Written questions by Chamberlain.

Pursuant to the Answer of 18 November 2024 to Question 13623 on Agriculture: Inheritance Tax, whether she has made a comparative assessment of the potential impact of (a) agricultural property relief and (b) business property relief on tenant farmers in Scotland compared to the rest of the UK.

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. In accordance with standard practice, a tax information and impact note will be published alongside the draft legislation before the relevant Finance Bill.

What assessment she has made of the adequacy of the Institute of International Finance and OECD's debt transparency initiative; and whether she has had discussions with relevant stakeholders on the adequacy of the information on lending activities provided by private creditors to that Initiative.

The UK is a strong advocate for enhancing debt transparency including for private sector debt. As part of this, we supported the Institute of International Finance (IIF) and OECD Debt Transparency Initiative, set up in 2021, and the IIF’s Voluntary Principles for Debt Transparency, which underpinned it. The UK has taken a lead in ensuring its own lending is transparent and meets G20 best practice, publishing details of all new direct lending quarterly and the stock of debt owed to the UK annually. The UK continues to engage closely with the private sector and other relevant stakeholders through international fora, such as the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable, to promote the importance of transparency, and to explore ways to build on and improve existing efforts.