Written questions by Chadwick.

If she will make an estimate of the number of people in Wales that would be moved into higher rates of tax as a result of freezing of tax thresholds by 2030.

The previous Government made the decision to maintain income tax thresholds at their current levels from April 2021 until April 2028. The number of people forecast to pay tax by marginal rate can be found in Table 3.19 in the OBR’s November 2025 Economic and fiscal outlook – detailed forecast tables: receipts, linked below: https://obr.uk/download/november-2025-economic-and-fiscal-outlook-detailed-forecast-tables-receipts/?tmstv=1764165511

How much funding her Department plans to provide through the National Wealth Fund for steel projects; and how businesses can access that funding.

This Government has a vision for a strong, resilient, productive steel industry in the UK that is primed for long-term success, driving growth in communities. The NWF will commit at least £5.8 billion over this Parliament to priority sub-sectors, which includes green steel. Businesses seeking the NWF’s finance or support from should contact them directly via their website: https://www.nationalwealthfund.org.uk/contact-us

If she will make it her policy to introduce fiscal measures to support the long-term competitiveness of the UK steel industry in the Autumn Budget 2025.

This Government remains committed to supporting the UK steel industry. The Government will also set out a long-term vision for a revitalised and sustainable sector in a Steel Strategy to be published by the end of the year.

Whether she plans to retain the lower rate of landfill tax for (a) industrial by-products and (b) other steel-making residues.

The Government recently consulted on proposals to reform Landfill Tax to ensure the regime remains effective in encouraging waste to be diverted away from landfill. The proposals aimed to support the Government’s circular economy objectives to facilitate economic growth by stimulating investment in technologies, sectors and infrastructure that keep resources in circulation for longer. As part of the consultation, the Government has received a wide range of views from stakeholders, including representatives from manufacturing sectors, such as steelmaking. The consultation closed on 28 July, and the Government is considering responses and will set out next steps in due course.

What plans she has to (a) abolish the Carbon Price Support mechanism and (b) introduce further measures to reduce electricity costs for energy-intensive industries.

The government’s Industrial Strategy published in June 2025 announced that from 2027, a new British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme will reduce electricity costs by c.£35-40/MWh and support thousands of businesses. The scheme will benefit manufacturing electricity intensive frontier industries in the Industrial Strategy and foundational manufacturing industries in their supply chains. Eligible businesses will be exempt from paying the costs of the Renewables Obligation, Feed-in Tariffs and the Capacity Market. The scheme will bring GB electricity costs more in line with other major economies in Europe, and level the playing field for GB businesses. The government will also continue support for the Energy-Intensive Industries Compensation Scheme to support energy efficiency, decarbonisation, and technical innovation. The government keeps all taxes under review and will continue to review Carbon Price Support beyond the announced rates as part of the policy making process.

Whether the Government plans to reinvest a share of Crown Estate income from the Celtic Sea Floating Offshore Wind Leasing Round 5 into local economic development in Neath Port Talbot.

The Crown Estate pays its entire net profits into the Consolidated Fund each year, contributing to the funding of public services across the UK, including in Wales. The Crown Estate is taking steps to ensure that Wales benefits from offshore wind development. It has launched a £50 million Supply Chain Accelerator, with four Welsh-based projects successful in the first funding round, to support early-stage supply-chain proposals. Alongside the Supply Chain Investment Programme, this aims to unlock capacity constraints, accelerate project delivery and create local economic opportunities, including jobs and skills development in Wales. The Crown Estate’s Round 5 Agreements for Lease also include contractually enforceable social value and economic commitments. These obligations are designed to translate leasing agreements into tangible outcomes for communities .

What proportion of revenues from the Crown Estate’s Celtic Sea Floating Offshore Wind Leasing Round 5 will be allocated to investment in port and supply-chain infrastructure in Wales.

The Crown Estate pays its entire net profits into the Consolidated Fund each year, contributing to the funding of public services across the UK, including in Wales. The Crown Estate is taking steps to ensure that Wales benefits from offshore wind development. It has launched a £50 million Supply Chain Accelerator, with four Welsh-based projects successful in the first funding round, to support early-stage supply-chain proposals. Alongside the Supply Chain Investment Programme, this aims to unlock capacity constraints, accelerate project delivery and create local economic opportunities, including jobs and skills development in Wales. The Crown Estate’s Round 5 Agreements for Lease also include contractually enforceable social value and economic commitments. These obligations are designed to translate leasing agreements into tangible outcomes for communities .

