Written questions by Foord.

Whether she is taking steps to ensure that private lenders who arranged to provide money to countries under UK legislation are (a) prevented from suing those countries when they are in debt distress and (b) encouraged to participate in debt relief negotiations for lower-income countries.

The UK, alongside the G20 and Paris Club, expects private creditors to participate in international debt restructurings on comparable terms.At this stage, the government is not pursuing a legislative approach that would force private sector participation in restructurings. Overall, we have seen private creditors’ willingness to engage and provide debt treatments where needed, including for Zambia and Ghana – though we keep this under reviewThe government is focused on enhancing a market-based (contractual) approach to private sector participation The Economic Secretary is co-chairing the 'London Coalition on Sustainable Sovereign Debt', launched in June 2025 to work with private creditors on sovereign debt issues. The Coalition promotes the uptake of UK-led contractual innovations, such as Climate Resilient Debt Clauses.

Whether pension increases resulting from voluntary National Insurance contributions are backdated to the date HMRC received payment in cases where processing delays exceed the expected timeframe.

Where voluntary National Insurance contributions lead to a pension increase, the adjustment is applied to the relevant tax years being applied for and is backdated to the date HMRC received the payment, even if processing takes longer than expected.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self-Assessment on (a) small business owners and (b) unrepresented taxpayers; and if she will consider delaying implementation until issues associated with the (i) cost, (ii) software availability, (iii) administrative burden and (iv) digital exclusion have been addressed.

HMRC are on track to implement Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax for those with income over £50,000 from April 2026, with a wide range of customers already testing the service in live running. MTD modernises the tax system and will help self-employed individuals and landlords keep on top of their tax affairs, making their annual tax returns easier. While many users will incur some cost in moving to MTD for Income Tax, many will also experience wider productivity gains through time savings and greater accuracy. We continually monitor the impacts of MTD and the latest published assessment is available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/extension-of-making-tax-digital-for-income-tax-self-assessment-to-sole-traders-and-landlords The government has worked with the software industry to ensure there are free and low-cost software options available to support taxpayers, both represented and unrepresented, alongside a wider range of software choices to suit varying needs and budgets. HMRC's software choices page can be found here: www.gov.uk/guidance/find-software-thats-compatible-with-making-tax-digital-for-income-tax#software-available-now The government recognises that not everyone is able to interact with HMRC digitally. Taxpayers who are digitally excluded will be able to apply for an exemption from MTD. HMRC will provide further information about the exemption process in due course.

What steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help support wine importers with additional administrative requirements following the ending of the temporary easement to the implementation of the new alcohol duty system in February 2025.

In August 2023 the Government introduced reforms to alcohol duty so that products are taxed in proportion to their alcoholic strength, not volume. To help the wine industry adapt to the new duty system, the current, temporary duty easement was introduced as a transitional measure, which was intended to allow time for wine producers to adapt to calculating duty based on alcohol by volume. By the planned end-date of 31 January 2025, the wine industry will have had over two years to adapt to the new strength-based system.