Jesse Norman
MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire · Conservative · United Kingdom
“In view of the new Prime Minister’s spending priorities, it now seems highly unlikely that the ruinously expensive current plans will be put to the House before the end of this year. Seven months have already passed with no action.”
“10 North have real spending powers of its own? If the answer is yes, then this will be a new kind of cross-departmental Ministry—perhaps a territorial Ministry, like a regional Government but with no defined scope or mandate. We will need to see the legal instruments delegating Treasury authority and functions to it.”
“I rather fear that, given our longevity and at least the level of banter on the Government side of the Dispatch Box, we will be seen over time as the Morecambe and Wise, or perhaps the two Ronnies, of British politics.”
“The past few weeks have brought news of the deaths of Dolly Parton, Tim Curry and Wendell Berry. I am sure that many colleagues will share my sense of shock and sadness at the loss of those extraordinary figures, but also give great thanks for their lives. Truly, we live in a world of change.”
“10 North will not have spending power of its own, then ultimately the Treasury and the Chancellor will continue to sign off on its public spending and on any taxing matters. Decentralisation is really important, but No. 10 North will not be a means of decentralisation in this scenario; it will be just another layer of Government.”
“But we are not going to cast nasturtiums, in the words of a friend of mine, on any of this nonsense—not even on Baroness Lloyd and the hopeless Building Digital UK, who have entirely failed to address the issue of fibre broadband in neglected parts of my constituency and simply repeated the same language of incompetence and failure to me…”
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“The Government have also committed to a £100 million investment to rejuvenate the industry and coastal communities across the UK. The Government take those issues seriously. In the case of musicians, as the right hon. Gentleman knows, the Government made a very comprehensive set of suggestions to the EU. Unfortunately, we have not been able to negotiate those as we would have liked, but that is not through any fault on this side of the equation. I will not speculate on why it is, but it is certainly nothing to do with tariffs and nothing to do with the Government’s position, which remains to support our musicians in their employment, where we can, as much as possible. That is evidenced by the £1.6 billion of cultural support funding that we have provided. As for the legal basis, as the right hon.”
“The good news is that we start from a very high position of previous alignment with those countries, which has certainly facilitated the process. The right hon. Gentleman also asked about non-tariff barriers. I can only admire his ingenuity in crowbarring a discussion of non-tariff barriers into the debate about this statutory instrument, which is explicitly about a UK global tariff. It is as though we have separated out black and white and, although we are debating white, he wants to discuss black. Nevertheless, I am of course happy to discuss it. He mentioned shellfish. He will be aware that the Government have put in place a £23 million fund designed to support seafood businesses across the UK that may have experienced a verifiable loss during the movement of goods to the single market.”
“Again, the point of this approach is, in part, to keep production costs low, and the hope is that, by and large, the effect of that will be to lower prices for consumers. There are other areas in which it has been important for the global tariff to reflect the balance between producers and consumers. For example, in certain agricultural tariff areas, although the level overall has been simplified—the levels have been reduced in some cases, and the numbers simplified—there are key areas in which the tariffs remain, broadly speaking, what they were before. The right hon. Gentleman asked about free trade agreements. Of course, it is true that in many cases the effect of these free trade agreements is to replicate trading arrangements that we enjoyed with the EU countries beforehand, but those agreements still need to be negotiated.”
“I am sure that is important for anyone in the car repair trade, and it is part of the overall structure of the approach, which, as he has mentioned, is to liberalise in order to reduce inputs to production costs. Of course, the right hon. Gentleman is right to flag the fact that in other areas the tariff arrangements are larger. It is worth mentioning that there will be a difference between tariff arrangements that govern goods that enter under these arrangements, and those that enter under a free trade agreement. For example, a finished car that arrives from South Korea, with which we have an FTA, can enjoy a 0% tariff, whereas a similar vehicle arriving from Thailand would have a 10% tariff. The right hon. Gentleman also asked about the consumer impact.”
“I thank the right hon. Member for Wolverhampton South East for his questions and for his highlighting of certain specific items on which he wants some discussion and feedback. The right hon. Gentleman asked about areas in which there have been dramatic changes and ones in which there have been no changes. As he has said, there are many areas in which there has been very little change indeed. To give an example, I have talked about the reduction in pistachios and cotton from 1.6% to 0%, which is irrelevant, as we do not produce pistachios in this country. There are also goods—spanners and wrenches, for example—for which the tariff has been reduced from 1.7% to 0%.”
