRC figures found at <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/coronavirus-job-retention-scheme-statistics-march-2021" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/coronavirus-job-retention-scheme-statistics-march-2021</a> ):</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p>Cumulative number of employments furloughed since March 2020 (based on claims made by 15 March 2021)</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Coventry North East</p></td><td><p>20,600</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Coventry</p></td><td><p>56,600</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>West Midlands</p></td><td><p>999,600</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>England</p></td><td><p>9,419,400</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>For the latest figures on the use of the SEISS, see the table below (from published HMRC figures found at <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/self-employment-income-support-scheme-statistics-february-2021" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/self-employment-income-support-scheme-statistics-february-2021</a> ):</p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p> </p></td><td><p>Number of SEISS 1 claims made up to 31 January 2021</p></td><td><p>Number of SEISS 2 claims made up to 31 January 2021</p></td><td><p>Number of SEISS 3 claims made up to 31 January 2021</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Coventry North East</p></td><td><p>4,000</p></td><td><p>3,600</p></td><td><p>3,400</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Coventry</p></td><td><p>10,100</p></td><td><p>9,300</p></td><td><p>8,700</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>West Midlands</p></td><td><p>202,000</p></td><td><p>182,000</p></td><td><p>170,000</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>England</p></td><td><p>2,254,000</p></td><td><p>2,034,000</p></td><td><p>1,903,000</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p>Lastly, to illustrate the challenges faced by households during COVID-19, and how government interventions have supported households of different income levels, HM Treasury published distributional analysis alongside the Budget 2021 showing estimates of the change in household net incomes between February and November 2020. This can be found here: <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/966207/DA_Document_Budget_2021.pdf" target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/966207/DA_Document_Budget_2021.pdf</a></p> answering member constituency Salisbury answering member printed John Glen question first answered 13/04/2021 12:59:46 answering member 4051 label Biography information for John Glen
tabling member	4378 label Biography information for Colleen Fletcher

1306338

registered interest
date	25/03/2021
answering body	Treasury
answering dept id	14
answering dept short name	Treasury
answering dept sort name	Treasury
hansard heading	Retail Trade: VAT
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans he has to review the effect of changes to VAT-free shopping on jobs across different sectors and parts of the country.
tabling member constituency	Ealing Central and Acton
tabling member printed	Dr Rupa Huq
uin	175951
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 13/04/2021 answer text <p>On 11 September 2020, the Government announced the VAT and excise duty treatment of goods purchased by individuals for personal use and carried in their luggage arriving from or going overseas (passengers) following the transition period. The following rules were implemented on 1 January 2021:</p><p>- Passengers travelling from Great Britain to any destination outside the United Kingdom (UK) can purchase duty-free excise goods once they have passed security controls at ports, airports, and international rail stations.</p><p>- Personal allowances apply to passengers entering Great Britain from any destination outside of the UK, with alcohol allowances significantly increased.</p><p>- The VAT Retail Export Scheme (RES) in Great Britain has not been extended to EU residents and has been withdrawn for all passengers.</p><p>- The concessionary treatment on tax-free sales for non-excise goods has been removed across the UK.</p><p> </p><p>The Government published a consultation which ran from 11 March to 20 May 2020. During this time the Government held a number of virtual meetings with industry stakeholders to hear their views and received 73 responses to the consultation. The Government has also met and discussed these changes with many stakeholders following the announcement of these policies.</p><p> </p><p>The detailed rationale for these changes are included in the written ministerial statement and summary of responses to the recent consultation: <a href="https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2020-09-11/hcws448" target="_blank">https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2020-09-11/hcws448</a> and <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/a-consultation-on-duty-free-and-tax-free-goods-carried-by-passengers" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/a-consultation-on-duty-free-and-tax-free-goods-carried-by-passengers</a>. A technical note has also been issued to stakeholders to expand on this document and to respond to issues raised by stakeholders.</p><p> </p><p>On 25 November 2020 the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) set out their assessment of the fiscal impact of the withdrawal of the VAT RES.</p><p> </p><p>Factoring in a higher-than-usual elasticity of 1.9 to account for spending on luxury goods, the OBR estimate that the withdrawal of the VAT RES will result in a significant direct Exchequer saving of around £400 million per year, once passenger numbers recover from the impacts of Covid-19. Based on the 1.2 million users of the scheme who received a refund in 2019, this includes an assumption that approximately 20,000 – 30,000 fewer tourists visit Great Britain a year. That is 0.07% of the 40 million visitors to the UK in 2019.</p><p> </p><p>The OBR also looked at this package in the round when assessing the indirect impact on the economy – including the effects of extending duty-free sales – alongside the substantial support provided to the economy and retail industry.</p> answering member constituency Saffron Walden answering member printed Kemi Badenoch question first answered 13/04/2021 07:23:35 answering member 4597 label Biography information for Kemi Badenoch
tabling member	4511 label Biography information for Dr Rupa Huq