Written questions by Wilson.

Whether she has made an assessment of how many post offices will be affected by the proposed changes in business rates.

The Government recognises the vital role that the Post Office plays in the economy and wider society At the Budget, the Government acted to limit increases in business rates bills, announcing a support package worth £4.3 billion. The Government has also introduced new permanently lower tax rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure properties. These new tax rates are worth nearly £1 billion per year and benefit over 750,000 properties. Post offices are also eligible for 100 per cent rural rate relief if they meet certain conditions. Further data related to the 2026 revaluation can be found at: Non-domestic rating: change in rateable value of rating lists, England and Wales, 2026 Revaluation (compiled list) - GOV.UK

What support she is providing to post offices to help with changes in the level of business rates.

The Government recognises the vital role that the Post Office plays in the economy and wider society At the Budget, the Government acted to limit increases in business rates bills, announcing a support package worth £4.3 billion. The Government has also introduced new permanently lower tax rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure properties. These new tax rates are worth nearly £1 billion per year and benefit over 750,000 properties. Post offices are also eligible for 100 per cent rural rate relief if they meet certain conditions. Further data related to the 2026 revaluation can be found at: Non-domestic rating: change in rateable value of rating lists, England and Wales, 2026 Revaluation (compiled list) - GOV.UK

Whether she has made an assessment how many post offices that will close as a result of the changes to business rates.

The Government recognises the vital role that the Post Office plays in the economy and wider society At the Budget, the Government acted to limit increases in business rates bills, announcing a support package worth £4.3 billion. The Government has also introduced new permanently lower tax rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure properties. These new tax rates are worth nearly £1 billion per year and benefit over 750,000 properties. Post offices are also eligible for 100 per cent rural rate relief if they meet certain conditions. Further data related to the 2026 revaluation can be found at: Non-domestic rating: change in rateable value of rating lists, England and Wales, 2026 Revaluation (compiled list) - GOV.UK

What assessment she has made of the potential merits of including the weight of the vehicle in the review of Vehicle Excise Duty.

Vehicle Excise Duty is a tax on vehicles used or kept on public roads. For certain vehicle classifications, VED liability is partially calculated in accordance with the vehicle’s weight, reflecting the greater road damage caused by heavier vehicles. For example, Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) VED rates are set based on a vehicle’s weight, suspension and trailer. The Government annually reviews the rates and thresholds of taxes and reliefs to ensure that they are appropriate and reflect the current state of the economy. The Chancellor makes decisions on tax policy at fiscal events in the context of the public finances.

If she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the rise in Employer's National Insurance Contributions on businesses hiring women and young people.

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.The Office for Budget Responsibility also published the Economic and Fiscal Outlook (EFO) in March 2026, which sets out a detailed forecast of the economy and public finances. The OBR expect that employment levels will rise in every year of the forecast, reaching 35.3m in 2030-31.The Government is committed to supporting young people to earn and learn. That is why we have recently announced that we will offer a guaranteed job to young people on Universal Credit, who are unemployed for over 18 months. This will provide an opportunity for young people to gain essential skills and experience and prevent the damaging effects of long-term unemployment. This initiative forms a key part of the Government’s Youth Guarantee and will build upon existing employment support and sector-based work academies (SWAPs) currently being delivered by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)Employers can claim a number of employer NICs reliefs including those for under-21s and under-25 apprentices. This means employers will pay no employer NICs for apprentices under 25 or employees under 21 on earnings up to £50,270.

If she will take steps to improve accessibility for SMEs to the research and development tax credit system.

The Government recognises the important role that research and development (R&D) plays in driving innovation and economic growth as well as the benefits it can bring for society. At Autumn Budget 2024, the Government committed to maintaining the generosity of the rates in both the merged R&D Expenditure Credit (RDEC) scheme and the Enhanced Support for R&D Intensive SMEs (ERIS) scheme. This, combined with the commitment to cap the headline rate of Corporation Tax, means that companies doing qualifying R&D will continue to receive between £15 to £27 for every £100 spent on R&D. Notably, the ERIS scheme will provide around £1.3 billion of relief per year to roughly 20,000 R&D intensive, loss-making SMEs. The Government is also taking steps to improve the administration of the reliefs, to make it easier and more reliable for legitimate claimants while continuing to protect taxpayer money from unacceptable levels of error and fraud in the system. HMRC is working with the Expert Advisory Panel which will provide it with cutting edge technical expertise to inform policy and operations. HMRC also operates an advance assurances service to help SMEs applying for the tax credits and will pilot an expanded service this spring, enabling more firms to use it.

