Written questions by Duncan-Jordan.

What assessment her Department has made of HMRC's ability to collect unpaid taxes.

HMRC is committed to making sure that individuals and businesses who can pay, do so on time. Since Autumn Budget 2024, HMRC has received £782 million of investment in its debt collection activities, which will help it to collect over £12 billion more debt by the end of 2030-31. HMRC published an update to its tax debt strategy at Budget 2025, outlining how the recent investment is helping to close the tax gap and reduce tax debt year-on-year as a percentage of receipts. The tax debt balance as a percentage of receipts fell from 5.2% in 2023-24 to 5% in 2024-25, and HMRC is aiming for this to decrease to between 3% and 4% by 2029-30. HMRC has effective processes in place to collect debt including telephone and letter campaigns, strategic partnerships with private sector debt collection agencies, and where necessary, enforcement action. For customers who need financial support, it offers flexible Time to Pay payment plans which collect debt in affordable and sustainable instalments. HMRC publishes quarterly performance updates on GOV.UK. You can find this here:

What steps the Government is taking to reduce inflation in the prices of food.

The Government has announced a Food Inflation Gateway to assess and monitor regulation that could add to food prices. This will improve coordination and give food businesses a clear line of sight on upcoming regulatory changes, helping to keep costs downThe Government is also negotiating an agri-food agreement with the EU to reduce trade frictions, which is expected to save businesses up to £200 per fresh food shipment, helping to limit cost pressures across supply chains.In addition, supermarkets will see a reduction in their total business rates bills in 2026/27 compared with 2025/26, and this will be kept under review at the next revaluation. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) does not expect changes in business rates to have a material impact on food inflation.Overall, the OBR’s forecast shows government policy will reduce CPI inflation by 0.4 percentage points in 2026/27. This is the biggest near-term reduction in inflation due to government policy ever forecast by the OBR at a single fiscal event, outside of a crisis.

With reference to the Budget Statement on 26 November 2025, what estimate her Department has made of how many retail, hospitality and leisure businesses in Poole will benefit from lower business rates.

The Government is delivering a long overdue reform to rebalance the business rates system and support the high street, as promised in our manifesto. The Government is doing this by introducing new permanently lower tax rates for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure properties. These new tax rates are worth nearly £900 million per year, and will benefit over 750,000 properties, including around 104,600 in the South West of England.

Whether she plans to remove the VAT exemption for vehicles adapted for use by disabled people.

The government has no plans to remove the VAT relief for vehicles designed for, or substantially and permanently adapted for, wheelchair or stretcher users. At Budget 2025 the government announced tax changes to the Motability scheme. These changes will only impact new leases, and VAT reliefs within the scheme for weekly lease costs and vehicle resale will remain in place.

Pursuant to Budget reference 4.167 on State Pension and Simple Assessment, whether the Government conducted an impact assessment of delivering the measure on an opt-in basis rather than through universal provision.

The State Pension is taxable income along with other pension income. The Budget confirmed that the basic and new State Pension will be uprated by 4.8% in 2026-27, in line with our commitment to the Triple Lock. This means pensioners whose sole income is the basic or new State Pension without any increments will not pay income tax in 2026-27. The Budget announced that the Government will ease the administrative burden for pensioners whose sole income is the basic or new State Pension without any increments so that they do not have to pay small amounts of tax via Simple Assessment from 2027-28. The Government will set out more detail next year.

What assessment she has made of the potential merits of (a) reducing or (b) removing the interest paid to commercial banks on the reserves those banks hold with the Bank of England.

Monetary policy, including quantitative easing, is the responsibility of the independent Monetary Policy Committee at the Bank of England. The separation of fiscal and monetary policy is a key feature of the UK’s economic framework, and essential for the effective delivery of monetary policy, so the government does not comment on the conduct or effectiveness of monetary policy. Paying interest on reserves is an important part of the transmission of monetary policy to the real economy. There are no plans to change the way reserves are remunerated at the Bank of England. The government is providing the stability required for the independent Monetary Policy Committee to bring inflation to target, by managing the public finances responsibly.

What assessment she has made of the potential reasons for recent trends in the levels of people that have been mistakenly recorded as having left the UK and subsequently had their child benefit stopped by HMRC.

As part of its ongoing efforts to reduce error and fraud in the Child Benefit system, HMRC undertook a pilot last year using international travel data. This pilot saw thousands of people who had left the UK but carried on claiming Child Benefit removed from the system, preventing around £17m in incorrect payments. This led to the expansion of the measure and investment in an additional 180 counter-fraud staff, announced at the Autumn Budget 2024, and is expected to save around £350 million over the next five years. In expanding the process over the past few months, a check of HMRC PAYE systems to look for continuing UK employment was excluded on around 23,500 enquiries in order to streamline the process, with a view to employment status being tested as part of any subsequent customer enquiry.   We have apologised for this. Following concerns being raised, swift action was taken to improve the processes. A decision was made on 29 October to reinstate the employment check for all cases with immediate effect, meaning that HMRC’s risking has a higher success rate for identifying ineligible claims. HMRC reviewed all compliance cases already opened and conducted a PAYE check. These checks were completed on 14 November. As of 31 October 2025, 3,673 out of 23,794 customers who have had a compliance enquiry opened following the expansion of the pilot have had their eligibility subsequently confirmed. Where there was evidence that customers had continued UK employment, HMRC reinstated payments automatically without any need for customer contact and those payments have been backdated. By the end of November, HMRC will have written to all customers who have not yet contacted them to provide a further 4 weeks to make contact. HMRC has also responded to the Treasury Select Committee to outline the steps it has taken in relation to this issue.

