Written questions by McMahon.

What assessment has been made of recent trends in levels of illegal agriculture red diesel use.

Rebated fuels must be supplied by Registered Dealers in Controlled Oil who are approved by HMRC to ensure that fuel is only obtained by those entitled to use it.Rebated fuels can only be used in eligible vehicles and machines when they are being used for a qualifying purpose, which includes agricultural activities.

What was the tax income from (a) domestic (b) commercial energy customer bills for each year from 2015 to date.

VAT is chargeable at the reduced rate of 5% on domestic fuel and power. HMRC publishes estimates of the Exchequer cost of tax reliefs, see https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/main-tax-expenditures-and-structural-reliefs. The estimated cost of non-structural tax reliefs (December 2024) VAT table shows that the cost estimate for the Reduced Rate of VAT on supplies of domestic fuel and power in 2024-25 was £6,500 million. This represents the cost of the 5% Reduced Rate compared to the Standard Rate of 20%, a relief of 15%. The revenue received at the Reduced Rate may be estimated at 5/15ths of the figure of £6,500 million, or £2,200m (rounded). Figures for previous years are shown in the table. Business consumers of energy may reclaim VAT on their purchases of energy subject to normal VAT deduction rules. Climate Change Levy (CCL) is chargeable on the supply of electricity, gas and solid fuels for lighting, heating and power by business operating in the industrial, commercial, agricultural and public services sectors, with certain exclusions. Statistics on CCL receipts from 2014 are published here: Environmental Taxes Bulletin - GOV.UK This Budget reduces the cost of levies on energy bills to save families £150 on average next year. Combined with the measures on freezing rail fares and freezing fuel duty these policies are forecast to directly cut inflation by over 0.4 percentage points next year, pushing down on mortgage rates and up on growth.

What estimate her Department has made of the level of illegal doorstep lending in England for which the latest data is available.

Illegal money lenders — more commonly known as loan sharks — are dangerous criminals capable of inflicting terrible harm on their victims. To combat this, the Government funds specialist Illegal Money Lending Teams (IMLTs) operating across the UK. These teams investigate and prosecute illegal money lenders and offer support to their victims. Because of the underground nature of illegal money lending, HM Treasury does not have data on the number of victims of illegal money lending each year. However, HM Treasury officials regularly engage with the IMLTs to receive updates on their work, including on prosecutions, support provided to victims, and any key trends. To learn more about the work of the IMLTs, visit the Stop Loan Sharks website: https://www.stoploansharks.co.uk/.

What estimate she has made of potential lost tax revenue from international corporations importing large product volumes operating on a direct to consumer basis.

The Government does not hold data to estimate tax revenue losses specifically from international corporations importing large product volumes operating on a direct to consumer basis. Such economic activity can give rise to a range of different taxes and duties, including Corporation Tax, VAT, customs duty and excise duty, and the impact would depend on the specific circumstances of each business and transaction. HMRC actively monitors compliance with UK tax and customs obligations and uses a range of tools, including risk-based audits and data analytics, to tackle non-compliance. The Chancellor has reviewed the existing customs arrangements for Low Value Imports, and as a result, the Chancellor announced at Autumn Budget 2025 the removal of the customs duty relief on goods imported into the UK worth less than £135. In addition to the relief removal, the government is reforming the way these goods are declared into the UK to ensure all goods are appropriately controlled. These changes will come into effect from March 2029 at the latest and are expected to raise c. £500m p.a. in each of the final two years of the scorecard period.

What steps her Department is taking to help support the growth of the mutual banking and building society sector.

The government is committed to supporting the growth of building societies and all mutual financial services in line with the manifesto commitment to double the size of the mutual and co-operative sector. HM Treasury has already announced measures to support financial mutuals and is currently progressing these. For building societies, HM Treasury has committed to progressing further amendments to the Building Societies Act 1986. This follows two statutory instruments being laid in October 2024, which allow building societies to accept deposits from a wider range of SMEs, remove outdated director retirement requirements, and simplify how balance sheets are signed. These will create a more supportive legislative environment for building societies. To support all financial mutuals, HM Treasury has also asked the Prudential Regulation Authority and Financial Conduct Authority to produce a report on the current landscape of the sector. This is expected to be published before the end of 2025. The government also welcomed the establishment of the Mutual and Co-operative Sector Business Council to consider mutual and co-operative solutions. The government also published the Financial Services Growth and Competitiveness Strategy, which will support all organisations in the financial services sector and encourages the sector to continue to work in partnership with government to deliver growth. Finally, the government is also supporting the credit union sector by committing to bringing forward a package of growth-focused reforms to the credit union common bond. The government continues to engage regularly with mutuals to understand the current barriers they face and consider further opportunities to help the sector grow.