If she will publish what the new asset efficiency target will be broken down by department.

At Budget 2025, the Government announced a £1 billion asset efficiency target for departments to meet by 2030. The target will be met through a combination of asset disposals and new income generated from assets.The Government announced a Strategic Asset Review in support of this target, which will be conducted ahead of the next spending review.

If she will publish the (a) purpose and (b) remit of the Strategic Asset Review announced in the Autumn Budget 2025.

To further improve its management of the public sector balance sheet, at Budget 2025 the Government announced a Strategic Asset Review in support of the new £1 billion asset efficiency target. The Treasury will lead the review, which will be conducted ahead of the next spending review, and will engage with departments in due course.

What assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of increasing draft duty relief for (a) consumers, (b) pubs and (c) breweries in Twickenham constituency.

The Chancellor’s draught rate cut at Autumn Budget 2024 applied to approximately 60% of the alcoholic drinks sold in pubs. This took a penny of duty off a typical strength pint at a cost to the Exchequer of over £85m a year.  Draught beer and cider now pay 13.9% less in duty than their packaged equivalents – an increase of over 50% on the previous draught discount of 9.2%.The Chancellor makes decisions on tax policy at fiscal events. The Government welcomes representations from the beer and pub sectors in advance of the Budget.

Whether funding for climate adaptation will be included in the spending review.

The Government recognises that preparing for the future means adapting to the effects of climate change. Without action, flooding, coastal erosion and other climate hazards will pose greater risks to lives, livelihoods and people’s wellbeing. As set out in the Autumn Budget, the Government is investing in climate adaptation to protect the economy from the impacts of climate change, confirming investment of £2.4 billion over two years to support flood resilience and over £400 million for tree planting and peatland restoration, which will contribute to resilience. The allocation of funding beyond 2025-26 will be confirmed through Phase 2 of the Spending Review in June.

If she will take steps to support self-employed people who were excluded from financial support during the pandemic.

Decisions on eligibility for Covid-19 financial support were taken by the previous government. The previous Government decided to provide support through the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) and Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) based on two principles, a) targeting support at those who needed it most and b), guarding against error, fraud, and abuse, whilst reaching as many individuals as possible. Those ineligible for the schemes may have been eligible for other elements of financial support provided by the previous Government.The current Government is working to improve living standards for everyone across the country. We are taking immediate action to support individuals, such as committing to no increases in employee National Insurance, Income Tax or VAT as we want to keep taxes low for working people. The Government has put growth as its number one mission, which will help individuals by boosting wages and putting more money in people’s pockets.

Pursuant to the Answer of 17 February 2025 to Question 29915 on Parental Pay, how many people were in receipt of (a) Statutory Maternity Pay, (b) Statutory Paternity Pay, (c) Statutory Adoption Pay and (d) Statutory Shared Parental Pay in 2023-24.

Counts of employees receiving Statutory Maternity Pay, Statutory Paternity Pay, Statutory Adoption Pay, and Statutory Shared Parental Pay in 2023-24 have been published in response to an earlier Parliamentary Question. They can be found at the following location: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2024-12-18/21027

Pursuant to the Answer of 8 January 2025 to Question 21417 on Equitable Life Assurance Society: Compensation, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing full financial redress in cases where the state has accepted responsibility for personal (a) injustice and (b) financial loss.

In 2010 the government allocated up to £1.5 billon, tax free, for payment to affected policyholders and this decision was in line with the Ombudsman’s report. More detail on the history of the action taken on this issue can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/equitable-life-payment-scheme-final-report. Since the Scheme closed in 2016, the Government’s position on this issue has been clear, that there are no plans to reopen any decisions relating to the Payment Scheme and this issue is considered closed.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of changes in mortgage interest tax relief on private landlords since the inception of those measures in April 2017.

The previous government phased in a set of reforms to restrict finance cost relief to the equivalent of the basic rate of income tax. Before these reforms, it was available at a landlord’s marginal rate. As a result, all individual landlords now receive the same rate of tax relief on their mortgage interest, whereas previously higher rate taxpayers received more generous relief than those on lower incomes. The reforms have also reduced the disparity in income tax treatment between homeowners and landlords.

