Written questions by Cooper.

Pursuant to the Answer of 19 November to Question 90360 on Business Rates, how many business premises (a) have been brought into paying business rates for the first time and (b) will pay more per year in business rates as a result of the revaluation, notwithstanding any reduction in the multiplier.

The Valuation Office Agency is responsible for compiling the non-domestic rating lists and setting the rateable value for each non-domestic property. Local billing authorities then use this information to calculate rates payable by using the multiplier set by government and applying any appropriate relief or discounts. Next year’s liability has not yet been confirmed. The Valuation Office Agency plans to publish draft valuations for the 2026 Rating List on 26 November 2025. Statistics will be published alongside this showing changes in rateable values between the 2023 and 2026 lists. The statistics will be updated to reflect any changes made when the compiled list is published on 1 April 2026.

With reference to her Department's policy paper entitled Business rates: forward look, updated on 11 September 2025, on what date the Valuation Office Agency will publish a full list of updated rateable values for all non-domestic properties.

The Valuation Office Agency plans to publish draft valuations for the 2026 Rating List on 26 November 2025, and the new list will take effect on 1 April 2026.

On how many occasions a repayment of overpaid tax to a customer who has submitted a voluntary self-assessment return been delayed by longer than (a) three, (b) six and (c) 12 months in the latest period for which data is available.

HMRC recognise that repayments are important for customers. They prioritise them and work hard to ensure they are processed as quickly and securely as possible.Like any financial institution, HMRC are an attractive target for organised criminals who continually test their security and repayment controls. HMRC aim to balance ensuring prompt payments to eligible customers with effective revenue protection from fraudsters.Voluntary returns are submitted by customers who are not required to file a Self Assessment return but choose to do so, often to reclaim overpaid tax. These cases can require additional manual checks, particularly where PAYE income is involved, to ensure repayments are not duplicated.Because customers submitting voluntary Self Assessment returns are not required to file, these cases are not currently included separately in HMRC’s reported performance data. While these returns are worked and processed by operational teams, they fall outside the scope of published metrics and are therefore not counted in official service level reporting.HMRC has communicated to agent communities that customers can help reduce delays by registering for Self Assessment before submitting a return. Additional staff have been deployed to reduce delays in processing voluntary Self Assessment repayment cases, particularly those requiring manual checks. Work is also underway to explore automation opportunities to improve processing times and reduce the number of customers affected by repayment delays.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of expanding the scope of the Financial Ombudsman to permit investigation of complaints about motor insurance companies where the claimant is not a direct customer but has accepted an offer to proceed with Third Party Capture.

The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) was set up to resolve complaints between consumers and their own financial services providers. It cannot consider disputes between insurers and third parties as the third party is not the policyholder. The rules on how the FOS should handle complaints, including the jurisdiction of the FOS and what complaints it can deal with, are determined by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and set out in the FCA Handbook. Whether a complaint is eligible or not is a matter for the FOS to consider. The FCA requires that insurers treat their customers, including third party claimants, fairly. The FCA actively monitors insurers and has robust powers to take action against firms that fail to comply with its rules.

What the (a) longest, (b) shortest and (c) average time taken from claim to decision was for Research and Development tax relief in (i) 2023-24 and (ii) 2024-25.

HMRC aims to process 85% of Research and Development (R&D) tax relief claims within 40 working days. This target was met in both 2023–24 and 2024–25, with performance reaching 90% in 2024–25, as reported in HMRC’s Annual Report and Accounts.HMRC published information on the average duration of a compliance check in the Approach to Research and Development tax reliefs 2023 to 2024 - GOV.UKSince 31 December 2024, HMRC has received 20 voluntary disclosures about incorrect R&D tax relief claims with a total value of £5.5m via the R&D Disclosure Facility.

How many Research and Development tax relief disclosures have been made in each month since 31 December 2024.

HMRC aims to process 85% of Research and Development (R&D) tax relief claims within 40 working days. This target was met in both 2023–24 and 2024–25, with performance reaching 90% in 2024–25, as reported in HMRC’s Annual Report and Accounts.HMRC published information on the average duration of a compliance check in the Approach to Research and Development tax reliefs 2023 to 2024 - GOV.UKSince 31 December 2024, HMRC has received 20 voluntary disclosures about incorrect R&D tax relief claims with a total value of £5.5m via the R&D Disclosure Facility.

When she plans to respond to the open letter from Young Women's Trust entitled For the Employment Rights Bill to work for young women and their employers, the Spending Review must increase funding for enforcement of their rights, dated 22 May 2025.

