Written questions by Davies.

With reference to her oral answer to the question from the Rt hon. Member for Gainsborough on 21 January 2025, Official Report, col 859, how the Government plans to compensate hospices for the increase in Secondary Class 1 National Insurance Contributions.

The Government recognises the vital role hospices play in supporting people at the end of life and their families. The Government will provide support for departments and other public sector employers for additional employer National Insurance costs only. Private sector firms or charities including hospices or social care providers that are contracted by central or local Government will not be exempt from these changes. This is the usual approach the Government takes to supporting the public sector with additional employer National Insurance contributions as was the case with the previous Government’s Health and Social Care Levy. The Government is determined to shift more healthcare into the community and ensure patients and their families receive high-quality, personalised care in the most appropriate setting, and hospices will have a big role to play in that shift.Integrated Care Boards are responsible for the commissioning of palliative and end of life care services to meet the needs of their local populations; where ICBs provide funding, they will work with hospices to agree funding arrangements through the normal contracting process. The Government has recently announced that we are supporting the hospice sector with a £100 million boost for adult and children’s hospices to ensure they have the best physical environment for care, and £26 million revenue to support children and young people’s hospices. We will set out the details of the funding allocation in due course.

With reference to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury's oral contribution of 4 March 2025, Official Report, what her policy is on the operational independence of the National Wealth Fund.

The National Wealth Fund is operationally independent and has delegated authority to make investment decisions, subject to those investments meeting certain conditions agreed with HM Treasury. An investment made by the National Wealth Fund would need to have satisfied its investment principles and internal approval processes.

With reference to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury's oral contribution of 4 March 2025, Official Report, what is the process for approval by the National Wealth Fund of a proposed business case for investment; and who makes the final decision.

The National Wealth Fund considers business cases for investments on a case-by-case basis, supporting proposals that fall within the scope of its mandate and investment principles. An investment made by National Wealth Fund would need to have satisfied its investment principles and internal approval processes. The National Wealth Fund has delegated authority to make investment decisions, subject to those investments meeting certain conditions agreed with HM Treasury.

With reference to the Chief Secretary to the Treasury's oral contribution of 4 March 2025, Official Report, if she will publish the National Wealth Fund's business case to fund the £200 million investment in Grangemouth.

The National Wealth Fund has made financing available for new investment projects in Grangemouth, subject to viable proposals coming forward. This financing will help unlock Grangemouth’s full potential and secure our clean energy future. Any investment made into Grangemouth by the National Wealth Fund would be subject to the investment satisfying the National Wealth Fund’s normal requirements for investable proposals.

With reference to her Department's policy paper entitled National Wealth Fund: Mobilising Private Investment, published on 14 October 2024, what outreach work the National Wealth Fund has undertaken including but not limited to in-person and virtual meetings since 4 July 2024.

The National Wealth Fund (NWF) and formerly the UK Infrastructure Bank, actively engages with various stakeholders to enhance the effectiveness and impact of its deals and local authority advisory services. By collaborating with a variety of stakeholders, the NWF ensures that its initiatives are well-informed and supported. This engagement is done through a variety of methods, including bilateral meetings, publications, consultations, and external events (including those hosted by the NWF). The mission of the NWF requires it to support rather than compete with the market and as such, they seek to engage openly with stakeholders.More information about the engagement NWF undertakes with its stakeholders is set out on pages 73 to 75 of the Annual Report and Accounts National Wealth Fund Limited Annual report and accounts 2023-2024

With reference to her Department's policy paper entitled National Wealth Fund: Mobilising Private Investment, published on 14 October 2024, what were the previous constraints in relation to the amount of economic risk capital of the UK Infrastructure Bank.

The most important constraint on the National Wealth Fund’s risk appetite is its economic capital risk budget, which limits the total risk exposure it can hold. The UK Infrastructure Bank had £22 billion of notional financial capacity and an economic risk capital budget of £4.5 billion. This was set by HM Treasury when UKIB was established. As part of UKIB's transformation into the National Wealth Fund, HM Treasury will agree a larger amount of economic risk capital, the details of which will be published in due course.

With reference to Q110 of the oral evidence given by the Second Permanent Secretary to the Treasury Select Committee on 12 February 2025, how the risk framework of the National Wealth Fund differs from that of the UK Infrastructure Bank.

The National Wealth Fund (NWF) are currently revising their risk management framework to reflect changes made from the UK Infrastructure Bank’s strategic objectives, economic capital and risk appetite. A revised version will be published on the NWF website in due course.