“TAXATION CROSS-BORDER TRADE (SPECIAL PROCEDURES SUPPLEMENTARY AND GENERAL PROVISION ETC.) (EU EXIT) REGULATIONS 2020 Resolved, That the Committee has considered the Taxation Cross-border Trade (Special Procedures Supplementary and General Provision etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 (S.I., 2020, No. 1439).— (Jesse Norman.) CUSTOMS TARIFF (ESTABLISHMENT AND SUSPENSION OF IMPORT DUTY) (EU EXIT) (AMENDMENT) REGULATIONS 2021 Resolved, That the Committee has considered the Customs Tariff (Establishment and Suspension of Import Duty) (EU Exit) (Amendment) Regulations 2021 (S.I., 2021, No. 63).— (Jesse Norman.)”
“I think it is worth saying that much of the legislation, as the right hon. Member will know, has taken the form of negative statutory instruments, via the negative procedure, and they have not been prayed against, and one must therefore assume that they are acceptable to Members across the House. On the basis of the rules that he described, it is not infinitely extendable. Under sections 51 and 52 of the 2018 Act, the Treasury may make regulations that come into force before being debated in Parliament, but that is provided only if the debate occurs within 60 days after coming into effect. That has been the legal basis of the operation since 1 January until today. Question put and agreed to.”
“It is important to say that HMRC’s self-assessment calculator takes into account people’s total taxable income and is taxing the lump sum at the correct rate as intended, including savings and dividend income. As a result, pensioners have always been correctly charged tax at the appropriate rate on these lump sums when they file their tax returns, no matter where they live in the UK. The statutory instrument will go a step further to clarify the current legislation, and ensure that the legislation matches the tax calculation, but it is important to say that it will not alter the tax position of anyone claiming a social security pension lump sum. With that, I commend the instrument to the Committee.”
“As such, this wording could be interpreted as suggesting that there is no need to take into account the Scottish taxpayer’s savings or dividend income, as tax on those forms of income is not devolved. This would mean that Scottish pensioners could end up paying less income tax on their pension lump sums in comparison with their counterparts across the rest of the UK, because their incomes would be incorrectly calculated and the tax due would be less. This of course was not what was intended by the legislation, but the ambiguity surrounding the wording could leave the Government, in principle, open to a costly legal challenge, and that would be a waste of taxpayers’ money.”
“After the devolution of further Scottish income tax powers to Scotland, the Government laid a statutory instrument that took into account Scottish rates of income tax when calculating income tax due on pension lump sums. When the Scottish Parliament introduced new income tax rate bands for non-savings and non-dividend income for the 2017-18 tax year—the starter and intermediate rates—this legislation was further amended to take account of the introduction of those new rates. However, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs have identified that the wording of that last change in the legislation is potentially ambiguous, because it refers only to the highest Scottish tax rate to which a Scottish taxpayer is liable.”
“Colleagues will be aware that people who reach state pension age have long been able to defer the receipt of their pension pay-outs. Pensioners can decide to take their deferral amount as a higher weekly payment. Alternatively, those individuals who reach state pension age before 6 April 2016 can choose to take their deferred pension as a one-off lump sum when they finally claim. The lump sum is made up of the pension that the individual did not claim during the deferral period plus interest at 2% above the Bank of England base rate. It is taxed at the highest rate that applies to an individual’s other taxable income, after reliefs and allowances have been deducted. However, the value of the lump sum itself is not taken into account when calculating the individual’s other taxable income.”
“I beg to move, That the Committee has considered the draft Scottish Rates of Income Tax (Consequential Amendments) Order 2021. It is a delight to see you in the Chair, Mrs Miller. This statutory instrument makes a small technical but consequential amendment to section 7 of the Finance (No. 2) Act 2005, “Charge to income tax on lump sum”. It ensures that Scottish taxpayers, like those in the rest of the United Kingdom, pay income tax on the pension lump sum at the highest rate they pay income tax in the year in which the lump sum is received. It provides certainty that they will be taxed correctly on their social security pension lump sums and it eliminates ambiguity from the existing legislation, and therefore limits the risk of a legal challenge.”
“It already exists in the HMRC calculator, and of course I will make sure that guidance appropriately reflects it, but I believe it already does. Question put and agreed to.”
