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  • Ian Mearns – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    Ian Mearns – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Ian Mearns on 2016-03-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if her Department will update the actuarial analysis used for the Risk Protection Arrangement to include the effect of the recent storms in the assessment of exposure to risk.

    Edward Timpson

    All claims received up to 31 March 2016, including those arising from the recent storm events, will form part of the next actuarial analysis of claim experience and will inform the assessment of risk to the Risk Protection Agreement. Our next actuarial analysis exercise will be finalised in July 2016.

  • Chi Onwurah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    Chi Onwurah – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Chi Onwurah on 2016-03-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will make an assessment of the potential effect on the UK tourism sector of the French ban on parity clauses for online travel agents.

    Nick Boles

    My Department has no plans to make such an assessment.

    Any assessment of the impact of parity clauses on competition and consumers falls within the remit of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), which is the UK’s primary competition and consumer authority.

    One of the CMA’s predecessors, the Office of Fair Trading, launched an investigation into alleged resale price maintenance in arrangements between a hotel group and two online travel agents, though this ultimately led to no action being taken. The CMA keeps these issues under review and is working closely with other national competition authorities and the European Commission to do this.

  • Gloria De Piero – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Gloria De Piero – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gloria De Piero on 2016-03-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what representations he has received from Nottinghamshire County Council and the Heritage Lottery Fund on the proposed closure of the DH Lawrence Heritage Centre in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire.

    David Evennett

    To date, the department has not received any representations from Nottinghamshire County Council or the Heritage Lottery Fund on this matter.

    An options study into the future of the Centre, funded by Arts Council England, is currently being carried out. The Heritage Lottery Fund will continue discussions with the owners, Broxtowe Borough Council, and Arts Council England once this study is complete.

  • Gloria De Piero – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    Gloria De Piero – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Gloria De Piero on 2016-03-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding his Department has provided for (a) museums and (b) heritage in (i) the East Midlands and (ii) Nottinghamshire in each of the last three years.

    Mr Edward Vaizey

    This Government continues to support heritage and arts projects across the East Midlands and Nottinghamshire through its arms length bodies, including Nottingham’s historic Lace Markets’ Galleries of Justice Museum, which was awarded £1m from Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) to carry out major redevelopment.

    Since 2012, the HLF has given more than £80m to the East Midlands and £6.7m to Nottinghamshire. Figures for 2015/16 are not yet available. Through Arts Council England, nearly £7m has been provided for museums in the East Midlands and over £1.6m for museums in Nottinghamshire, including the City of Nottingham, in the last three years.

    Over the same period, Historic England has given over £3m to the East Midlands, and more than £375,000 to Nottinghamshire. Party of this funding supported a project, in partnership with Bassetlaw District Council and Nottinghamshire County Council, to repair and reinstate historic features in the Tuxford Conservation Area – which led to it being remove from the ‘at risk’ register.

  • Mark Hendrick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    Mark Hendrick – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Hendrick on 2016-03-11.

    To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many Changing Places toilets are provided by each local authority in North West England.

    James Wharton

    There are 86 Changing Places toilets in the North West of England. The location of Changing Places toilets can be found using the Changing Places interactive toilet map, hosted on their website; http://www.changing-places.org/.

    “

  • Nicholas Soames – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Nicholas Soames – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nicholas Soames on 2016-03-11.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what work his Department is undertaking on establishing the amount of income tax and national insurance that is paid by people who were non-UK nationals at the time of issue of their national insurance number; if his Department will undertake that analysis by nationality; and what plans his Department has to publish the outcome of such work.

    Mr David Gauke

    The Government is committed to providing data on active National Insurance numbers used by people from other EU countries.

    HMRC is currently compiling this information and is working closely with the ONS, which is currently reconciling the four main sources of international migration data.

    The data on active National Insurance numbers will be published as part of or alongside the ONS’ publication. It’s up to that independent statistics authority as to when they are ready to make the information public.

  • Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-03-11.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies on corporate taxation of the OECD’s report, Countering harmful tax practices more effectively, taking into account transparency and substance, published in September 2014.

    Mr David Gauke

    The OECD report published in September 2014 formed the basis of international discussions in the OECD Forum on Harmful Tax Practices, which lead to the publishing of the 2015 FHTP Report, chapter 4 of which creates a new international framework governing preferential intellectual property (“IP”) regimes, such as the UK Patent Box.

    This international framework makes the lower tax rates of preferential IP regimes dependent on, and proportional to, the research and development expenditure incurred by the claimant taxpayer in developing their IP. The UK Patent Box will be amended in line with this international framework, with the new rules coming into force on 1 July 2016.

    The Report also made provision for greater information exchange between tax authorities of rulings issued to individual businesses. HM Revenue and Customs is currently implementing these rules and has already begun to exchange information with other tax authorities.

  • Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-03-11.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies on making country-by-country tax reports public of the survey results published by Christian Aid in September 2015 on the attitudes of FTSE100 companies to that issue.

    Mr David Gauke

    The UK supports efforts to improve tax transparency. We initiated the international work on country-by-country (CbC) reporting to tax authorities during our G8 Presidency in 2013, calling on the OECD to develop a template for this as part of the BEPS project.

    The UK was also the first to commit to implementing the OECD model with legislation in Finance Act 2015. We signed the OECD agreement to share the CbC reports with other tax authorities in January 2016 and issued our final CbC reporting regulations on 26 February 2016.

    The Government believes that there is scope for greater transparency by pressing the case for public CbC reporting on a multilateral basis. As the Chancellor has said, this is something that the UK will seek to promote internationally.

    The European Commission is preparing an impact assessment of public CbC reporting. We look forward to seeing the outcome of this analysis, which we expect to be published early next month, and will consider any proposal put forward by the Commission in due course.

  • Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Roger Godsiff – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-03-11.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the effect of UK policies on tax and overseas territories on the effectiveness of Government steps to tackle global poverty.

    Mr David Gauke

    The Government is committed to tackling global poverty and to a fair and transparent global tax system.

    Following the lead taken by the UK in its G8 Presidency, each of the UK’s Overseas Territories with a recognised financial centre has committed to automatic exchange of information with over 90 jurisdictions worldwide. The Territories have also joined the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters providing a legal gateway for exchange of information with a large number of countries, including developing countries which have joined the Convention.

    The Government wants all countries, including developing countries, to be able to take advantage of exchange of information, both on request and automatically. The Department for International Development (DFID) funds the Global Forum and World Bank to support developing countries in implementing exchange of information systems, and last year the Government announced a partnership with the Ghana revenue authority to pilot the new standard on automatic exchange of information.

    The UK has also been at the forefront of recent international efforts to align the taxation of profits with economic activity through the G20-OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) project. This project, which involved tax officials from over 120 countries, represents the most comprehensive attempt to reform the international tax rules since they were first drafted in the 1920s. All countries will be able to benefit from these changes to the international tax system, but some will require additional support if they are to do so. International organisations are therefore producing practical toolkits to help developing countries implement BEPS standards and DFID is funding international organisations to assist developing countries in obtaining technical assistance on issues such as transfer pricing.

  • Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

    The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-03-11.

    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential effect of his proposals to abolish Class 2 National Insurance contributions on low-earning theatre actors and workers.

    Mr David Gauke

    The Chancellor announced at Budget that Class 2 National Insurance contributions will be abolished in April 2018. This will simplify the outdated and complex self-employed National Insurance system, giving self-employed NICs payers an annual tax cut of £134 on average. This will benefit 3.4 million self-employed people – including those who work in the theatre.