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has responded to the open letter from the Young Women’s Trust, as the department responsible for delivering the Employment Rights Bill. At SR 2025, DBT were funded to support the establishment of the Fair Work Agency (FWA), which will tackle low pay, poor working conditions and poor job security. The government is committed to ensuring the FWA is fully resourced to deliver on its remit, with funding allocated to cover both transition and operational costs through to 2028-29. This includes the transfer of existing budgets from enforcement bodies such as the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate, the Director of Labour Market Enforcement, and the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority, as well as funding for National Minimum Wage enforcement.

With reference to the guidance entitled Get VAT relief on certain goods if you have a disability, updated on 22 January 2019, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of permitting (a) sports clubs and (b) other charitable groups to purchase (i) wheelchairs and (ii) other medical appliances such at zero rate in (A) instances when those appliances will not solely be for the use of one person and (B) other instances.

Charities providing care, medical or surgical treatment for handicapped persons, rescue or first-aid services can already benefit from a VAT zero-rate when purchasing relevant goods. The supply of a wheelchair designed solely for the use of a disabled person can be zero-rated where it is supplied to a disabled person for their personal or domestic use or when supplied to a charity which will make the wheelchair available to a disabled person for their personal or domestic use. Sports clubs can register either as a community amateur sports club (CASC) or as a charity where the relevant conditions are met. However, where a sports club is registered as a CASC, they will not qualify for VAT reliefs which are only available to charities. There are currently no plans to widen the scope of current VAT reliefs as targeting these reliefs to disabled users ensures they are not open to distortion or abuse. The Government takes steps elsewhere in the tax system to take account of charities' unique status and invaluable contribution.

If she will carry out sector-specific impact assessments for proposed non-domestic rate multipliers ahead of the Autumn Budget 2025.

The business rates multipliers are set by Government. From 2026-27, the Government intends to introduce permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality and leisure properties with rateable values (RVs) under £500,000. The Government intends to fund this by introducing a higher multiplier on properties with RVs of £500,000 or more. The new business rates multipliers will be set at Budget 2025 so that the Government can take into account the upcoming revaluation outcomes as well as the economic and fiscal context. When the new multipliers are set, HM Treasury intends to publish analysis of the expected effects of the new RHL and higher multiplier arrangements.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing an independent watchdog to monitor the effectiveness of HMRC Customer Compliance Group.

HMRC and its Customer Compliance Group (CCG), is subject to a wide range of independent oversight and actively engages with a range of independent assurance, both internal and external.Internally, HMRC maintains robust governance structures, including oversight by its Executive Committee and HMRC Board, alongside newly established subcommittees of the Board such as the Closing the Tax Gap Committee chaired by non-executive director Bill Dodwell – with a significant focus on the work of Customer Compliance Group. Externally, HMRC is held to account by Parliamentary authorities, including the Committee of Public Accounts (PAC), the Treasury Select Committee (TSC), and the National Audit Office (NAO) who regularly undertake both financial and value for money scrutiny of HMRC and its Customer Compliance Group. Recent reports include those into tax evasion in the retail sector, managing compliance work since the pandemic and collecting the right tax from wealthy individuals – all of which primarily focused upon the work of HMRC’s Customer Compliance Group. HMRC Customer Compliance Group welcomes Parliamentary scrutiny and has accepted 93.5% of recommendations of these bodies in the last 24 months aimed at strengthening the effectiveness of the Department. HMRC is working to implement the recommendations by the deadlines agreed with the respective bodies. Customers can also ask the independent Adjudicator’s Office to review complaints after they have been investigated, if they are dissatisfied with how they have been handled by the Department.

Whether HMRC has issued guidance that the (a) Customer Compliance Group and (b) Risk and Intelligence Service (Compliance, Operational Insight and Risking) Group should only investigate cases of alleged tax evasion where the estimated loss to the public purse has been more than £35,000 for five years or more.

HMRC Customer Compliance Group’s guidance specifically states that there is no de-minimis limit for suspected fraud referrals and does not contain any instructions that would limit investigation in relation to timespan of the tax at risk.HMRC’s Risk and Intelligence Service deliver a wide range of cases, including where there is suspected evasion behaviour. CCG use a variety of indicators to identify the highest risk cases to address different compliance risks, but do not use an estimated loss of £35,000 for five years or more as a standard selection criteria.

Whether she has produced impact assessments on the potential impact of the (a) increase to employer National Insurance contributions and (b) changes to Business Property Relief on the horticulture sector.

A Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) was published alongside the introduction of the Bill containing the changes to employer NICs. The TIIN sets out the impact of the policy on the exchequer, the economic impacts of the policy, and the impacts on individuals, businesses, and civil society organisations, as well as an overview of the equality impacts. In accordance with standard practice, a TIIN for the reforms to business property relief will be published alongside the draft legislation before the relevant Finance Bill.