“I am grateful to the hon. Member for Houghton and Sunderland South for her comments, for her party’s support and for her proper view that this is a sensible and helpful piece of legislation. I do not think there is any reason to think there is a lack of co-ordination between HMRC and the Scottish Government or their counterparts where tax is devolved. I do not think this arises from that. In this case, it was the interaction of the different systems and the possibility of legal parsing out of any expected order that created the ambiguity. For that reason, as soon as it was recognised that there was a potential for this change, the Government decided to correct a possible, rather than an actual, misinterpretation.”
“I beg to move, That the Committee has considered the draft Social Security (Contributions) (Rates, Limits and Thresholds Amendments and National Insurance Funds Payments) Regulations 2021.”
“These are important and necessary steps, and I hope that colleagues will join me in supporting the regulations.”
“The Committee is also considering the Tax Credits, Child Benefit and Guardian’s Allowance Regulations 2021. As hon. Members know, the Government are committed to delivering a welfare system that is fair for claimants and taxpayers alike, while providing a strong safety net for those who need it most. The regulations will ensure that tax credits, child benefit and guardian’s allowance increase in line with the consumer prices index, which had inflation at 0.5% in the year to September 2020. Overall, this proposed legislation makes changes to the rates, limits and thresholds for national insurance contributions, and provision for a Treasury grant, and also increases the rates of tax credits and guardian’s allowance in line with prices.”
“The regulations also make provision for a Treasury grant of up to 17% of forecasted annual benefit expenditure to be paid into the national insurance fund, if needed, during 2021-22. A similar provision will be made in respect of the Northern Ireland national insurance fund. The report by the Government Actuary’s Department, or GAD, laid alongside the re-rating regulations, forecasts that a Treasury grant will not be required in 2021-22. However, in view of the economic challenges created by the covid-19 pandemic, the Government consider it prudent to make the maximum provision at this stage. I trust that that is a useful overview of the changes we are making to adjust contributions to the Exchequer in line with inflation, and I commend the draft regulations to the Committee.”
“The small profits threshold is the point above which the self-employed must pay class 2 NICs. That will increase from £6,475 to £6,515 per year. Class 3 NICS allow people voluntarily to top up their national insurance record. The rate of class 3 will increase in line with inflation, from £15.30 to £15.40 per week. The secondary threshold is the point at which employers start paying employer NICs on their employees’ salary. That threshold will increase from £8,788 to £8,840 per year. The threshold at which employers of people under 21, and of apprentices under 25, start to pay employer NICs on those employees’ salary will increase from £50,000 to £50,270 per year. The rate of employer NICs is unchanged by the regulations.”
“That is determined by the lower earnings limit for employees, which will remain at £6,240 in 2021-22, and payment of class 2 NICs for the self-employed, to which I will come shortly. The upper earnings limit, the point at which the main rate of employee NICs drop to 2%, is aligned with the higher rate threshold for income tax. The upper earnings limit threshold will increase from £50,000 to £50,270 per year. Similarly, the upper profits limit is the point at which the main rate of class 4 NICs drops to 2%. That will also increase from £50,000 to £50,270 per year. As well as class 4 NICs, the self-employed also pay class 2 NICs. The rate of class 2 NICs will remain at the weekly rate of £3.05, due to the rounding rules that require the calculation of the CPI increase to be rounded to the nearest five pence.”
“As announced in November and in line with previous years, the Government are using the September consumer prices index, or CPI, figure of 0.5% as the basis for setting all national insurance limits and thresholds, and the rates of classes 2 and 3 national insurance contributions for 2021-22. If I may, I will first outline the specific changes to the class 1 primary threshold and the class 4 lower profits limit. The primary threshold and lower profits limit indicate the point at which employees and the self-employed start to pay class 1 and class 4 national insurance contributions, respectively. Those thresholds will rise from £9,500 to £9,568 per year. The rates of classes 1 and 4 NICs are unchanged by the draft regulations. Increases to the primary threshold and lower profits limit do not affect eligibility for state pension.”
“The draft regulations set the national insurance contributions limits and thresholds, as well as the rates for a number of national insurance contributions for the 2021-22 tax year. They make provision for a Treasury grant to be paid into the national insurance fund, if required. As right hon. and hon. Members will be aware, national insurance contributions, or NICs, are a key element of the nation’s welfare safety net, helping to support workers through ill health, unemployment and old age. They allow people to make contributions when they are in work in order to receive contributory benefits when they are not working. NICs receipts go towards funding contributory benefits, as well as to the NHS.”
