Written questions by Law.

What progress has been made towards global debt reform in discussions with the London Coalition.

The government is committed to working with our international partners and the private sector to tackle unsustainable debt. The London Coalition for Sustainable Sovereign Debt, initiated last year, continues to make progress on bolstering the private sector international debt architecture. The Coalition aims to promote greater resilience and debt sustainability for debtor countries through contractual innovations and enhanced coordination of creditors. The bonded debt working group continue to advance work on pause clauses, which suspend interest payments when events like climate shocks occur. This includes consulting with key stakeholders on their input paper published in November. The non-bonded debt working group is developing guidelines for how private sector creditors can better coordinate themselves during debt restructurings.

What steps her Department is taking to consider the needs of the visitor economy when assessing place-based funding decisions.

The Government recognises the important role of the visitor economy sector, and has set an ambitious goal to grow inbound tourism. These will be set out in more detail when the Department for Culture, Media and Sport publishes its Visitor Economy Growth Strategy. In September the government launched an overarching Pride in Place programme, providing up to £5bn over 10 years to support almost 250 places. In addition, the Pride in Place Impact Fund will provide around £150 million of funding to 95 places to support the development of shared spaces, revitalise local high streets and improve the public realm, all of which have benefits for the visitor economy. Following the Green Book Review, HM Treasury is working with relevant departments, as well as local and regional government, to develop place-based business cases. This will bring together the different Departments needed to achieve the objectives of a particular place.

Whether she plans to increase the personal allowance in 2028-29.

The Government is committed to keeping taxes for working people as low as possible while ensuring fiscal responsibility. The Chancellor makes decisions on tax policy at fiscal events.

Whether she has assessed the potential merits of increasing the VAT registration threshold in line with inflation.

At £90,000, the UK has a higher VAT registration threshold than any EU country and the joint highest in the OECD. This means the majority of UK businesses are kept out of the VAT system.

What steps her Department is taking with the Valuation Office Agency to reduce the time taken to process business rates assessments for self-catering accommodation.

I refer my honourable friend to the answer that I gave to PQ UIN 46809 on 30 April 2025. https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2025-04-22/46809

What assessment she has made of the adequacy of the Office for Budget Responsibility's methodology for understanding fiscal multipliers.

The independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is responsible for preparing forecasts for the UK economy and public finances. This includes an assessment of the impact of government policies, where the OBR regularly reviews and publish papers on its approach. The OBR assesses the demand side impacts of policy using multipliers – these estimate the impact on real GDP from government policy. The OBR’s multiplier framework is described in Dynamic scoring of policy measures in OBR forecasts. The OBR also takes account of how specific policies affect the supply side of the economy. This approach is set out in Forecasting potential output - the supply side of the economy. The OBR have also recently published a new framework for assessing public investment which can be found in the OBR’s Discussion Paper No. 5: Public investment and potential output. This framework was used in the Autumn Budget 2024, where the OBR judged the increase in departmental capital spending would directly raise potential output by 1.1 percent by 2073-74. The Chancellor and OBR Budget Responsibility Committee speak regularly, and there is an ongoing dialogue at official level on a range of issues. This includes the OBR’s approach to preparing forecasts for the UK economy and public finances. The OBR committed to reviewing their demand multipliers in their most recent forecast, published on Wednesday 26th March 2025.

If she hold discussions with HMRC on the potential merits of extending terms for the collection of taxes from businesses; and if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of doing so on working capital for businesses.

HMRC takes its responsibility seriously to make sure that individuals and businesses who can pay, do so on time. Where taxpayers need additional support, they can enter into payment arrangements with HMRC, allowing taxpayers to pay their tax, including VAT and PAYE, via instalments.Companies pay Corporation Tax nine months and one day after the end of the accounting period, or in quarterly payments if they are a large company.At the Spring Statement the Government announced further measures to close the tax gap, to ensure more taxpayers pay the tax they owe.

Whether her Department has considered introducing a small levy on imported sugar; and if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of such a levy on (a) tariff revenues following the suspension of Ukrainian sugar tariffs and (b) incentives in the food and beverage industry to transition to sweeteners.

The UK already has significant tariffs on UK sugar imports which are imported via the Most Favoured Nation route. These are £280 per tonne for cane sugar for refining and £350 per tonne for other types of sugar. They are, other than in exceptional circumstances, effectively prohibitive to imports via this route and instead imports come from jurisdictions with preferential access. The government has no plans to introduce tariffs on imports from countries which have preferential access into the UK market. The government recognises the harms caused by high sugar intake and took steps at Autumn Budget 2024 to ensure the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL) remains effective and fit-for-purpose. The levy will be increased, over the next five years to reflect inflation since 2018.

Whether she has considered (a) removing the tapering-off of the personal allowance and (b) reducing the threshold for the additional rate of tax.

The withdrawal of the Personal Allowance affects those with income over £100,000 a year, reducing by £1 for every £2 above this threshold until it is fully withdrawn at £125,140. The additional rate threshold of income tax is currently £125,140, following its reduction from £150,000 in Autumn 2022. The Government remains committed to maintaining strong public finances and ensuring those on higher incomes contribute a fair share.

Whether she has had discussions with the National Wealth Fund on establishing a platform for geothermal investment to commercialise the industry.