What the total value of (a) funds, (b) near cash assets and (c) other financial instruments held by (i) the Bank of England and (ii) other UK licensed financial institutions is on behalf of Euroclear Group entities as a result of European Union sanctions on Russia.

The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) does not comment on individual entities. Please note OFSI has no role in the implementation of any other country’s sanctions. Therefore, it is unable to comment on EU financial sanctions. Every year, OFSI undertakes a frozen asset review, which requires all persons holding or controlling assets (including funds and economic resources) frozen as a result of UK financial sanctions to report the nature and values of these assets to OFSI. The 2023 Frozen Asset Review saw approximately £10.2 billion of funds reported to OFSI as frozen under the Russia regime. This figure does not include the value of all assets reported to OFSI as a part of the annual frozen asset review due to difficulties defining their values with accuracy. This may include the contents of safety deposit boxes or tangible assets. OFSI’s 2023-2024 Annual Review can be found here:OFSI Annual Review 2023-24: Engage, Enhance, Enforce - GOV.UK

What the total value is of (a) funds, (b) near cash assets and (c) other financial instruments held by (i) the Bank of England and (ii) other UK licensed financial institutions for (A) the Central Bank of Russia, (B) the Russian Ministry of Finance, (C) the National Wealth Fund of the Russian Federation and (D) any other Russian state entities, by (1) asset type, (2) Russian state entity and (3) financial institution.

The Office for Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), part of HM Treasury, published in its annual review that £25.03 billion in assets relating to the Russia sanctions regime have been reported as frozen between February 2022 and December 2024. This is an aggregated total of all entities and individuals listed on the Consolidated List of Financial Sanctions Targets, known as Designated Persons. However, assets belonging to the Central Bank of Russia, the National Wealth Fund of Russia, or the Ministry of Finance of Russia have been immobilised in the UK and across the G7 by sectoral sanctions – rather than with an asset freeze, and therefore their value is not included within the above figure. In the UK, sanctions prohibit UK persons from providing financial services in respect of these assets. There are sensitivities around publishing the figure for immobilised asset holdings in the UK covered by these sectoral sanctions. It is important a decision to release any detail about these assets it taken on a collective G7 basis.

What assessment she has made of the adequacy of the scope of the Loan Charge review.

The Government has commissioned an independent review of the Loan Charge. Ray McCann, a highly respected figure in the tax world, is leading the review. His name was suggested by one of the Loan Charge campaigners.To ensure transparency, the terms of reference make it clear that Mr McCann will be supported by a team of officials who have not previously worked on this policy area and will be based outside of HM Treasury and HMRC. Information provided by HMT and HMRC to the review team and factual comments provided on draft reports will be published after the review has concluded.The Government does not think it is right for people affected by the Loan Charge to have to wait years to bring this matter to a close and has therefore ensured that the review has a focused remit, allowing it to report by this summer. The Government will respond by Autumn Budget 2025.Alongside the review, the Government is consulting in 2025 on measures to tackle promoters of marketed tax avoidance and has already announced measures to tackle the significant tax avoidance and fraud in the umbrella company market.

With reference to section five of the policy paper entitled New approach to ensure regulators and regulation support growth, updated on 31 March 2025, whether she made an assessment of the potential merits of seeking regulator pledges from the Advertising Standards Authority.

As published in March, New approach to ensure regulators and regulation support growth set out reforms across the regulatory landscape. These focused on tackling complexity and the burden of regulation, reducing uncertainty, and shifting excessive risk aversion in the regulatory system. Many of these reforms pertain to all UK regulators. This action plan also included specific, pro-growth commitments from a range of key regulators which operate across the economy and also support sectors in the Industrial Strategy. We will continue to work with all regulators to promote investment, accelerate innovation, and deliver better outcomes.

Whether the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority will retain independent commissioners.

The National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) will combine the functions of the National Infrastructure Commission and Infrastructure and Projects Authority. NISTA will bring oversight of strategy and delivery into one organisation, driving more effective delivery of infrastructure across the country.On 17 January 2025, the Prime Minister announced in a Written Ministerial Statement that NISTA will be a joint unit of HM Treasury and Cabinet Office, effective from 1 April 2025. Further detail on the work and governance of NISTA will be announced in due course.

What HMRC's budget has been for a customer telephone service in each year since 2015.