“Draft Tax Credits, Child Benefit and Guardian’s Allowance Up-rating Regulations 2021 Resolved, That the Committee has considered the draft Tax Credits, Child Benefit and Guardian’s Allowance Up-rating Regulations 2021.— (Jesse Norman.)”
“Lady will be aware, the statutory uprating is separate from the uplift that the Chancellor has previously given. It is part of the normal review of underlying tax credit rates, which has to be undertaken every year—it is a normal part of the process—to assess whether they have retained their value in relation to prices. By upgrading them, we will ensure that they retain their real value. Again, it is separate from policy interventions, and the Chancellor and the Treasury keep all taxes under review. We will continue to do so in relation to both the benefits and the tax side of the equation. Question put and agreed to.”
“I am very grateful to the hon. Lady for her comments, and I am grateful to the Opposition for supporting these measures. I think it would be worth making a couple of points in response. The first is that there is a difference between the process we are going through now, which is the standard upratings that are part of the normal fiscal cycle, and policy interventions that may be added or adopted on top of that. At the moment, we are involved in the process of the plumbing, rather than the specific policy interventions. As you will know, Mr Mundell, those policy interventions come through fiscal events; they certainly do not come in secondary legislation, for reasons that you might understand. In relation to universal credit, on which the Government have received many petitions and inquiries, as the hon.”
“As a result, the Government are conducting a fundamental review of business rates and greatly welcome the wide variety of responses generated by the call for evidence to the review launched last year, to which the Government will respond in due course. British businesses are the beating heart of our economy. It is only right that we do what we can to support them through this difficult time. As I outlined earlier, this statutory instrument is one part of a much wider package of support. The order will give more certainty at a difficult time and underlines the Government’s commitment to firms large and small. That is why I commend the order to the Committee.”
“Before the pandemic struck, the Government were in the process of rolling out a series of major reforms to business rates, worth over £14 billion over the next five years. They included doubling small business rate relief from 50% to 100% for the smallest businesses in England and changing the standard multiplier threshold—steps that mean that nearly 700,000 small businesses pay no business rates at all. Combined with the business rates holiday for retail, hospitality and leisure, this means that half of all ratepayers will have paid no business rates in 2020-21. In addition, we continue to listen closely to business owners who have voiced concerns about the fairness of the business rates system.”
“It is important to say that this is only one part of the Government’s efforts to support businesses during the present crisis. In 2020, they provided a business rates holiday worth around £10 billion for eligible retail, hospitality and leisure businesses. Businesses have been recipients of a large proportion of the £280 billion of economic support that the Government have provided in response to the crisis. That includes the coronavirus job retention scheme, which has paid millions of workers’ wages, VAT deferrals, loans and grants. In addition, the Government are considering options for further support in response to the crisis, through business-related reliefs. Of course, efforts to support small firms with business rates did not begin with the crisis.”
“This order provides the statutory legislation that will allow the Government to freeze the inflationary increase for business rates for the financial year 2021-22 at the same rate as that for the financial year 2020-21. This means that the small business multiplier next year will be 49.9p rather than 50.1p, and the standard multiplier in 2021-22 will be 51.2p rather than 51.4p. This measure provides relief to millions of small businesses at this most difficult time and beyond, by saving firms an estimated £575 million over the next five years. The measure contained in this order applies to England. However, the Government will provide the devolved Administrations with equitable funding. In addition, they will fully compensate local authorities for the income that they will lose as a result of this measure.”
“Historically, these multipliers would rise in line with the preceding year’s retail price index inflation figure. On this basis, they were due to increase to reflect the September 2021 RPI figure, which was 1.1%. At the 2016 Budget, the Government announced they would switch to uprating the multiplier in line with the consumer prices index measure of inflation instead of RPI. As Members will recall, the following year the Government brought forward this implementation date from April 2020 to April 2018. The switch from RPI to CPI is worth about £6.5 billion to businesses over the next five years, and the benefit only grows with time. This year, in recognition of the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on businesses, the Government have gone a step further.”
“I beg to move, That the Committee has consider the draft Local Government Finance Act 1988 (Non-Domestic Rating Multipliers) (England) Order 2021. It is a pleasure to see you in the Chair, Dr Huq. The order freezes the business rates multiplier at its current rate for the coming year. This is instead of an annual increase in the business rates multiplier in line with the retail price index. If I may, I will start by explaining the context of the order. The multiplier is effectively a tax rate used to calculate business rates. There are two kinds of multiplier: the standard multiplier, which applies to businesses with a rateable value of over £51,000, and the small business multiplier, which applies to businesses with a rateable value of up to £51,000.”
