Treasury<p>The Government publishes details of Ministerial travel on GOV.UK. As has been the case under successive administrations, the Government does not publish granular detail on Ministers' travel either at home or abroad.</p>Grantham and StamfordGareth Davies2024-03-28false2024-03-28T11:31:59.29Z14TreasuryTreasury2024-03-22Treasury: Visits Abroad1House of CommonsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to his Department's publication entitled HMT ministers’ overseas travel, published on 21 March 2024, how much of the £15,991 spent on his visit to the USA from 20 to 22 October 2023 was spent on air travel.falseWashington and Sunderland WestMrs Sharon Hodgson20032Treasury<p>In the 2019 Independent Loan Charge Review, Lord Morse recommended that the Loan Charge should only apply to loans made on or after 9 December 2010. The Government accepted this recommendation.</p><p> </p><p>Lord Morse was also clear that, for years before this date, where there is an open enquiry or assessment under appeal, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) should still have the ability to pursue the tax due under the existing rules. HMRC has proceeded on this basis and it is its policy to collect tax where it has the ability to do so.</p><p> </p><p>As part of its overall compliance processes and its commitment to update taxpayers at least annually, all of these taxpayers should have received correspondence from HMRC in the last 12 months.</p><p> </p><p>When HMRC opens an enquiry, the information sheet provided includes information about a taxpayer’s right to apply to the First Tier Tribunal for the enquiry to be closed. One of the grounds for making such an application is where there has been an excessive delay during which a taxpayer has not received any communication from HMRC.</p>Mid WorcestershireNigel Huddleston2024-03-28false2024-03-28T13:40:28.597Z14TreasuryTreasury2024-03-22Tax Avoidance1House of CommonsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 21 March 2024 to Question 19192 on Tax Avoidance, whether it is his Department's policy to cease recovery of any liabilities incurred before December 2010 in cases where a taxpayer has not received an update for a period of 12 months or more from the initial date of an open enquiry or assessment.falseSt AlbansDaisy Cooper20111Treasury<p>The Government’s Mortgage Charter - in addition to the significant safeguards already in place - is providing support to vulnerable households, and mortgage arrears and repossessions remain low.</p><p> </p><p>On 22 March the Financial Conduct Authority published data on the uptake of the Mortgage Charter since July 2023. (https://www.fca.org.uk/data/mortgage-charter-uptake).</p><p> </p><p>More broadly, there is a wide variety of data and statistics about the mortgage market in the UK available from the Bank of England (https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/statistics), the Financial Conduct Authority (https://www.fca.org.uk/data) and UK Finance (https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/data-and-research/data).</p><p> </p>Hitchin and HarpendenBim Afolami2024-03-2820114false2024-03-28T09:03:56.433Z14TreasuryTreasury2024-03-22Mortgages1House of CommonsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what information his Department holds on the number of (a) mortgage term extensions, (b) interest-only payment switches and (c) repossessions in relation to a mortgaged property since the publication of the Mortgage Charter on 26 June 2023.falseCynon ValleyBeth Winter20113Treasury<p>The Government’s Mortgage Charter - in addition to the significant safeguards already in place - is providing support to vulnerable households, and mortgage arrears and repossessions remain low.</p><p> </p><p>On 22 March the Financial Conduct Authority published data on the uptake of the Mortgage Charter since July 2023. (https://www.fca.org.uk/data/mortgage-charter-uptake).</p><p> </p><p>More broadly, there is a wide variety of data and statistics about the mortgage market in the UK available from the Bank of England (https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/statistics), the Financial Conduct Authority (https://www.fca.org.uk/data) and UK Finance (https://www.ukfinance.org.uk/data-and-research/data).</p><p> </p>Hitchin and HarpendenBim Afolami2024-03-2820113false2024-03-28T09:03:57.527Z14TreasuryTreasury2024-03-22Mortgages1House of CommonsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made a recent assessment of the potential impact of the Mortgage Charter on levels of (a) forbearance, (b) arrears and (c) repossessions.falseCynon ValleyBeth Winter20114Treasury<p>The calculations underlying this statistic were based on public information available on the 29 September 2023, including quarterly GDP data published by the Office for National Statistics for the UK and OECD data for the remaining G7 European economies.</p><p> </p><p>The data showed that cumulative GDP growth in the UK from the beginning of 2010 (change on 2009 Q4) through to 2023 Q2 of 24.2% was greater than that of France (16.4%), Italy (3.5%) and Germany (21.2%).</p>Hitchin and HarpendenBim Afolami2024-03-28false2024-03-28T09:07:53.29Z14TreasuryTreasury2024-03-22Economic Growth1House of CommonsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the evidential basis is for his Department's tweet of 29 September 2023 that the UK was the fastest growing European G7 country since 2010.falseEast DevonSimon Jupp20116Treasury<p>The Government is committed to rewarding hard work through a fair and simple tax system that is also competitive internationally. The Government is taking a responsible approach by delivering tax cuts within the fiscal rules.