What estimate her Department has made of the number and proportion of retail businesses that only accept cash.

The Government recognises that cash continues to be used by millions of people across the UK, including those in vulnerable groups, and is committed to protecting access to cash for individuals and businesses. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) assumed regulatory responsibility for access to cash in September 2024. Its rules ensure cash continues to be a viable method of payment for the millions of people who depend on it and help businesses to continue to accept cash by providing reasonable access to cash deposit facilities. It is for each business to decide on the forms of payment it chooses to accept. This will be based on a variety of factors, including cost and customer preferences. The Government does not hold data on the number and proportion of businesses who only accept cash.

What the total number of calls (a) answered (b) abandoned was for each public helpline number provided by her Department and its executive agencies for each year from 2015 to date.

Every year, HMRC answers millions of calls. A call is recorded as ‘answered’ when a customer got through to an adviser after hearing the automated messages and choosing the option to speak to an adviser (this is also referred to as ‘adviser attempts handled’ (AAH) in HMRC published data). A call is recorded as ‘abandoned’ when a customer hears the automated messages and chooses the option to speak to an adviser, but then hangs up before their call is answered. Customers may hang up before their call is answered for a number of reasons. For example, they may have had their query answered by HMRC’s recorded messages, they may have found the information they require online or they may have decided to call back another time. The below tables provide a breakdown of calls answered and calls abandoned over the past ten years for HMRC’s main helplines: Calls answered2015-162016-172017-182018-192019-202020-212021-222022-232023-242024-252025-26 YTDChild Benefit1,815,1662,071,5902,009,1351,777,7361,712,3001,386,8181,569,2671,377,8171,017,1401,142,678833,880National Insurance1,483,0951,671,6771,475,4161,377,8551,349,9291,069,7101,247,3491,242,9431,097,0361,044,772682,058Tax Credits Helpline and Tax Credits Payment Helpline – combined figures11,509,09011,581,9139,265,2066,671,7784,557,1612,343,0441,895,3841,587,6331,147,483647,815109,086Corporation Tax373,190500,940508,270475,961441,835378,406507,372506,145421,603378,862231,741Stamp duty land tax112,333154,415164,259144,667131,610100,624122,429122,582107,538103,22971,526Agent Dedicated Line1,707,2241,851,7531,432,4051,360,2341,374,380705,308968,9251,041,355640,405503,105289,091Construction Industry Scheme Helpline584,630496,413376,861343,789334,675225,708293,478281,009239,920168,99094,016Employers Helpline819,618984,212976,437939,286755,040588,062650,432686,890589,002506,637328,452Online Services Helpline675,1581,073,270982,535730,981635,733548,319688,575780,038978,228932,393611,680PAYE6,513,0628,913,0088,199,6217,707,5647,127,5564,703,8785,973,9095,908,2094,405,3654,586,3523,177,096Self Assessment Helpline2,389,4003,094,0583,444,4523,219,5523,236,7192,560,8622,602,9172,643,6911,441,3801,904,3631,113,666VAT-282,301644,072585,882771,572500,095623,494657,205486,335395,747277,184 Calls abandoned2015-162016-172017-182018-192019-202020-212021-222022-232023-242024-252025-26 YTDChild Benefit653,242190,353147,771171,017224,611194,436267,186410,792332,543256,223146,160National Insurance891,375126,759118,987156,762132,920109,035196,346415,222336,696277,05884,032Tax Credits Helpline and Tax Credits Payment Helpline – combined figures2,295,327596,654726,769599,007539,088360,618565,334420,411334,029208,92310,735Corporation Tax99,49837,06451,40645,76363,95735,26778,89489,90068,08456,57435,108Stamp duty land tax16,5189,96912,63413,92416,3216,20810,55617,64810,1088,3845,989Agent Dedicated Line13,82124,21911,4135,1277,855175,775110,683119,404115,31685,35628,577Construction Industry Scheme Helpline72,50031,31037,28939,09533,56629,73236,74349,25037,57419,08710,167Employers Helpline226,89050,28863,01966,16362,85263,13586,365138,787122,053125,47081,521Online Services Helpline350,563138,02797,650108,720119,130126,824128,903235,456197,111226,44676,031PAYE2,755,469401,321840,726917,2321,067,3041,427,8421,303,2841,769,3381,765,2271,248,174628,559Self Assessment Helpline1,193,023206,772372,471380,719443,148611,544689,0071,144,135704,546523,645201,569VAT-13,14343,17384,53972,64862,494127,450162,969150,24472,01436,010 Further telephony data is published as part of HMRC’s quarterly performance reports: www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-quarterly-performance-updates And HMRC publishes a historical data series as part of its annual report and accounts: www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmrc-annual-report-and-accounts-2024-to-2025Data covering VOA helplines:Financial YearAnsweredAbandoned2015-16283711491732016-17327896673482017-18232687563342018-19225205728982019-20261216974602020-21106016275542021-22222467389492022-23218353378962023-24202043521912024-25201663712252025-2026 (YTD)12931919618