How many people were in receipt of (a) Statutory Maternity Pay, (b) Statutory Paternity Pay, (c) Statutory Adoption Pay and (d) Statutory Shared Parental Pay in the (i) 2019-20 (ii) 2020-21 (iii) 2021-22 and (iv) 2022-23 financial year.

Data for the number of people in receipt of Statutory Maternity pay, Statutory Paternity Pay, Statutory Adoption Pay, and Statutory Shared Parental Pay is provided in the table below. 2019-202020-212021-222022-23Statutory Maternity Pay647,800627,200636,000627,500Statutory Paternity Pay208,000176,400204,200195,300Statutory Adoption Pay4,9004,4004,6004,500Statutory Shared Parental Pay13,00011,20013,00014,200 Notes:1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in December 2024. RTI is subject to revision or updates.2) Claimants number has been rounded to nearest 100.

If she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the recommendations outlined in the Fairness Foundation's report entitled Wealth Gap Risk Register, published on 15 October 2024.

While income and wealth are not always directly correlated, distributional analysis shows that Government decisions at Autumn Budget 2024 and Spending Review 2025, Phase 1 are progressive and benefit households in the lowest income deciles the most, on average as a percentage of income in 2025-26. The Government is committed to making sure the wealthiest in our society pay their fair share of tax. That is why the Chancellor announced a series of reforms at Autumn Budget 2024 to help fix the public finances in as fair a way as possible. The increases in tax are concentrated on the highest income households. Overall, on average, all but the richest 10% of households will benefit from policy decisions in 2025-26.

With reference to Fairness Foundation and King's College's report Identifying and mitigating the risks of wealth inequality in the UK, published on 26 January 2025, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of the findings of that report.

While income and wealth are not always directly correlated, distributional analysis shows that Government decisions at Autumn Budget 2024 and Spending Review 2025, Phase 1 are progressive and benefit households in the lowest income deciles the most, on average as a percentage of income in 2025-26. The Government is committed to making sure the wealthiest in our society pay their fair share of tax. That is why the Chancellor announced a series of reforms at Autumn Budget 2024 to help fix the public finances in as fair a way as possible. The increases in tax are concentrated on the highest income households. Overall, on average, all but the richest 10% of households will benefit from policy decisions in 2025-26.

What steps her Department plans to take to support family owned small and medium sized enterprises with changes in the level of (a) the National Living Wage and (b) Business Property Relief.

At Autumn Budget, the Government took a number of difficult but necessary decisions on tax, welfare, and spending to restore economic stability, fix the public finances, and support public services. These were tough decisions given the situation we inherited from the previous administration, but the Government has done so in a way that makes the tax system fairer and more sustainable.Specifically to support small and medium businesses, including family businesses, the Budget announced generous tax reforms including more than doubling the employment allowance to £10,500, maintaining the Small Profits Rate and marginal relief at their current rates and thresholds, maintaining the Annual Investment Allowance, and freezing the small businesses multiplier for 2025-26.The government has protected smaller family businesses from BPR changes, providing a very significant level of relief with the first £1 million of business assets continuing to receive 100% relief and then 50% thereafter.Each year, the independent Low Pay Commission produces recommendations to the Government on the National Living Wage rates. At Autumn Budget, the Government accepted the LPC’s recommendations on the rates in full, meaning that NLW rate will rise to £12.21 per hour from April 2025.

If she will update the Green Book to allow for the valuation of the reduced carbon footprint of UK produced materials as opposed to imported ones.

The Green Book has supplementary guidance on the valuation of energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. This is found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65aadd020ff90c000f955f17/valuation-of-energy-use-and-greenhouse-gas-emissions-for-appraisal.pdf That supplementary guidance notes that appraisals should consider the greenhouse gas emissions content of all of the materials that are used to implement a proposal. This applies both to materials produced in the UK, as well as those imported from abroad.

How many people were in receipt of (a) Statutory Maternity Pay, (b) Statutory Paternity Pay, (c) Statutory Adoption Pay and (d) Statutory Shared Parental Pay in the 2023-24 financial year.

Data for number of people in receipt of Statutory Maternity pay, Statutory Paternity Pay, Statutory Adoption Pay, and Statutory Shared Parental Pay is provided in the table below. Totals for 2023-24Statutory Maternity Pay623,100Statutory Paternity Pay207,600Statutory Adoption Pay4,500Statutory Shared Parental Pay17,200Notes:1) Data collected using HMRC Real Time Information (RTI) and extracted in August 2024. RTI is subject to revision or updates.2) Claimants number has been rounded to nearest 100.