What she is taking to ensure that UK residents are not mistakenly recorded as having left the UK and subsequently have their child benefit stopped by HMRC.

As part of its ongoing efforts to reduce error and fraud in the Child Benefit system, HMRC undertook a pilot last year using international travel data. This pilot saw thousands of people who had left the UK but carried on claiming Child Benefit removed from the system, preventing around £17m in incorrect payments. This led to the expansion of the measure and investment in an additional 180 counter-fraud staff, announced at the Autumn Budget 2024, and is expected to save around £350 million over the next five years. In expanding the process over the past few months, a check of HMRC PAYE systems to look for continuing UK employment was excluded on around 23,500 enquiries in order to streamline the process, with a view to employment status being tested as part of any subsequent customer enquiry. We have apologised for this. Following concerns being raised, swift action was taken to improve the processes. A decision was made on 29 October to reinstate the employment check for all cases with immediate effect, meaning that HMRC’s risking has a higher success rate for identifying ineligible claims. HMRC reviewed all compliance cases already opened and conducted a PAYE check. These checks were completed for all customers on 14 November. Where there was evidence that customers had continued UK employment, HMRC reinstated payments automatically without any need for customer contact and those payments have been backdated. By the end of November, HMRC will have written to all customers who have not yet contacted them to provide a further 4 weeks to make contact.

What estimate she has made of the number of people who have been mistakenly recorded as having left the UK and subsequently had their child benefit stopped by HMRC in the last 12 months.

As part of its ongoing efforts to reduce error and fraud in the Child Benefit system, HMRC undertook a pilot last year using international travel data. This pilot saw thousands of people who had left the UK but carried on claiming Child Benefit removed from the system, preventing around £17m in incorrect payments. This led to the expansion of the measure and investment in an additional 180 counter-fraud staff, announced at the Autumn Budget 2024, and is expected to save around £350 million over the next five years. In expanding the process over the past few months, a check of HMRC PAYE systems to look for continuing UK employment was excluded on around 23,500 enquiries in order to streamline the process, with a view to employment status being tested as part of any subsequent customer enquiry.   We have apologised for this. Following concerns being raised, swift action was taken to improve the processes. A decision was made on 29 October to reinstate the employment check for all cases with immediate effect, meaning that HMRC’s risking has a higher success rate for identifying ineligible claims. HMRC reviewed all compliance cases already opened and conducted a PAYE check. These checks were completed on 14 November. As of 31 October 2025, 3,673 out of 23,794 customers who have had a compliance enquiry opened following the expansion of the pilot have had their eligibility subsequently confirmed. Where there was evidence that customers had continued UK employment, HMRC reinstated payments automatically without any need for customer contact and those payments have been backdated. By the end of November, HMRC will have written to all customers who have not yet contacted them to provide a further 4 weeks to make contact. HMRC has also responded to the Treasury Select Committee to outline the steps it has taken in relation to this issue.

What assessment she has made as to the potential merits of Transitional Tax-Free Amount Certificates.

A Transitional Tax-Free Amount Certificate (TTFAC) is an official document issued by a pension scheme provider or insurer. It confirms the actual amount of tax-free lump sums an individual received before 6 April 2024, when the Lifetime Allowance was abolished. Since the Lifetime Allowance was abolished, a standard calculation is used to establish an individual’s remaining tax-free allowances, unless an application for a TTFAC has been made. The standard calculation assumes that 25% of all benefits taken before April 2024 were tax-free.This assumption can disadvantage individuals who:• Took less than 25% tax-free cash,• Waived their tax-free lump sum entitlement, or• Had complex arrangements or protections.The TTFAC allows individuals who are disadvantaged by the standard calculation to evidence the actual tax-free amount they took, potentially increasing their remaining tax-free allowances to better reflect the position they were in prior to the abolition of the Lifetime Allowance.

If she will make an estimate of the value of uncollected tax in each of the last five financial years.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) estimates the size of the tax gap, which is the difference between the amount of tax that should, in theory, be paid to HMRC, and what is actually paid. The tax gap statistics and details of the estimate methodologies are published annually and are available at: Measuring tax gaps 2025 edition: tax gap estimates for 2023 to 2024 - GOV.UK. Table 1.3 of the online tables shows the tax gap time series between tax years 2005 to 2006 and 2023 to 2024 in percentage and absolute value terms. In the tax year 2023 to 2024, the tax gap was 5.3% of total theoretical tax liabilities, or £46.8 billion in absolute terms. The tax gap was 5.6% (£46.4 billion) in 2022 to 2023, 5.6% (£41.8 billion) in 2021 to 2022, 5.3% (£34.2 billion) in 2020 to 2021, and 5.8% (£38.5 billion) in 2019 to 2020. The online tables are available at: Measuring tax gaps tables - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Whether she has considered the potential merits of requiring businesses to pay a tax equivalent to employer National Insurance contributions for each AI agent that performs tasks previously done by people.

Employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) are charged based on employee earnings. As AI agents do not receive earnings, it is not clear on what basis employer NICs would be levied.

What assessment she has made of the potential merits of removing VAT from children’s bicycles.

VAT is a broad-based tax on consumption and the 20 per cent standard rate applies to most goods and services. Taxation is a vital source of revenue that helps to fund vital public services. Evidence suggests that businesses only partially pass on any savings from lower VAT rates. In some cases, reliefs do not represent good value for money, as there is no guarantee that savings will be passed on to consumers.

Whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of changes to landfill taxation on house prices.

The Government recently consulted on proposals for reform of Landfill Tax to ensure the regime remains effective in encouraging waste to be diverted away from landfill and to support our environmental goals. As part of the consultation, the Government has received a wide range of views from stakeholders, including representatives from the construction sector. The consultation closed on 28 July, and the government is considering responses and will set out next steps, including a summary of responses, in due course. This government is committed to delivering 1.5 million homes over 5 years as set out in the Plan for Change, and any final proposals will be designed to maintain the environmental effectiveness of the tax while supporting these plans.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of replacing corporation tax rules with a progressive tax based on turnover of companies trading in the UK.

To support stability and predictability for businesses, the government published the Corporate Tax Roadmap at the Autumn Budget 2024. Central to this is a commitment to maintain a competitive and sustainable main rate of Corporation Tax by capping it at 25 percent for the duration of this parliament, including generous relief such as Capital Allowances, R&D tax reliefs, and the Patent Box regime. The roadmap confirms the core features of the tax regime, with consultations planned for potential future changes to ensure a stable business environment and promote growth. Turnover taxes tend to be more distortive as they do not account for businesses expenses. In contrast the UK’s Corporation Tax is levied on profits, meaning businesses are taxed on what they actually earn after deducting eligible costs, such as wages, and offers a wide range of competitive reliefs to encourage business investment.

What recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of HMRC processes for collecting outstanding tax payments.

HMRC is committed to making sure that individuals and businesses who can pay, do so on time. Autumn Budget 2024 and Spring Statement 2025 allocated a further £629 million to HMRC’s debt collection activities, which will help it to collect over £11 billion more debt by the end of 2029-30. HMRC announced in its Transformation Roadmap that it will provide more detail by the end of 2025 on how it will reduce debt year on year as a percentage of receipts. HMRC has effective processes in place to collect outstanding payments including telephone and letter campaigns, strategic partnerships with private sector debt collection agencies, and where necessary, enforcement action. For customers who need financial support, it offers flexible Time to Pay payment plans which collect debt in affordable and sustainable instalments. HMRC continually reviews and refines its approach to ensure that its interventions remain effective and provide appropriate support to customers.

What steps she is taking to compensate those adversely affected by the Loan Charge scandal.

At Autumn Budget 2024, the government committed to an independent review of the Loan Charge to help bring the matter to a close for those affected whilst ensuring fairness for all taxpayers. The Government will respond by Autumn Budget 2025.

How much additional income was raised from the (a) increase in the National Insurance rate in April 2025 and (b) lowering of the National Insurance threshold.

Estimates for the additional static revenue expected to be raised from the employer NICs changes, announced at Autumn Budget 2024 and which came into force in April 2025, can be found in the OBR Supplementary forecast information on static costing of changes to Employer National Insurance Contributions. Further information, including on behavioural impacts can be found in Chapter 3.8 of the OBR Economic and fiscal outlook – October 2024.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of reducing VAT on the hospitality sector in line with rates in other European countries on (a) the economy and (b) the tourist industry.

The Government recognises the significant contribution made by hospitality businesses to economic growth and social life in the UK. VAT is the UK’s third largest tax, forecast to raise £180 billion in 2025/26. Tax breaks reduce the revenue available for vital public services and must represent value for money for the taxpayer.HMRC estimate that the cost of a 5 per cent reduced rate for accommodation, hospitality and tourist attractions would be around £13 billion this financial year. If the scope were also to include alcoholic beverages, the cost would be approximately £3 billion greater. We keep all taxes under review, and the Chancellor makes decisions on tax changes at the Budget, in the context of the overall public finances.

Whether overall receipts from National Insurance were higher in June 2025 than June 2024.

Monthly receipts for National Insurance Contributions are published in HMRC tax receipts and National Insurance Contributions for the UK statistics publication. Provisional National Insurance receipts in June 2025 were £15,296m, higher than the £12,988m reported for June 2024.