Written questions by O'Brien.

How many staff were involved in conducting the Research and Development tax relief reform and intensive support Screening Equality Impact Assessment, published on 18 September 2025; and how many hours were spent by (a) Departmental staff and (b) external consultants in its preparation.

Tax policy reforms are implemented by HMRC through projects, to ensure efficient and accurate implementation taking account of customer needs. Projects follow set procedures, monitoring and governance. As part of the governance process, screening equality impact assessments (EQIAs) are delivered by the Project Team to determine whether full assessments are needed. The screening assessment for the R&D reforms published on 18 September concluded that a full assessment was not necessary. The resource and time used for the screening EQIA is part of the policy project delivery resource and not tracked separately. No external consultants were engaged.

What estimate her Department has made of the number of transactions that will take place (a) up to £125,000, (b) from £125,001 to £250,000, (c) from £250,001 to £925,000, (d) from £925,001 to £1.5 million and (e) above £1.5 million in its forecast of residential Stamp Duty Land Tax receipts in the 2029-30 financial year.

A split of forecast property transactions by price band is not available. However, a forecast of overall property transactions from the Office for Budgetary Responsibility is available here: https://obr.uk/forecasts-in-depth/the-economy-forecast/housing-market/#transactions.

What estimate her Department has made of the potential impact of the increase in employer National Insurance contributions on receipts to the Exchequer from the charity and voluntary sector.

The Government recognises the important role charities play in our society and has made it a priority to reset the relationship with civil society by developing a Civil Society Covenant. A Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) was published alongside the introduction of the Bill containing the changes to employer National Insurance contributions. The TIIN sets out the impact of the policy on the exchequer, the economic impacts of the policy, and the impacts on individuals, businesses, 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), which sets out a detailed forecast of the economy and public finances.

On what projects her Department plans to spend the revenue raised from VAT on independent school fees in the (a) 2024-25 and (b) 2025-26 financial years; and how much she plans to allocate to each project.

The Government has taken a number of decisions on tax to stabilise the public finances and support public services. Ending tax breaks for private schools will raise £1.8bn a year. To raise school standards for every child, and break down the barriers to opportunity, the government will increase the core schools budget by £2.0bn in real terms over this Spending Review (2023-24 to 2028-29). This provides a £4.7bn cash increase per year by 2028-29 (compared to 2025-26), which ensures average real terms growth of 1.1% a year per pupil.

How many staff in (a) her Department and (b) HMRC have job titles that include the words (i) equality, (ii) diversity, (iii) inclusion, (iv) gender, (v) LGBT and (vi) race.

HM Treasury has a headcount of 2 staff who have (i) equality, (ii) diversity, (iii) inclusion, (iv) gender, (v) LGBT or (vi) race in their job title. HMRC has a headcount of 12 staff who have (i) equality, (ii) diversity, (iii) inclusion, (iv) gender, (v) LGBT and (vi) race in their job title

What assessment she has made of the compatibility of changes to VAT legislation with the principal of fiscal neutrality.

Fiscal neutrality is a key feature of the VAT system, and helps to ensure market distortions are minimised by equalising the tax treatment of supplies which are identical or sufficiently similar from the point of view of the consumer. When changing VAT legislation the Government considers issues of fiscal neutrality as part of the policy making process.

Whether independent schools under the new interpretation of VAT entities following the Autumn Budget 2024 are their own class of business.

Taxpayers who are required to register for VAT can usually do so online. The ‘Business activity’ section of the VAT registration form requires a full description of all the taxpayer’s business activities, including the type of goods and/or services that they supply. HMRC guidance is for private schools to enter ‘Private Education Provider’ in this section. When registering for VAT, taxpayers are also required to provide Standard Industry Classification (SIC) codes that best describe their business activities. These will depend on their individual circumstances.

Whether the new VAT legislation for private schools led to HMRC amending or redefining the scope of input tax recovery for business who made exempt supplies prior to registration.

VAT incurred prior to registration is not input tax. However, HMRC has discretion under the provisions of Regulation 111 of the VAT Regulations 1995 (SI 1995/2518) to allow such VAT to be treated as input tax, subject to the normal rules. There was therefore no need to amend or redefine the scope of input tax recovery following the introduction of VAT on private school fees.

For what reason the publication of new VAT guidance in October 2024 was following the Budget.