When the Government plans to release the £2.5 billion of funding to support investment in UK steel decarbonisation and productivity improvements.

This Government remains committed to supporting the UK steel industry. The Government will also set out a long-term vision for a revitalised and sustainable sector in a Steel Strategy to be published by the end of the year.

What steps her Department is taking to help tackle covid-19 small business loan fraud.

The Government is committed to recouping public money lost in pandemic related fraud whilst also taking steps to provide value for money for UK taxpayers, working closely with law enforcement, counter-fraud agencies and commercial lenders. We are clear that fraud is not acceptable within these schemes, and businesses continue to be responsible for the loans they took out under any of the Covid loan guarantee schemes.We are providing significant funding to the British Business Bank and the Insolvency Service to combat loan fraud, including £10.9 million for the British Business Bank over three years to boost their counter fraud and assurance programme. The Insolvency Service has a proven track record in handling complex fraud and financial misconduct investigations. By the end of March 2025, its work had resulted in more than 2,000 director disqualifications, bankruptcy restrictions, 62 criminal convictions, and more than £6 million recoveries related to Covid loan guarantee scheme abuse.We have also appointed a fixed-term Covid Counter-Fraud Commissioner, Tom Hayhoe, to look at the issue of Covid fraud and recoveries at large, as we use every means possible to recoup public money lost in pandemic-related fraud. The Commissioner will be completing his work by the end of this year and will provide a report to be presented to Parliament.In the interests of transparency, the Government also publishes Covid loan guarantee performance data, which includes total values lent and repayment data. The latest version of this data was published in August 2025 and can be accessed via the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-loan-guarantee-schemes-repayment-data-march-2025

Whether her Department has conducted an impact assessment of the potential impact of changes to inheritance tax relief for farmers on the Welsh language.

The Government is not under an obligation to carry out or publish a specific Welsh language impact assessment of tax policies. However, it is not expected there will be any material impact on the opportunities of individuals to use the Welsh language following these reforms.

What estimate her Department has made of the potential economic impact of changes to the thresholds for the Soft Drinks Industry Levy on the level of food inflation.

An assessment of economic and other impacts are included as part of the ‘Strengthening the Soft Drinks Industry Levy’ consultation document. This is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/strengthening-the-soft-drinks-industry-levy. The direct impact of the proposed changes on CPI inflation is expected to be negligible, less than 0.01 percentage points. The proposed changes were subject to a consultation, which was open until 21 July 2025 and will inform decisions at a future Budget. If the Government decides to make changes to the levy, it will publish a tax information and impact note (TIIN) to give account of the confirmed policy’s impacts.

Whether she has had recent discussions with the Secretary of State for (a) Energy Security and Net Zero and (b) Business and Trade on fiscal measures to help support the scale-up of the green hydrogen sector.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has been engaging closely with both the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero and the Secretary of State for Business and Trade through the spending review, including on support for the low carbon hydrogen sector.

With reference to the Secretary of State for Transport's Oral Statement of 24 March 2025 on Road Maintenance, whether she has made an estimate of the Barnett consequential funding for Wales of the additional £500 million highway maintenance funding.

At Phase 1 of the 2025 Spending Review, an additional £500 million was allocated to the Department for Transport to fund local highways maintenance in 2025-26. The Barnett formula was applied in the usual way to changes in the Department for Transport’s Delegated Expenditure Limit (DEL) budget. At Spending Reviews, the Barnett formula is applied to changes to each UK Government department’s overall DEL budget, rather than to individual programmes. The Welsh Government’s Spending Review settlement for 2025-26 is the largest in real terms of any Welsh Government settlement since devolution.  The Welsh Government is receiving at least 20% more funding per person than equivalent UK Government spending in England. That translates into over £4 billion more in 2025-26 and includes £1.7 billion through the operation of the Barnett formula. The Block Grant Transparency publication breaks down all changes in the devolved governments’ block grant funding from the 2015 Spending Review up to and including Main Estimates 2023-24. The most recent report was published in July 2023. An update to Block Grant Transparency to include Autumn Budget 2024 changes will be published in due course:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/block-grant-transparency-july-2023

If she will bring forward proposals for a furlough scheme for parents of chronically ill children.

