Written questions by Fuller.

With reference to her Department's press release entitled Largest fund of its kind to support vulnerable kids & families, published on 14 July 2025, which organisation will manage the Better Futures Fund.

At the Spending Review, we committed to announcing further details on our plans for Social Impact Investing over the summer. This announcement – alongside the announcements to support low-income families made at SR25 – are a downpayment ahead of the Child Poverty Strategy being published in the autumn, and will form part of it. As per the press notice, the Better Futures Fund will be managed by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport in close collaboration with other departments and engagement with the impact investing sector. The Better Futures Fund was included in the Spending Review, under the Public Service Reform section. This was before it was named the BFF and was under the working title of ‘Social Impact Investing Vehicle’: The Better Futures Fund will support up to 200,000 children and their families over the next ten years by bringing together government, local communities, charities, social enterprises, investors, and philanthropists to work together to give children a brighter future.

With reference to her Department's press release entitled Largest fund of its kind to support vulnerable kids & families, published on 14 July 2025, for what reason the Better Futures Fund was not announced at the Spending Review 2025.

At the Spending Review, we committed to announcing further details on our plans for Social Impact Investing over the summer. This announcement – alongside the announcements to support low-income families made at SR25 – are a downpayment ahead of the Child Poverty Strategy being published in the autumn, and will form part of it. As per the press notice, the Better Futures Fund will be managed by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport in close collaboration with other departments and engagement with the impact investing sector. The Better Futures Fund was included in the Spending Review, under the Public Service Reform section. This was before it was named the BFF and was under the working title of ‘Social Impact Investing Vehicle’: The Better Futures Fund will support up to 200,000 children and their families over the next ten years by bringing together government, local communities, charities, social enterprises, investors, and philanthropists to work together to give children a brighter future.

With reference to her Department's press release entitled Largest fund of its kind to support vulnerable kids & families, published on 14 July 2025, for what reason the Better Futures Fund is not part of the Government’s Child Poverty Strategy.

At the Spending Review, we committed to announcing further details on our plans for Social Impact Investing over the summer. This announcement – alongside the announcements to support low-income families made at SR25 – are a downpayment ahead of the Child Poverty Strategy being published in the autumn, and will form part of it. As per the press notice, the Better Futures Fund will be managed by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport in close collaboration with other departments and engagement with the impact investing sector. The Better Futures Fund was included in the Spending Review, under the Public Service Reform section. This was before it was named the BFF and was under the working title of ‘Social Impact Investing Vehicle’: The Better Futures Fund will support up to 200,000 children and their families over the next ten years by bringing together government, local communities, charities, social enterprises, investors, and philanthropists to work together to give children a brighter future.

If she will make an assessment of the potential impact of the ongoing review of the customs treatment of low-value imports on tax revenue.

On 23rd April, the Government announced a review of the customs treatment for low value imports. Under our current low value import arrangements, consignments valued below £135 from any overseas retailer can be imported into the UK without incurring customs duty. VAT is due on all imports into the UK. Since the announcement, Ministers and officials have engaged with a wide range of stakeholders on the impact and operation of these arrangements to support our review. The outcomes of the engagement will help inform our next steps.

When final disbursements will be made from the Woodford Equity Income Fund under the terms of the settlement scheme.

In December 2023, investors in the Woodford Equity Income Fund voted to accept a settlement scheme, and in February 2024 the High Court approved the scheme to make it binding on Link Fund Solutions and all creditors. The scheme came into force on 5 March 2024, with investors having received a first redress payment by April 2024. That first payment amounted to over £185 million, out of a settlement fund of up to £230 million. The rest of the settlement fund is being held as a reserve to enable Link Fund Solutions to meet any contingent liabilities. Any leftover money from the reserve will be distributed to investors covered by the scheme. The operation of the reserve is supervised by the scheme supervisors who are independent of Link Fund Solutions. The FCA are continuing to monitor the operation of the reserve and will monitor when and how distributions are being made.

What assessment she has made of the potential impact of changes to employer National Insurance contributions on provisional supply teachers.

Additional funding to support schools with NICs costs will be allocated through the NICs grant in 2025-26. Schools will have flexibility over how they use this grant funding to meet their costs, including those relating to supply teachers.

With reference to paragraph 2.43 of the Spring Statement of 26 March 2025, what the £150 million provided for government employee exit schemes will be spent on; and how much and what proportion of this is for redundancy payments.

As announced at Spring Statement the government has allocated £150 million for government employee exit schemes. Information can be found in the Spring Statement supporting documentation here:https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67e3ec2df356a2dc0e39b488/E03274109_HMT_Spring_Statement_Mar_25_Web_Accessible_.pdf. This will be match-funded by a further £150 million from Departments. Exit schemes will enable delivery of leaner, smarter, more efficient government, whilst delivering savings over the medium term. Departments will bid for funding from this central pot in order to run exit schemes, and therefore the exact details of how this will be spent is not yet known.

How many Government Procurement cards have been issued to staff in her private office.

2 Government Procurement cards have been issued to Private Office staff.

Which government departments have undergone efficiency assessments by the Office for Value for Money.