“Of course, that comes alongside all of the longer-term measures that I have already outlined in support of businesses facing business rates. Question put and agreed to.”
“She complained that the measures are one size fits all, but the fact that we have a separate rate for small businesses precisely reflects the fact that we treat those businesses differently from larger businesses. The fact that we have segregated retail, leisure and hospitality shows that we are targeting those areas, but I take her comments in good heart. The hon. Lady asked whether we will redeploy the £2 billion that is being repaid. Of course, as she will be aware, this money goes into the consolidated fund at the Treasury, from which we are able to draw the £280 billion of support—more than 130 to 140 times the amount she discussed—for the economy as a whole. We will continue to redeploy that money to support the economy as a whole.”
“I thank the hon. Member for Houghton and Sunderland South for her questions and her speech, and I thank the Opposition for their support for this measure. The hon. Lady will be aware that the Government have tried to build longevity into their policy making where they have been able to do so. That was one of the reasons why the furlough scheme was extended to the end of April. In relation to a long-term plan, she will also be aware that the Government will come forward with further plans at Budget. In relation to business rates, I think the hon. Lady will be aware that we have done a fundamental review of the regime. We will come forward with further announcements on that in due course. It has been looking not just at the surface; it has been looking deep.”
“I beg to move, That the Value Added Tax (Miscellaneous Amendments to Acts of Parliament) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 (S.I., 2020, No. 1312), dated 18 November 2020, a copy of which was laid before this House on 19 November, be approved.”
“I hope colleagues will join me in supporting this legislation, which I commend to the House.”
“The instrument ensures that, if the customs provision is triggered, the VAT relief will no longer apply as well. It also prevents double taxation for businesses that make exempt supplies and move goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. Finally, the instrument revokes the Finance Act 2011, Schedule 23 (Data-gathering Powers) (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, which were laid in the event of a no-deal scenario and are therefore no longer required. The instruments provide a number of significant and necessary changes to ensure that the VAT system continues to operate as required following the end of the transition period. They will ensure fairness, protect against double taxation and avoidance, and make certain that existing reliefs continue to apply.”
“Similar legislation applied to the whole of the UK until the end of the transition period, reflecting the requirement for mutual co-operation between member states in connection with VAT. The retention of the legislation, particularly in respect of Northern Ireland, is a requirement of the withdrawal agreement. Thirdly, the instrument contains measures to prevent unscrupulous businesses from avoiding import VAT. Under the Government’s commitment to unfettered access, goods in free circulation in Northern Ireland that are moved to Great Britain are relieved from duty and VAT on entry. However, UK customs legislation contains a provision to remove the duty relief if it is found that goods have been routed from an EU member state via Northern Ireland to Great Britain in order to avoid import duty.”
“The DIY house builders’ scheme allows people who construct their own dwellings—a relevant residential or charitable building—or make a residential conversion to claim back the VAT on certain building materials, including VAT incurred on imports. Under the Northern Ireland protocol, materials bought by self-builders in Northern Ireland from suppliers in an EU member state may be subject to VAT in Northern Ireland. The instrument ensures that a DIY house builder in Northern Ireland can recover VAT charged on materials bought from a supplier in an EU member state. Secondly, the instrument allows HMRC to obtain information in relation to VAT owed by businesses and individuals in member states.”
“Finally, the instrument removes a change made in the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018 to the VAT treatment of certain travel services. The change is no longer necessary because the subsequent Value Added Tax (Tour Operators) (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 included a revision of the VAT treatment of such services. Let me turn to the second instrument to be debated: the Value Added Tax (Miscellaneous Amendments to the Value Added Tax Act 1994 and Revocation) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020. This legislation includes four changes to the Value Added Tax Act 1994 and the revocation of an instrument laid in 2019 in connection with EU exit. First, the legislation makes changes to the DIY house builders’ scheme to place self-builders in Northern Ireland in the same position as those in Great Britain.”
“These include network track access, shunting and storage, station and guard services, light maintenance services and the handling and storage of goods carried on the trains. The measure aligns the VAT treatment of international trains with that of qualifying ships and aircraft. For ships and aircraft, services for which the zero rate applies can be carried out only at a port or airport, but for international trains these services could be supplied at various other sites along a rail route. The instrument therefore provides a power for the Revenue and Customs commissioners to specify those sites in a notice. That will ensure that the relief applies appropriately to trains. Thirdly, the instrument makes a change that allows those supplying pension fund management services to funds established in the EU to recover the VAT that they incur.”