Since 1 January 2025, all education services and vocational training provided by private schools in the UK for a charge have been subject to VAT at the standard rate of 20 per cent. Since the announcement of this policy, HMRC has taken action to support private schools through the change. On 10 October 2024, HMRC published bespoke guidance for private schools, which can be found here: Registering for VAT and Charging and Reclaiming VAT. HMRC published initial guidance ahead of the Budget to maximise the amount of time private schools had to prepare for this policy taking effect. This guidance was updated on 30 October 2024 to reflect the final policy design. Details of guidance updates are available on GOV.UK. As with all guidance, HMRC is keeping the guidance for private schools under review. HMRC continues to engage with private schools and the organisations that represent them.

How private schools who were not previously VAT-registered but did produce taxable supplies that were under the registration threshold will be treated under the new VAT guidance.

A private school, or any other business, making taxable supplies under the threshold has no requirement to register for VAT. Once the value of taxable supplies made exceeds the VAT registration threshold, which currently stands at £90,000, they must register for VAT. On 1 January 2025 supplies of education by private schools become subject to VAT at the standard rate of 20%. These fees must be included with the value of all other taxable supplies in calculating taxable turnover. If the taxable turnover of a private school now exceeds the threshold, either due to supplies of education alone or a mix of education with other taxable supplies, they must register for VAT. This requirement extends to any person over the threshold and to taxable supplies of any nature. The change in legislation and new guidance applies only to supplies of education by a private school and does not affect other taxable supplies.

With reference to the comments of the Chief Secretary to the Treasury on Newsnight on 29 July 2024, what the evidential basis is for the claim that the Government Communication Service spent hundreds of millions of pounds on filming content for Conservative ministers’ social media channels.

The government has taken decisive action to reduce wasteful spend, In Fixing the Foundations, the Chancellor identified £100m of savings from non-essential spending on government communications across 2024-25 and 2025-26. Cabinet Office provided estimates of comms spending during the Public Spending Audit, announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in July 2024. Estimates were based on internal Government Communication Service data on campaigns planned by Departments and arm's length bodies at the time of commissioning. These indicate that UK Government was expected to spend £449m on communications campaigns during 24/25. This includes communications considered operationally critical, for example, required to fulfil a statutory duty, life-saving, or required for the efficient functioning of a public service. At Autumn Budget 2024, the Chancellor announced that the Government Communications Service is expecting to save £50m in 2024-25 and £85 million from reducing unnecessary communications spend in 2025-26 – exceeding the £100 million target set out in July.

With reference to the consultation entitled Technical consultation - Inheritance Tax on pensions: liability, reporting and payment, published on 30 October 2024, if she will make an estimate of how much tax revenue will be raised following the extension of inheritance tax on death-in-service payments for military families in each of the next five years.

The costing for including inheritable pension wealth in the value of the estate for inheritance tax purposes from April 2027 was certified by the OBR at the 2024 Autumn Budget as ‘reasonable and central’. Additional information on the costing methodology can be found in the OBR’s Economic and fiscal outlook – CP 1169.The specific revenue raised as part of this costing from the extension of inheritance tax to death-in-service payments for military families in each of the next five years is not available as the data does not distinguish whether a taxpayer is or was a member of the Armed Forces.Estates of service personnel will benefit from the normal nil-rate bands, reliefs, and exemptions available. For example, the nil-rate bands mean an estate can pass on up to £1 million and the general rules mean any transfers, including the payment of death benefits, to a spouse or civil partner are exempt fully from inheritance tax. There is also a full exemption from inheritance tax when a member of the armed forces dies from a wound inflicted, accident occurring, or disease contracted on active service.

What estimate she has made of personal remittances from the United Kingdom in each of the last five years, broken down by region.

Remittances from the United Kingdom to other countries are not taxable, as such HMRC does not hold this data.

Whether pupils enrolled on courses covered by the Music and Dance scheme will be exempt from VAT increases in the next financial year.

Performing arts schools that offer full-time education to children of compulsory school age and/or 16-19 year olds for a charge are in scope of the application of VAT to private school fees. This is to ensure fairness and consistency across all schools that provide education services and vocational training for a charge. It is the government’s position, therefore, that carving these schools out of the policy would be unfair to other private schools. The Department for Education provides means-tested bursaries for eligible families as part of the Music and Dance Scheme (MDS) if their child has a place at any one of eight MDS performing arts private schools. For this academic year 2024/25, lower income families will receive additional support to ensure the total cost of their parental contributions do not rise from January 2025 as a result of the VAT change. This means that almost half of eligible families will be receiving further support in addition to the bursary already provided. As part of the MDS, the Department also provides a grant to the Choir Schools Association (CSA) for their Choir Schools Scholarship Scheme. This scheme provides means-tested support to choristers attending CSA member schools. Whether member schools charge VAT from 1 January 2025 on their education fee will vary, depending on whether schools are private or state-funded.

