Written questions by Sollom.

What steps her Department has taken to improve accessibility to online banking for blind and partially sighted people.

Awaiting answer.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the exclusion of recording studios from the lower Retail, Hospitality and Leisure business rates multipliers on the recording studio sector.

Awaiting answer.

What assessment she has made of the adequacy of (a) assistance claiming premium bond prizes, (b) information supplied to the public on possession of premium bonds and (c) efforts made by National Savings and Investments to locate the winners of unclaimed premium bond prizes.

NS&I provides comprehensive information on its website and through its call centre on the purchasing and administration of Premium Bonds, including helping Premium Bond holders trace new and unclaimed prizes, and their original investment. NS&I also publishes details on unclaimed prizes every month alongside Premium Bonds winners’ details and, in addition, engages with the media to encourage customers to use its prize checker and tracing services. Premium Bond holders with original paper Bonds such as those purchased over the counter at the Post Office, can register them online or by calling NS&I’s helpline. Holders who do not have internet access or cannot print off a form can request a form by phone or in writing. Finally, Premium Bond holders who have lost historic certificates, or who do not have their Bond or NS&I number, can use NS&I’s dedicated tracing service by post or online. Holders can also use MyLostAccount which can be used to trace old accounts with other providers, as well as with NS&I. Premium Bonds are never lost and NS&I pays out unclaimed prizes no matter how long ago the Bonds were purchased.

Pursuant to the Answer of 30 January 2025 to Question 26623 on Schools: Uniforms, what is the evidential basis to support that (a) expanding the existing relief may not reduce the price of school uniforms and (b) VAT relief would not remain tightly targeted at those whom it would be intended to benefit.

There is a wide range of academic research into how VAT changes affect prices, which supports the conclusion that pass-through is typically only partial. This includes, for example, an International Monetary Fund study which examined the pass through of VAT changes for 17 countries over 1999-2013 and ‘What Goes Up May Not Come Down:Asymmetric Incidence of Value-Added Taxes’ by Benzarti et al. which shows that prices respond more to VAT increases than decreases. To ensure that the current scope of the relief is carefully targeted at those it is intended to benefit and is not used to circumvent paying VAT on clothing for adults, this relief is limited to clothing designed and labelled for children under the age of 14. The limit is set in relation to when the clothing measurements begin to merge with the general adult population, who could wear clothing such as plain white shirts or black shoes, with uniforms in a great number of secondary schools now including such non-branded items.

What assessment her Department has made of the cost to families of VAT on school uniform for 14-16 year olds.

VAT is a broad-based tax on consumption, and the 20 per cent standard rate applies to most goods and services. The UK’s generous regime for children’s clothing costs approximately £2 billion a year, and we are one of only two countries in the OECD – out of 37 total - that maintain this zero rate. Expanding the existing relief would also not necessarily succeed in reducing the price of school uniforms. Evidence suggests that businesses only partially pass on any savings from lower VAT rates, instead absorbing the additional saving from tax to increase their profit margin. Going further by zero-rating all branded school uniform would also carry significant risks that the relief would not remain tightly targeted at those whom it would be intended to benefit. This is because many schools have moved away from traditional styles and uniforms, opting instead for a range of clothing that could be acceptably worn by adults, such as plain white shirts or black shoes.

Pursuant to the Answer of 22 November 2024 to Question 14160 on Higher Education: VAT, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of enabling groups of universities to share VAT-exempt costs at contract level without creating a separate legal entity.

The requirement for groups using the cost sharing exemption to create a separate legal entity is in place to ensure that use of the exemption aligns with normal VAT principles that apply to all taxpayers. The Government keeps all taxes under review as part of the policy making process, but there are currently no plans to change this.

Whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of exempting VAT charges for universities that undertake shared services as a cross-sharing group.

Universities can already benefit from exempting VAT charges for shared services within a cost sharing group providing certain conditions are met. This enables them to make efficiency savings by working together and sharing qualifying costs without incurring additional irrecoverable VAT.

If she will make the temporary duty easement for wines permanent from 1 February 2025.

In August 2023 the Government introduced reforms to alcohol duty so that products are taxed in proportion to their alcoholic strength, not volume. The reforms aimed to modernise and simplify the system, to prioritise public health and incentivise consumption of lower strength products. To help the wine industry adapt to the new duty system, the current, temporary duty easement was introduced as a transitional measure, which was intended to allow time for wine producers to adapt to calculating duty based on alcohol by volume. The current temporary duty easement for wine is due to end on 31st January 2025.