The Office for Value for Money is working with departments to root out waste and inefficiency. It will do this by working with departments to agree stretching and realistic technical efficiency targets, underpinned by robust delivery plans.All departments and their arm's-length bodies are in scope for this piece of work.The Office will target areas where it can have the most impact, rather than duplicating the work of others. It is the role of the Crown Commercial Service to review framework agreements.

What role the Office for Value for Money plays in assessing the efficiency of government procurement processes; and whether it has been involved in reviewing framework agreements.

The Office for Value for Money is working with departments to root out waste and inefficiency. It will do this by working with departments to agree stretching and realistic technical efficiency targets, underpinned by robust delivery plans.All departments and their arm's-length bodies are in scope for this piece of work.The Office will target areas where it can have the most impact, rather than duplicating the work of others. It is the role of the Crown Commercial Service to review framework agreements.

If she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing structural changes to efficiency oversight as part of the 2025 Spending Review.

This government is committed to spending taxpayers’ money efficiently. At the first phase of the Spending Review for 2025-26 it set a 2% target for efficiency, productivity and savings for all departments. Phase 2 of the Spending Review (2026-2029) goes further with departments undertaking a line-by-line review of existing day-to-day budgets for the first time in 17 years. Departments are expected to identify a minimum of 5% savings and efficiencies against their current budgets freeing up funding to achieve the government’s priorities. The Office for Value for Money is also advising the Chancellor and me on decisions for the Spending Review, which will include conducting an assessment of where and how to root out waste and inefficiency. The government will set out its plans on efficiencies at the conclusion of the Spending Review.

Whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of (a) inheritance tax payments on Defined Contribution pensions and (b) the loss of the Residence Nil Rate Band on marginal tax rates.

The Government considers inheritance tax policy carefully and has due regard to several factors, including marginal inheritance tax rates.

With reference to page 4 of the report by the NAO entitled The Administrative Cost of the Tax System, published on 10 February 2025, if she will instruct HMRC to update its £15.4bn estimate of the cost to businesses of complying with the tax system.

The £15.4bn estimate of the cost to businesses of complying with the tax system contains in the NAO report comes from HMRC’s Standard Cost Model (SCM). This uses an internationally recognised approach to estimating these costs. The SCM contains data on approximately 2,500 obligations across 27 policy areas, and is largely based on data collected from businesses and agents on the time and costs of complying with regulations. HMRC is looking to reduce the complexity of the model so it is easier to update which may enable it to produce a more timely estimate of the cost to business.

With reference to the report by the NAO entitled The Administrative Cost of the Tax system, published on 10 February 2025, what steps she plans to take to reduce the annual cost to VAT registered traders.

HMRC have acknowledged the findings of the NAO report and emphasised the ongoing efforts to modernise and streamline tax administration. An HMRC Transformation Roadmap will be published in 2025. This will set out HMRC’s vision to be a digital first organisation and outline our plans to extend digital services and tools to provide better customer service for customers, including small businesses, and agents.

If she will publish the sources of funding for each public sector pension scheme including balancing payments made by her Department for each fiscal year between 2020-21 and 2023-24.

Figures showing the net Exchequer balancing payments for unfunded Public Service Pension Schemes (PSPS), along with details on contribution income and scheme expenditure, are regularly published as part of the OBR’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook (EFO), including outturn figures for the previous fiscal year. For example, the March 2022 EFO includes Exchequer balancing figures for each major PSPS for 2020-21 in the table labelled “March 2022 Economic and fiscal outlook – supplementary fiscal tables: expenditure”: Economic and fiscal outlook - March 2022 - Office for Budget Responsibility The latest publication is included in the October 2024 EFO.

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, how many estates she expects to be affected from the combined reforms to the two reliefs on which the £495 million estimate in revenue is derived in 2027-28.

2021-22 is the latest available year for outturn statistics on APR and BPR claims. Further details around the timing of data releases for statistics around Inheritance Tax liabilities can be found in the ‘timeliness and punctuality’ section of the statistics’ Background Quality Report at:https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/inheritance-tax-liabilities-statistics/inheritance-tax-liabilities-statistics-background-quality-report#timeliness-and-punctuality. 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. Up to around 520 of these are expected to relate to claims for APR (including those that also claim for BPR), and this number falls to around 430 when claims that include AIM shares are excluded. Almost three-quarters of estates claiming agricultural property relief (or those claiming agricultural property relief and business property relief together) each year are expected to be unaffected by these reforms.

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, whether the £1 million threshold for the two reliefs will be uprated over this Parliament by inflation.

The allowance will be £1 million from 6 April 2026. Decisions about future increases will be taken in the same way as for other inheritance tax reliefs.

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, what equivalent figures HMRC hold on claims for the two reliefs for years after the 2021-22 tax year.

2021-22 is the latest available year for outturn statistics on APR and BPR claims. Further details around the timing of data releases for statistics around Inheritance Tax liabilities can be found in the ‘timeliness and punctuality’ section of the statistics’ Background Quality Report at:https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/inheritance-tax-liabilities-statistics/inheritance-tax-liabilities-statistics-background-quality-report#timeliness-and-punctuality. 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. Up to around 520 of these are expected to relate to claims for APR (including those that also claim for BPR), and this number falls to around 430 when claims that include AIM shares are excluded. Almost three-quarters of estates claiming agricultural property relief (or those claiming agricultural property relief and business property relief together) each year are expected to be unaffected by these reforms.