</p><p>The tweet of 6 January 2024 was based on the most recently published data from the <a href="https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/8c99fa4d-en/1/3/1/3/index.html?itemId=/content/publication/8c99fa4d-en&_csp_=f4d3c57328afb7f1cbd530cb119213be&itemIGO=oecd&itemContentType=book" target="_blank">OECD’s Taxing Wages 2023</a> publication. This shows the total personal tax liability divided by salary for a single employed individual with no children on average earnings for Germany (37.4%), Italy (28.8%), France (27.7%), Canada (25.6%), the US (24.8%) and Japan (22.3%). Following the 2p NICs cut made at Autumn Statement, the effective personal tax rate for an employee on £44,300 (the OECD’s figure for UK average earnings) reduced from 23.6% to 21.5%, which would be the lowest rate in the G7, according to the latest available OECD data. This has fallen to 20.1% following the further 2p NICs cut made at Spring Budget.</p><p> </p><p> </p>Mid WorcestershireNigel Huddleston2024-03-27false2024-03-27T15:49:37.053Z14TreasuryTreasury2024-03-22Income Tax: G71House of CommonsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the evidential basis is for his Department's tweet of 6 January 2024 that the UK had the lowest effective average personal tax rate in the G7; and what the effective average personal tax rate is in each G7 country.falseEast DevonSimon Jupp20117Treasury<p>The Government is committed to supporting those with disabilities who may struggle to access physical books and therefore rely more heavily on audiobooks. In line with its statutory obligations under the Equality Act, the Government carefully considers the impact of VAT policy on those with disabilities.</p><p> </p><p>However, there is never any guarantee that any VAT cut is passed onto consumers. It is therefore not clear that cutting the VAT on audiobooks would actually benefit consumers, including those with disabilities.</p><p> </p><p>Given this, the government does not currently have any plans to change the VAT treatment of audiobooks.</p>Mid WorcestershireNigel Huddleston2024-03-2820034false2024-03-28T13:38:55.07Z14TreasuryTreasury2024-03-22Audiobooks: VAT1House of CommonsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of charging VAT on (a) academic and (b) other educational audiobooks on access to education for people with (i) dyslexia, (ii) sight loss and (iii) impairment who cannot hold books.falseHemel HempsteadSir Mike Penning20033Treasury<p>The Government is committed to supporting those with disabilities who may struggle to access physical books and therefore rely more heavily on audiobooks. In line with its statutory obligations under the Equality Act, the Government carefully considers the impact of VAT policy on those with disabilities.</p><p> </p><p>However, there is never any guarantee that any VAT cut is passed onto consumers. It is therefore not clear that cutting the VAT on audiobooks would actually benefit consumers, including those with disabilities.</p><p> </p><p>Given this, the government does not currently have any plans to change the VAT treatment of audiobooks.</p>Mid WorcestershireNigel Huddleston2024-03-2820033false2024-03-28T13:38:55.13Z14TreasuryTreasury2024-03-22Audiobooks: VAT1House of CommonsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made representations to the Minister for Women and Equalities in support of a 0% VAT rate on audiobooks to prevent discrimination against people with (a) dyslexia, (b) sight (i) loss and (ii) impairment and (c) disabilities preventing them from holding a physical book.falseHemel HempsteadSir Mike Penning20034Treasury<p>The Government has no plans to publish a report on the impact of the Consumer Duty.</p><p> </p><p>The Consumer Duty was introduced by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which is operationally independent from Government and is directly accountable to Parliament for how it carries out its functions. The FCA has committed to monitoring the outcomes experienced by different consumer groups, including those in vulnerable circumstances, to check they are not being disadvantaged as a result of the Duty. It also publishes information about the implementation of the Consumer Duty by firms, including examples of good practice and areas for improvement, on its website: https://www.fca.org.uk/firms/consumer-duty</p><p> </p><p>The Financial Services and Markets Act 2023 introduced a new requirement on the financial services regulators to keep their rules under review, and to publish a statement of policy for how they conduct rule reviews. The FCA’s rule review framework can be found at: <a href="https://www.fca.org.uk/publications/corporate-documents/our-rule-review-framework" target="_blank">https://www.fca.org.uk/publications/corporate-documents/our-rule-review-framework</a>.</p><p> </p>Hitchin and HarpendenBim Afolami2024-03-26false2024-03-26T15:42:29.717Z14TreasuryTreasury2024-03-21Financial Services: Standards1House of CommonsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he plans to publish a report on the impact of Consumer Duty on consumer contact with financial services firms in the 12 months since it's establishment.falseEast LondonderryMr Gregory Campbell19809Treasury<p>Payments are essential to the UK’s economy, both for individuals and for businesses, and are a cornerstone of growth and competitiveness. The government is committed to maintaining the UK’s reputation for a world-leading payments ecosystem and will publish the National Payments Vision as soon as possible later this year.</p><p> </p>Hitchin and HarpendenBim Afolami2024-03-281983619837false2024-03-28T09:06:13.51Z14TreasuryTreasury2024-03-21Payment Methods1House of CommonsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he plans to publish the National Payments Vision.falseWindsorAdam Afriyie19835100131012