The Government recognises the important role parents and carers play in looking after disabled people and people with health conditions, including chronically ill children. Significant support is available to support disabled people and their families and carers, such as Disability Living Allowance for children worth up to £184.30 per week, and Carer’s Allowance worth up to £81.90 per week. This Government is going further to give carers greater flexibility to work and increase their financial security by raising the Carer’s Allowance Weekly Earnings Limit to the equivalent of 16 hours at the National Living Wage from 6th April 2025. This will be the largest increase to the earnings limit since Carer’s Allowance was introduced in 1976.We are also strengthening the right to request flexible working arrangements through the Employment Rights Bill, enabling parents and carers to better balance work around their caring commitments.

What steps her Department is taking to help ensure (a) that the rollout of digital quarterly submissions for tax returns under MTD for ITSA does not lead to penalties for non-compliance and increased stress for vulnerable groups who do not have the digital skills or digital access to meet the new requirements and (b) that measures are in place for people without digital access or digital skills to continue to submit manual books where necessary.

Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax is designed to make it easier for users to get their tax right and keep on top of their affairs. Taxpayers will use software to keep digital records and send simple quarterly updates to HMRC; in turn, this will help to finalise their Income Tax position after the year end. A new fairer penalty regime will also be introduced to support taxpayers submitting more frequent updates under MTD. They will not be penalised for occasionally missing a deadline. Instead, they will receive a penalty point towards a points threshold. They will only receive a financial penalty once that threshold is met. The government recognises that not everyone is able to interact with HMRC digitally. Digitally excluded taxpayers will be able to apply for an exemption from MTD and will continue to file using existing processes. HMRC will set out further information on the exemption process when it opens later in 2025.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) raising the annual capital borrowing cap for the Welsh Government and (b) introducing a mechanism where it rises with inflation.

We remain committed to working in partnership with the Welsh Government to ensure the Fiscal Framework continues to deliver value for money while upholding our shared commitment to fiscal responsibility. Discussions regarding the Welsh Government’s request to amend the budget management tools outlined in the Framework are ongoing. As set out in the Welsh Government Fiscal Framework agreed in 2016, a full review is triggered if the Welsh Government’s relative funding falls below 115% of equivalent UK Government spending per head in the rest of the UK.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of changes to employer National Insurance contributions on levels of unemployment.

The Office for Budget Responsibility’s October 2024 Economic and Fiscal Outlook, which takes into account tax measures announced in the Budget, expects the unemployment rate will fall to 4.1% next year and remain low until 2029.

What steps she is taking to work with the (a) CLA, (b) NFU, (c) FUW and (d) other industry bodies to protect working farms in the context of the proposed changes to APR and BPR.

As the Minister responsible for the UK tax system, I have participated in several meetings with agricultural organisations since Autumn Budget 2024 to listen to their views. Most recently, the Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs and I met with representatives from various agricultural organisations, including all those highlighted, on 18 February 2025.As the Government has outlined, the reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief from 6 April 2026 get the balance right between supporting farms and businesses, and fixing the public finances. The reforms reduce the inheritance tax advantages available to owners of agricultural and business assets, but still mean those assets will be taxed at a much lower effective rate than most other assets. Despite a tough fiscal context, the Government will maintain very significant levels of relief from inheritance tax beyond what is available to others and compared to the position before 1992.

If she will take steps to ensure the accessibility of touch screens for (a) card payment machines and (b) other services for people with visual impairments.

The government is committed to ensuring high standards of financial inclusion across the financial services sector. The Treasury continues to engage with UK Finance, the Financial Conduct Authority, the Royal National Institute of Blind People, and other Government departments on the issue of accessibility of card payment terminals. UK Finance, the leading trade association for the banking sector, maintains voluntary standards to help ensure point-of-sale technology remains accessible for those who are visually impaired. UK Finance will soon be assessing potential initiatives to drive improvements and adoption. The Government continues to closely monitor progress in this important area.

Pursuant to the Answer of 22 July 2024 to Question 210 on Development Aid, what fiscal circumstances are required for the restoration of the Official Development Assistance budget to 0.7% of gross national income.

The Government remains committed to international development and restoring Official Development Assistance (ODA) spending to the level of 0.7 percent of GNI as soon as the fiscal circumstances allow. The ODA fiscal tests determine that a return to 0.7 percent of GNI is possible when the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR)’s fiscal forecast confirms that, on a sustainable basis, we are not borrowing for day-to-day spending and underlying debt is falling. Each year, the Government will review and confirm, in accordance with the International Development (ODA Target) Act 2015, whether a return to spending 0.7% GNI on ODA is possible against the latest fiscal forecast. In the meantime, the UK remains one of the most generous donors of development assistance amongst the G7.