“Until the end of the transition period, the VAT Act included a VAT zero rate for handling services supplied to aircraft operating on international routes. These included landing and housing fees, security and fire services. This zero-rate band also applied to the handling and storage of goods carried in those aircraft, but only at a customs and excise airport. However, suppliers could previously rely on EU legislation to zero-rate their services at non-customs and excise airports. This instrument therefore provides for the continued application of the relief in UK legislation following the end of the transition period. Secondly, this instrument includes a new VAT zero rate for the handling services supplied to international trains.”
“These two statutory instruments are part of a package of measures connected to the UK’s exit from the EU. They make a number of consequential and necessary changes in order to ensure that the VAT system continued and continues to operate, as required, following the end of the transition period. They have been designed to ensure fairness, to protect against double taxation and avoidance, and to make certain that existing reliefs continue to apply following the UK’s departure from the EU. Both instruments took effect at the end of the transition period. The Value Added Tax (Miscellaneous Amendments to Acts of Parliament) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 make three changes to the VAT Act 1994 and one change to the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018. The first change applies to the VAT treatment of aircraft handling services.”
“He will know that we have put in place unfettered access for Northern Irish exports into Great Britain and a very comprehensive set of measures to support and facilitate imports into Northern Ireland and to reduce any possible administrative burden.”
“No new impacts are expected from the legislation, as those tax impact and information notes set out. My right hon. Friend the Member for Wokingham (John Redwood) asked whether VAT rules will be administered and enforced by the UK Government. They will, through Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. He rightly raised wider concerns about Northern Ireland and some of the events we have seen in the last few days. I would refer him and all Members to the comprehensive remarks made by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster yesterday in response to the urgent question on the topic. He also asked whether there would be easy movement.”
“Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), about, as it were, potential confusion in Northern Ireland. The Trader Support Service is functioning, in relation to advising on imports, extremely well overall. It has been heavily supported by the UK Government, as the hon. Member for Ealing North will know, and offers what is in effect a globally unique facilitation and intervention. The hon. Member for Glenrothes (Peter Grant) was very free in accusing the Government of incompetence, as is the way with his party. Knowing that he would wish to be competent himself, I encourage him to read the tax impact and information note. He will know that these measures are already in the protocol and are therefore already, as it were, incorporated via the protocol in UK law.”
“I am grateful to all right hon. and hon. Members who contributed to the debate, which has been constructive and useful. I am also grateful to the Opposition for their support for this measure, and to the Scottish National party. The hon. Member for Ealing North (James Murray) asked about the assessment of the impact of these measures on the income tax—I think he means VAT—base. Of course, being a diligent soul, he will undoubtedly have carefully cosseted the tax impact and information note and seen that no significant impact is expected from this, because the VAT will have been recovered in any case by a VAT-registered business, or would have been recovered otherwise. This set of measures in many ways merely restores the status quo. He asked a question that was indirectly raised by the hon.”
“1312), dated 18 November 2020, a copy of which was laid before this House on 19 November, be approved. Resolved, That the Value Added Tax (Miscellaneous Amendments to the Value Added Tax Act 1994 and Revocation) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 (S.I., 2020, No. 1544), dated 18 December 2020, a copy of which was laid before this House on 21 December, be approved.—( Jesse Norman .)”
“He will see that the tax information impact note does not expect there to be a significant material difference with regard to these issues, but there might, of course, have been some impact had we not put the facilitations in place and therefore these preserve the status quo, and rightly so. I have already touched on some of the issues relating to the confusion over VAT that was raised by the hon. Member for Strangford). As he knows, in relation to imports, we have the Trader Support Service and, in relation to exports, there is comprehensive guidance available for anyone seeking to export. Question put and agreed to. Resolved, That the Value Added Tax (Miscellaneous Amendments to Acts of Parliament) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 (S.I., 2020, No.”
“On the issue of small exporters, exports are zero-rated in relation to the UK, and they are not the principal topic of the legislation that we are discussing. The right hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland will be aware that there are measures coming from the EU in July, as I understand it, in relation to these matters that will to some extent—we wait to see the detail—mirror the facilitations that have been put in place, and they will hopefully support exporters from his constituency into the EU. My hon. Friend the Member for North West Durham (Mr Holden) again raised the question about jobs and revenue.”