What (a) in-person meeting, (b) virtual meeting and (c) other outreach work the UK Infrastructure Bank undertook between 17 June 2021 and 4 July 2024.

The National Wealth Fund (NWF) and formerly the UK Infrastructure Bank, actively engages with various stakeholders to enhance the effectiveness and impact of its deals and local authority advisory services. By collaborating with a variety of stakeholders, the NWF ensures that its initiatives are well-informed and supported. This engagement is done through a variety of methods, including bilateral meetings, publications, consultations, and external events (including those hosted by the NWF). The mission of the NWF requires it to support rather than compete with the market and as such, they seek to engage openly with stakeholders.More information about the engagement NWF undertakes with its stakeholders is set out on pages 73 to 75 of the Annual Report and Accounts National Wealth Fund Limited Annual report and accounts 2023-2024

With reference to Q110 of the oral evidence given by the Second Permanent Secretary to the Treasury Select Committee on 12 February 2025, which financial instruments will be available to the National Wealth Fund which were not already available to the UK Infrastructure Bank.

The Chancellor announced at the International Investment Summit on 14th October 2024 that the UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB) would be transformed into the National Wealth Fund (NWF), building on UKIB’s expertise and leadership. To empower the NWF to maximise mobilisation of private investment, the Chancellor committed to expanding the suite of financial instruments available to the NWF over time. Legislation enabling the NWF to issue the first of these new instruments, performance guarantees, will be laid for consideration by Parliament in this Financial Year. The NWF is also collaborating with Government departments on new blended finance solutions which take on additional risk, crowd in private capital and support the most effective and catalytic use of public funds.

With reference to the Autumn Budget 2024, HC 295, if she will list the tax changes that will come into effect on 6 April 2025.

A full list of the tax measures announced at Autumn Budget 2024, including when the measures take effect, can be found in the Overview Of Tax Legislation And Rates on the gov.uk website.

What estimate her Department has made of the revenues to the Exchequer (a) in total and (b) from each form of tax in (i) 2024-25 and (ii) 2025-26.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) publish tax receipts and National Insurance contributions for the UK each month. This information is publicly available and currently presenting outturn up to January 2025. The OBR publish forecasts for receipts and public spending in their Economic and Fiscal Outlook. The OBR are due to publish their latest outlook for the economy and public finances on 26 March 2025.

What estimate she has made of future trends in the level of the (a) State Pension and (b) Income tax personal allowance threshold; and whether her Department forecasts the State Pension to exceed the income tax personal allowance.

The Government is committed to ensuring that older people are able to live with the dignity and respect they deserve, and the State Pension is the foundation of state support for older people. The Government is committed to the Triple Lock for the duration of this parliament, and in April 2025, the basic and new State Pension will increase by 4.1%. This means that pensioners on a full new State Pension will get a boost of £470 to their incomes from April this year. Over the course of this Parliament, the yearly amount of the full new State Pension is currently forecast to go up by around £1,900, based on the Office for Budget Responsibility’s latest forecast. The previous Government made the decision to freeze the income tax Personal Allowance at its current level of £12,570 until April 2028. At our first Budget, we decided not to extend the freeze on personal tax thresholds, meaning they will rise with inflation from April 2028.

Whether her Department has plans to create a business tax roadmap including taxes such as secondary Class 1 National Insurance Contributions.

The Government published the Corporate Tax Roadmap at Autumn Budget 2024. This Roadmap confirms the major features of the Corporation Tax regime for the duration of this Parliament. The Roadmap reflects the particular importance of Corporation Tax to significant business investment decisions. It also reflects the high appetite for policy stability on Corporation Tax following the considerable changes of approach in recent years. Raising the revenue required to fund public services and restore economic stability meant the Government has had to take difficult decisions on tax, which is why we asked employers to contribute more. The Government recognises the need to protect the smallest employers which is why we have more than doubled the Employment Allowance to £10,500, meaning more than half of businesses with NICs liabilities either gain or see no change next year. Businesses will still be able to claim employer NICs reliefs including those for under 21s and under 25 apprentices, where eligible.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to his Department's press release entitled New partnerships with financial sector to unlock growth in UK and overseas, published on 3 February 2025, what role British International Investment will have in these partnerships; and how the scheme's funding will be (a) monitored and (b) measured.