Data on the number of complaints relating to telephony services is held in line with HMRC’s retention policy.Reporting yearNumber of complaints relating to telephony servicesNumber of telephony complaints as a proportion of all complaints received (%)2015-16Not heldNot held2016-17Not heldNot held2017-18Not heldNot held2018-191,2441.74%2019-201,3402.04%2020-212,1372.72%2021-222,0322.53%2022-232,6342.89%2023-248,0378.72%In March 2023, HMRC changed from only recording the primary cause of a complaint to recording all contributing causes and factors of a complaint.HMRC has previously faced challenges in delivering good customer service.In 2024-25 HMRC has increased its telephony ‘adviser attempts handled’ and decreased wait times. HMRC’s latest performance information is published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-monthly-performance-reports#reporting-year-2024-to-2025HMRC is encouraging more of its customers to use its online services to complete tasks quickly and easily online. Satisfaction with HMRC’s online services is consistently above 80%.HMRC operates a flexible resourcing model where staff are deployed across various types of customer service work throughout the year. This allows HMRC to allocate resources to support customers where and when they need it most across different channels, including helplines, post correspondence and webchat. Given the dynamic nature of HMRC’s workforce, their staffing records do not segregate helpline resources separately. Telephony services are funded from HMRC’s overall funding settlement.HMRC started reporting on disconnections after 70 minutes when they introduced a new telephony system. Information on the number of disconnections from March 2023 and for April 2023 to March 2024 is published in the HMRC Annual report and accounts 2023 to 2024: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmrc-annual-report-and-accounts-2023-to-2024The average time to answer a customer telephone call for each year since 2015 is published as part of HMRC’s annual reports and accounts: 2023 to 2024 – historical data series (see above link).

What the average time to answer a customer telephone call was in each year since 2015.

Data on the number of complaints relating to telephony services is held in line with HMRC’s retention policy.Reporting yearNumber of complaints relating to telephony servicesNumber of telephony complaints as a proportion of all complaints received (%)2015-16Not heldNot held2016-17Not heldNot held2017-18Not heldNot held2018-191,2441.74%2019-201,3402.04%2020-212,1372.72%2021-222,0322.53%2022-232,6342.89%2023-248,0378.72%In March 2023, HMRC changed from only recording the primary cause of a complaint to recording all contributing causes and factors of a complaint.HMRC has previously faced challenges in delivering good customer service.In 2024-25 HMRC has increased its telephony ‘adviser attempts handled’ and decreased wait times. HMRC’s latest performance information is published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-monthly-performance-reports#reporting-year-2024-to-2025HMRC is encouraging more of its customers to use its online services to complete tasks quickly and easily online. Satisfaction with HMRC’s online services is consistently above 80%.HMRC operates a flexible resourcing model where staff are deployed across various types of customer service work throughout the year. This allows HMRC to allocate resources to support customers where and when they need it most across different channels, including helplines, post correspondence and webchat. Given the dynamic nature of HMRC’s workforce, their staffing records do not segregate helpline resources separately. Telephony services are funded from HMRC’s overall funding settlement.HMRC started reporting on disconnections after 70 minutes when they introduced a new telephony system. Information on the number of disconnections from March 2023 and for April 2023 to March 2024 is published in the HMRC Annual report and accounts 2023 to 2024: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmrc-annual-report-and-accounts-2023-to-2024The average time to answer a customer telephone call for each year since 2015 is published as part of HMRC’s annual reports and accounts: 2023 to 2024 – historical data series (see above link).

How many and what proportion of customers have made a complaint about the customer telephone service in each year since 2015.

Data on the number of complaints relating to telephony services is held in line with HMRC’s retention policy.Reporting yearNumber of complaints relating to telephony servicesNumber of telephony complaints as a proportion of all complaints received (%)2015-16Not heldNot held2016-17Not heldNot held2017-18Not heldNot held2018-191,2441.74%2019-201,3402.04%2020-212,1372.72%2021-222,0322.53%2022-232,6342.89%2023-248,0378.72%In March 2023, HMRC changed from only recording the primary cause of a complaint to recording all contributing causes and factors of a complaint.HMRC has previously faced challenges in delivering good customer service.In 2024-25 HMRC has increased its telephony ‘adviser attempts handled’ and decreased wait times. HMRC’s latest performance information is published at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-monthly-performance-reports#reporting-year-2024-to-2025HMRC is encouraging more of its customers to use its online services to complete tasks quickly and easily online. Satisfaction with HMRC’s online services is consistently above 80%.HMRC operates a flexible resourcing model where staff are deployed across various types of customer service work throughout the year. This allows HMRC to allocate resources to support customers where and when they need it most across different channels, including helplines, post correspondence and webchat. Given the dynamic nature of HMRC’s workforce, their staffing records do not segregate helpline resources separately. Telephony services are funded from HMRC’s overall funding settlement.HMRC started reporting on disconnections after 70 minutes when they introduced a new telephony system. Information on the number of disconnections from March 2023 and for April 2023 to March 2024 is published in the HMRC Annual report and accounts 2023 to 2024: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmrc-annual-report-and-accounts-2023-to-2024The average time to answer a customer telephone call for each year since 2015 is published as part of HMRC’s annual reports and accounts: 2023 to 2024 – historical data series (see above link).