The Chancellor issued a new Statement of Strategic Priorities to the National Wealth Fund (NWF) on 19th March 2025, in which she set out that the NWF is at the forefront of investing public money for our future to help deliver the investment that underpins the Government’s growth and clean energy missions. The Chancellor made clear that the NWF should prioritise investment into clean energy, digital and technologies, and advanced manufacturing, alongside transport sectors. An NWF investment into any geothermal project would be subject to the investment satisfying the NWF’s normal requirements for investable proposals.

If she will make an assessment with Cabinet colleagues of the potential merits of providing the Home Office with a (a) reduced and (b) flat cash settlement for in-donor refugee costs.

The Government is committed to ensuring that asylum costs fall and the Home Secretary has reduced in-donor refugee costs by taking action to reduce the asylum backlog and seeking to end the use of costly asylum hotels. We therefore anticipate further reductions to in-donor refugee costs in the next Spending Review period.The Home Office’s Spending Review settlement will be subject to agreement with HM Treasury in the usual way.

What steps she is taking to ensure that banks are applying (a) Know Your Customer and (b) other compliance checks transparently for humanitarian charities operating in vulnerable countries.

Banks are required to apply ‘know your customer’ and other checks to mitigate the risk that banks accounts may be used for money laundering or terrorist financing. The Treasury works closely with the Financial Conduct Authority and industry groups such as UK Finance to ensure that financial crime controls are applied proportionately and on a risk-sensitive basis. The Treasury and the Home Office are currently updating the National Risk Assessment of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (NRA). This sets out the latest assessment of threats, including in relation to the risks to which charitable organisations operating overseas may be exposed, to help regulated firms to take account of these risks when applying financial crime controls. The updated NRA will be published later this year.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of reducing VAT for admissions fees to indoor play centres for children under 12.

VAT is a broad-based tax on consumption, and the 20 per cent standard rate applies to most goods and services. Tax breaks reduce the revenue available for vital public services and must represent value for money for the taxpayer.One of the key considerations when assessing a new VAT relief is whether the cost saving is likely to be passed on to consumers. Evidence suggests that businesses only partially pass on any savings from lower VAT rates. The Government therefore has no plans to zero-rate VAT on admission fees for indoor play facilities.The Government keeps all taxes under review.

If she will increase the speed at which reforms are conducted to the business rates system.

We are creating a fairer business rates system that protects the high street, supports investment, and is fit for the 21st century. The Non-Domestic Ratings Bill is currently passing through the House of Lords. The Bill will give Government the power to introduce permanently lower tax rates for high street retail, hospitality, and leisure properties, with rateable values below £500,000, from 2026-27. This permanent tax cut will ensure that they benefit from much-needed certainty and support. The rates for these new multipliers will be set at Budget 2025 in light of the outcomes of the revaluation. At the Autumn Budget, we also published a Discussion Paper setting out priority areas for business rates reform and inviting stakeholders to co-design a fairer business rates system. Engagements are ongoing, and any further reforms will be phased over the course of the Parliament to minimise disruption for businesses.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing progressive banding for National Insurance.

National Insurance contribution rates are part of an overall progressive system.The personal allowance (PA) is set at £12,570 this year, meaning the first £12,570 an individual’s income is tax free. Above the PA, income tax is paid at 20 per cent, until the higher rate threshold of £50,270 above which income tax is paid at 40 per cent, and then 45 per cent for income above £125,140 per year (the additional rate threshold).Employee NICs also start to be paid for earnings above £12,570 at 8 per cent, with this rate decreasing to 2 per cent above £50,270 per year. Taking NICs and income tax together, this means an overall progressive rate structure for earnings of 28 per cent for basic rate taxpayers, 42 per cent for higher rate taxpayers, and 47 per cent for additional rate taxpayers.

With reference to her Department's policy paper entitled Summary of reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief, published on 30 October 2024, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of widening the consultation to consider (a) allowing relief on agricultural and business assets to roll over to a proprietor’s surviving spouse, (b) decoupling agricultural property relief and business property relief and (c) determining a measure of agricultural trading income suitable for use as a threshold to allow agricultural property relief to be claimed.

The Government published information about the reforms to agricultural property relief and business property relief at www.gov.uk/government/publications/agricultural-property-relief-and-business-property-relief-reforms. It is expected that up to around 2,000 estates will be affected by the changes to APR and BPR in 2026-27, with around half of those being claims that involve AIM shares. Almost three-quarters of estates claiming agricultural property relief (or those claiming agricultural property relief and business property relief together) are expected to be unaffected by these reforms. The government will publish a technical consultation in early 2025. This will focus on the detailed application of the allowance to lifetime transfers into trusts and charges on trust property. This will inform the legislation to be included in a future Finance In accordance with standard practice, a tax information and impact note will be published alongside the draft legislation before the relevant Finance Bill.

If she will take steps to ensure that the National Wealth Fund is equipped to provide offtake finance and hedging instruments for the critical minerals industry.

With additional capital to deploy against an expanded mandate, the National Wealth Fund stands ready to help the market invest with confidence in support of the Government's growth ambitions. The National Wealth Fund will be empowered via new tools such as performance guarantees and blended finance solutions to make investments that maximise mobilisation of private finance. This includes investments in the critical minerals sector.