How many complaints of mis-selling of prepayment funeral plans have been made for each year from 2015 to date.

The regulation of pre-paid funeral plans is a matter for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Pre-paid funeral plans came under FCA regulation in July 2022, and so the FCA will not hold complaint data from before that date. The FCA will respond to the Honourable Member by letter with further detail, and a copy of the letter will be placed in the Library of the House of Commons.

What assessment her Department has made of effectiveness of the tax incentives available to increase the formation of Employee Ownership Trusts.

An evaluation of the Employee Ownership Trust (EOT) tax regime commissioned by HMRC and published in May 2025 found that the tax reliefs encourage company owners to transition their companies to employee ownership under the EOT model. This evaluation can be found at GOV.UK here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/qualitative-evaluation-of-employee-ownership-trusts However, the cost of the Capital Gains Tax (CGT) relief has increased significantly in recent years. The original costing from 2013 suggested the entire EOT tax regime would cost less than £100m in 2018-19. The cost of the CGT relief alone reached £600m in 2021-22 and forecasts suggest it could rise to more than 20 times the original costing to £2 billion by 2028-29 without any action. The relief also allowed wealthy business owners to sell their shares without paying any CGT, with around half of the relief going to the largest 10% of disposals. At Budget 2025, the government announced that it will reduce the relief available on these disposals from 100% of the gain to 50%. This will retain a strong incentive for employee ownership whilst ensuring that business owners pay their fair share of tax. The relief remains more generous than alternative reliefs that individuals might use when disposing of their companies, such as Business Asset Disposal Relief.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of personal allowance threshold freezes on people in each income decile for each year from 2015 to date.

The previous government made the decision to freeze the income tax Personal Allowance at its current level of £12,570 until April 2028.The previous government published a Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) setting out the impacts.

Pursuant to the Answer of 11 November 2025 to Question 87814, what proportion of mileage claims are made using a). HMRC Approved Mileage Allowance Payment rates and b). employers own assessment by 1). employees and 2). the self-employed.

The rate at which employees are reimbursed for undertaking business mileage in their personal vehicles is a matter between employers and their employees. As such these are exempt from reporting to HMRC, and the Government does not routinely collect the information requested. HMRC recently published research on benefits-in-kind and expenses. Of those employers surveyed, 41% of employers reimbursed mileage for employees using their own car for business travel, of which 37% reimbursed at the Approved Mileage Payment Rate and 4% at another rate. The research report can be found here: Research with employers on Benefits in Kind and expenses - GOV.UK Self-employed people are able to choose whether to use the simplified mileage rates or claim actual expenses and capital allowances for a vehicle. HMRC published research carried out in 2023 which showed that 29% of self-employed people who use vehicles in their business use the simplified mileage rates. The research report was published on 28 May 2025 and can be found here: HMRC Mileage Rates Research - GOV.UK

How many online marketplace sellers have been required to pay a tax liability following a HMRC tax inquiry, and what was the average amount owed.

HMRC does not segment it's data by trade sector, so is not able to accurately identify the number of businesses in any one sector which have been subject to a HMRC Tax Enquiry.

What is the (a) cost and (b) number of HMRC staff undertaking inquiries into online marketplace sellers.

The department is unable to provide an exact breakdown in the cost or number of staff involved in this work. This is because HMRC takes a risk-based approach to compliance, and so tax enquiries into online marketplace sellers can fall into a number of different compliance areas. Staff involved will work across a variety of business types and in most cases will not be solely working on this one trade sector.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of import duties on goods entering the UK from the EU on inflation.