British Investment International (BII) is a core part of the Government's partnership with private finance to mobilise investment into emerging markets, unlocking economic growth and sustainable development. A central component of their role is a new £100m Mobilisation Facility announced by the Prime Minister at the UN General Assembly in October. As the press release describes, BII launched a Call for Proposals in January to partner with investors in the City of London to source the strongest concepts into which this Facility will invest to enable commercial investment to flow at scale into developing countries.As the Prime Minister said in October, BII expects that the Mobilisation Facility will mobilise hundreds of millions of pounds into emerging markets. The Facility is monitored through Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office's (FCDO) regular governance arrangements with BII, as its sole shareholder. These arrangements require BII to report to FCDO regularly, including through a formal annual report. In addition, the performance of the facility will be monitored and measured through an annual review process that FCDO conducts on all of its programmes. This annual review will further assess the progress, effectiveness, and value for money of the facility.

What fiscal steps she is taking to support the purchase of zero-emission and low-emission vehicles.

The Government is fully committed to the transition to electric vehicles. At Autumn Budget 2024, the Government announced £2.3bn of funding for the automotive sector up to 2030 to support the transition to Zero Emission Vehicles. The Government also announced £120m of funding in 2025-26 to support the purchase of new electric vans via the plug-in vehicle grant and to support the manufacture of wheelchair accessible ZEV vehicles. The Government also provides favourable taxation rates. At Autumn Budget the Government announced new Company Car Tax rates for 2028-29 and 2029-30 which will maintain generous incentives to support electric vehicle take-up. More widely, HMG provides a range of measures to support people to transition to Zero Emission Vehicles. For instance, over £200 million for 2025-26 was announced at Budget to accelerate EV chargepoint rollout, including funding to support local authorities to install on-street chargepoints across England.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of Heckington Fen Solar Park on future trends in the level of energy bills for (a) domestic and (b) commercial consumers in Lincolnshire.

Decarbonising the power system by building more solar will increase energy security by reducing the UK’s dependence on imported oil and gas, which will in turn reduce the exposure of consumer bills to volatile international prices. Currently the cost of electricity tracks the cost of gas because gas generation sets the marginal wholesale price. Decarbonising the power system would break this link and in turn the exposure of UK electricity prices to global gas prices. Through the Clean Power Action Plan, the Government has made clear that where communities host clean energy infrastructure, it will ensure they benefit from it.

Whether her Department has plans to align the British Business Bank under the National Wealth Fund.

The National Wealth Fund (NWF) is the UK’s impact investor, mobilising billions of pounds of investment in the UK’s world-leading clean energy and growth industries. The British Business Bank (BBB) continues to be responsible for improving access to finance for SMEs, including new programmes to channel venture investment into the UK’s fastest growing, most innovative companies and closing the scaleup capital gap.The NWF and the BBB work in close partnership to deliver the government’s industrial strategy in line with their respective mandates, maintaining a coordinated and complementary approach to tackling finance gaps and boosting economic growth. The government will continue to review how these institutions operate and interact with the market, government departments and each other to ensure that they are as effective as possible in mobilising private investment and delivering economic growth.

Whether (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department have had discussions with (i) Dale Vince and (ii) representatives of Ecotricity since 5 July 2024.

Details of Ministers’ and Permanent Secretaries' meetings with external individuals and organisations are published quarterly in arrears on GOV.UK. Published declarations include the purpose of the meeting and the names of any additional external organisations or individuals in attendance.

What information her Department holds on the total cost of the rebranding of the National Wealth Fund.

The Chancellor announced at the International Investment Summit on 14th October 2024 that the UK Infrastructure Bank (UKIB) would be transformed into the National Wealth Fund (NWF), building on UKIB’s expertise and leadership to go further to catalyse more private investment.Processes relating to the rebranding to the NWF were managed and carried out by the NWF and were conducted within the NWF’s existing departmental budgets.

If she will make an estimate of the number of people employed by the National Wealth Fund that previously worked for the UK Infrastructure Bank.

The Chancellor announced at the International Investment Summit on 14th October 2024 that the UK Infrastructure Bank would be transformed into the National Wealth Fund (NWF), This change took effect on that day. All UKIB staff were retained as part of the NWF.To realise its ambition to catalyse more private investment and accelerate investable projects coming to market across the UK, the NWF will be expanding its team based at its headquarters in Leeds.The number of roles at the NWF will be published in the “Staff Report” within the NWF’s Annual Report of Accounts, published following the end of this financial year.