Whether pupils receiving dance and drama award funding will be exempt from increases in VAT in (a) this academic year and (b) subsequent financial years.

Performing arts schools that offer full-time education to children of compulsory school age and/or 16-19 year olds for a charge are in scope of the application of VAT to private school fees. This is to ensure fairness and consistency across all schools that provide education services and vocational training for a charge. It is the government’s position, therefore, that carving these schools out of the policy would be unfair to other private schools. The Department for Education provides means-tested bursaries for eligible families as part of the Music and Dance Scheme (MDS) if their child has a place at any one of eight MDS performing arts private schools. For this academic year 2024/25, lower income families will receive additional support to ensure the total cost of their parental contributions do not rise from January 2025 as a result of the VAT change. This means that almost half of eligible families will be receiving further support in addition to the bursary already provided. As part of the MDS, the Department also provides a grant to the Choir Schools Association (CSA) for their Choir Schools Scholarship Scheme. This scheme provides means-tested support to choristers attending CSA member schools. Whether member schools charge VAT from 1 January 2025 on their education fee will vary, depending on whether schools are private or state-funded.

Whether pupils on the choir schools scholarship scheme will be exempt from increases in VAT in (a) this academic year and (b) subsequent financial years.

Performing arts schools that offer full-time education to children of compulsory school age and/or 16-19 year olds for a charge are in scope of the application of VAT to private school fees. This is to ensure fairness and consistency across all schools that provide education services and vocational training for a charge. It is the government’s position, therefore, that carving these schools out of the policy would be unfair to other private schools. The Department for Education provides means-tested bursaries for eligible families as part of the Music and Dance Scheme (MDS) if their child has a place at any one of eight MDS performing arts private schools. For this academic year 2024/25, lower income families will receive additional support to ensure the total cost of their parental contributions do not rise from January 2025 as a result of the VAT change. This means that almost half of eligible families will be receiving further support in addition to the bursary already provided. As part of the MDS, the Department also provides a grant to the Choir Schools Association (CSA) for their Choir Schools Scholarship Scheme. This scheme provides means-tested support to choristers attending CSA member schools. Whether member schools charge VAT from 1 January 2025 on their education fee will vary, depending on whether schools are private or state-funded.

With reference to paragraph 2.41 of the Autumn Budget, published on 24 October 2024, what estimate he has made of the potential cost to the public purse of the increase in the employment allowance in each year of the forecast period.

The Government has protected the smallest businesses from the impact of the increase to Employer National Insurance by increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500, which means that 865,000 employers will pay no NICs at all next year, more than half of employers will see no change or will gain overall from this package, and all eligible employers will be able to employ up to four full-time workers on the National Living Wage and pay no employer NICs. The estimated cost of the increase to the Employment Allowance is set out in the table below: (£m)2025-262026-272027-282028-292029-30Cost of increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,5003,7303,5553,5703,6003,630

With reference to the official statistics entitled Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 2024, CP 1131, published on 30 July 2024, if she will publish by Department the data provided in Table 6.5.

Underlying data for table 6.5 will become available on 28 November when the Annual OSCAR Transparency Release is published on GOV.UK. As an alternative, economic category data based on departmental budgets (PESA table 2.1) are available from the “Public Spending Statistics (PSS) July 2024: database” webpage:https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/public-spending-statistics-release-july-2024

What the cost of employer National Insurance Contributions was for (a) central Government, (b) local government and (c) the whole of government in each of the last five financial years; what estimate she has made of those costs for the (i) 2025-26 financial year and (ii) subsequent four financial years; and what proportion of the total public sector pay bill Employer National Insurance accounted for in each of last five financial years.

The Treasury does not collect spending information on this basis. However, as set out in the Autumn Budget, the government has set aside funding to support the public sector with employer National Insurance Contributions. The amounts are £4.7bn in 2025-26, £4.7bn in 2026-27, £4.8bn in 2027-28, £4.9bn in 2028-29 and £5.1bn in 2029-30.

With reference to the note entitled Allowance for impact on public sector organisations in Table 5.1 on page 118 of Autumn Budget 2024, published on 30 October 2024, HC 295, if she will publish this information by Department.

The Government will provide support for departments and other public sector employers for additional Employer National Insurance Contributions costs only. This funding will be allocated to departments, with the Barnett formula applying in the usual way.This is in line with the approach taken under the previous Government’s Health and Social Care Levy.The Government plans to update Parliament on allocations by department in the usual way as soon as possible.