Latest data from the Department for Business and Trade shows that 94.9% of goods entering Great Britain from the EU did so tariff-free in 2023, broadly unchanged from 94.7% in 2022. This data is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/preference-utilisation-of-uk-trade-in-goods-2023/preference-utilisation-of-uk-goods-in-2023.The Government wants to find ways to make it easier for businesses to trade with our partners and so is seeking views on potential UK accession to the Pan-Euro Mediterranean Convention on Rules of Origin through a call for evidence led by the Department for Business and Trade. You can find this information here: https://www.gov.uk/government/calls-for-evidence/pan-euro-mediterranean-convention-on-rules-of-origin-pemForecasting the economy, including the impact of Government policy decisions, is the responsibility of the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which published its latest forecast on 26 March 2025. HM Treasury does not produce forecasts for the UK economy and has not made an assessment of the impact of import duties on inflation.

What assessment she has made with Cabinet colleagues of the potential impact of bank closures on footfall in (a) town centres and (b) high streets.

Banking is changing, with many customers benefiting from the ease and convenience of remote banking. Whilst the Government does not make estimates regarding the impact of branch closures on town centre footfall, the Government understands the importance of face-to-face banking to high streets and is committed to championing sufficient access for customers. That is why the Government is working closely with industry to roll out 350 banking hubs on high streets across the UK by the end of this Parliament. More than 240 hubs have been announced so far, and over 190 are already open.This Government is fully committed to rejuvenating our high streets and supporting the businesses and communities that make our town centres successful. Alongside the £5bn funding for Pride in Place, we have announced a suite of tools to support communities to improve their high streets, including: High Street Rental Auctions giving councils the power to auction the lease of long-term vacant premises; a Community Right to Buy for communities to take ownership of local buildings they value; and streamlining the compulsory purchase process to help local authorities regenerate high streets.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact pf (a) mobile phone and (b) broadband contract increases on inflation in (a) each year since 2020 and (b) each forecasted year her Department holds data on.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is responsible for producing the UK’s official inflation statistics. These capture the contribution of particular sectors of the economy to inflation. Mobile phone and broadband services sit within the “Telephone and telefax equipment and services” class of the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) basket.HM Treasury does not produce forecasts for the UK economy. Forecasting the economy, including the impact of Government policy decisions, is the responsibility of the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which published its latest forecast on 26 March 2025. The Chancellor has asked departments to prioritise reducing inflation when developing policies for the Autumn Budget, ensuring decisions support stability and long-term growth.

Pursuant to the Answer of 21 November 2024 to Question 13425 on Budget October 2024, whether its definition of working people has changed.

A working person is someone who goes out to work and works for their income.

What recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of HMRC mileage rates.

The Approved Mileage Allowance Payment rates are used by employers to reimburse an employee's expenses, tax free, for business mileage in their private vehicle. These rates are also used by self-employed drivers to claim tax relief on business mileage (when using simplified motoring expenses), and can be used by organisations to reimburse volunteers who use their own vehicle for voluntary purposes. Employees can claim up to 45p/mile for the first 10,000 miles annually, followed by up to 25p/mile thereafter. An additional 5p/mile can be claimed for each passenger transported. The AMAP rates are not mandatory, and employers can choose to pay more or less than the AMAP rate. It is therefore ultimately up to employers to determine the rate at which they reimburse their employees. The Government keeps all taxes under review and the Chancellor makes decisions on tax policy at fiscal events.

What assessment her Department has made of the financial contribution of the co-operative sector to the economy; and what estimate her Department has made of the level of growth in that sector in each of the next five years.

The government recognises the contribution of co-operatives to the economy, serving local communities and ensuring the UK has a diverse business sector. According to Co-operatives UK, there are 7,391 co-operatives operating in the UK with a combined annual income of £42.7bn. Co-operatives serve 16.6 million members - an increase of 1.4 million (9.5%) from 2024 levels - and employ almost 240,000 people. The government is taking steps to support further growth the co-operative sector in line with its manifesto commitment to double the size of the co-operative and mutuals sector. This includes funding the Law Commission’s independent review of the Co-operative and Community Benefit Societies Act 2014, which will consider ways to update and modernise the Act. The review is expected to be published by the end of the 2025 and the government will carefully consider its findings before responding. Additionally, at Mansion House 2024 the Chancellor set out a package of measures aimed at supporting the growth of the broader co-operative and mutuals sector. This included welcoming the establishment of the industry-led Mutuals and Co-operative Business Council and asking the PRA and FCA to produce a report on the mutuals landscape by the end of 2025. The Department for Business and Trade has also announced a call for evidence which will explore business support for co-operatives and non-financial mutuals. Together, these will support the growth of the co-operative sector in line with the manifesto commitment.