Written questions by Baldwin.

With reference to her Mansion House speech on 15 July 2025, what deregulatory steps her Department has taken as part of the commitment to roll back regulations that have gone too far since 15 July 2025.

The government is not aiming to deregulate, but to upgrade the UK regulatory system so that it does not unduly hold back economic growth. The UK will remain a global leader in promoting high industry standards that deliver for businesses and consumers across the UK, but the Chancellor’s speech recognised that there is a need for a rebalancing of our system – retaining important protections whilst pushing for growth and investment. The Leeds Reforms, announced alongside the Chancellor’s Mansion House speech on 15 July, included: The biggest package of reforms to the Financial Ombudsman Service since its inception, ending its present position as a quasi-regulator. The government is currently consulting on reforms to the legislative framework to return the FOS to its original purpose as a simple, impartial dispute resolution service.Plans to significantly streamline the Senior Managers and Certification Regime, to reduce the overall burden of the regime on firms by 50%.Asking the FCA to report back by the end of September on how it plans to address concerns about the application of the Consumer Duty for firms primarily engaged in wholesale activity.Undertaking a short review of the ringfencing regime, reporting by early 2026. The government intends to take forward meaningful reform of the regime to support growth, while maintaining the aspects of the regime that support financial stability and safeguard depositors.

Whether repatriations by non-residents using the Temporary Repatriation Facility will be subject to the (a) general anti-abuse rule, (b) transfer of assets abroad rule and (c) transfer of income streams rule.

Non-UK residents cannot use the Temporary Repatriation Facility, it is only available to individuals that have both previously benefitted from the remittance basis and are tax resident in the UK in the year in which they make the election. Tax residence is determined by the Statutory Residence Test.

What assessment she has made of the fiscal impact of the US-UK trade deal.

On 8 May 2025, the Prime Minister and the President concluded a landmark economic deal between the United Kingdom and the United States. The deal was defined in the General Terms for the Economic Prosperity Deal (EPD). On 16 June, the Prime Minister and the President agreed further progress towards that goal and the initial implementation of commitments. The Office for Budget Responsibility is the government's official forecaster responsible for assessing the UK economic and fiscal outlook. The OBR will publish its next official forecast in the Autumn.

Whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the UK-US trade deal on financial services.

The US is our single largest financial services trading partner and relations are strong. As hosts of the top two global financial hubs, both nations benefit from deep, global financial markets and strong trade ties. The General Terms for the UK-US Economic Prosperity Deal agreed on 8 May confirm that we will negotiate digital trade provisions that include financial services. The General Terms can be found here. However these General Terms are only the first step in our negotiations on a wider economic deal. The Government will provide further updates as appropriate.

What the cost was to HMRC of administering cheque payments to (a) people and (b) companies in 2024-25.

The cost of sending cheque payments to people and companies in 2024-5 was £1.7 million. HMRC does not keep separate figures for cheques sent to people and companies.

How many cheques were issued by HMRC to (a) people and (b) companies in the 2024-25 financial year.

In 2024-25, HMRC issued 2,719,522 cheques to people and companies. HMRC does not keep separate figures for cheques sent to people and companies.

Whether her Department collects information on the number of cheques issued by (a) the Government and (b) central government public bodies in 2024-25.

Cheques are issued individually by Government Departments and other central government public bodies. HM Treasury does not collect information on the number of cheques issued.

What the cost to the public purse was of administering cheque payments across government in 2024-25 financial year.

The information requested is not held by HM Treasury and could only be produced at a disproportionate cost due to the scope and complexity of analysis required.

How many people claimed the remittance basis in each of the last five tax years.

The numbers of non-domiciled taxpayers taxed on the remittance basis are published in Table 5 of the latest Non Domicile Taxpayer Statistics accessible for download here. The latest available year for numbers taxed on the remittance basis is tax year ending 2022.

What estimate she has made of the number of people who claimed the remittance basis and will use the temporary repatriation facility in the last year.

The numbers of non-domiciled taxpayers taxed on the remittance basis are published in Table 5 of the latest Non Domicile Taxpayer Statistics accessible for download here. The latest available year for numbers taxed on the remittance basis is tax year ending 2022. The Temporary Repatriation facility began in 2025/26 so no data is held for the past year.

What estimate she has made of the number of international investors in the UK.

The ONS is responsible for collecting and publishing official statistics related to the economy, population, and society at national, regional and local levels. The ONS publish annual statistics on inward Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), which are available on their website. The ONS do not publish figures on the number of international investors in the UK.

What assessment she has made on the potential impact of the Autumn Budget 2024 on the levels of employment of women in the (a) hairdressing and (b) beauty industries.

The Government has taken a number of difficult but necessary decisions on tax, welfare, and spending to fix the public finances and fund public services.The Government has set out the impacts of the policy changes from Autumn Budget 2024 in the usual way.The Office for Budget Responsibility’s October 2024 forecast, which considers the impact of all the Budget measures, expects the employment level to increase from 33.1 million in 2024 to 34.3 million in 2029.

If she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of trends in the level of disguised employment in the (a) hairdressing and (b) beauty industries; and what steps she plans to take with Cabinet colleagues to help tackle disguised employment.

HMRC is committed to ensuring that the tax system operates fairly and efficiently and creates a level playing field for compliant businesses. Most businesses pay what they owe but a minority fail to register with HMRC or only declare a portion of their earnings.HMRC is committed to tackling false self-employment and will investigate evidence suggesting businesses have misclassified individuals for tax purposes. In these cases, HMRC will take steps to ensure they pay the right Income Tax and National Insurance contributions.HMRC recognises that some customers can find it hard to understand their tax obligations. HMRC is developing and testing new educational material specific to the hair and beauty sector to explain better the rent-a-chair model making it easy for customers to get things right and reduce mistakes. HMRC is planning for this to be ready for publication on GOV.UK in the spring. HMRC is continuing to work on updates to the Taxable Persons manual and these will be published in due course.

Whether the new lower employers' National Insurance threshold applies to retained fire crews.

To repair the public finances and help raise the revenue required to increase funding for public services, the government has taken the difficult decision to increase employer National Insurance. The rate of employer NICs will increase from 13.8% to 15% and the per-employee threshold at which employers start to pay National Insurance (the Secondary Threshold) will be reduced to £5,000.At the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement, the government announced an additional £515 million of support for local government to manage the impact of changes to employer NICs announced at the Autumn Budget. Fire and rescue authorities will receive a share of the overall funding provided to local government. Payments will be unringfenced to allow funding to be used across direct, commissioned, and externally provided local services.

Pursuant to the Answer of 23 January 2024 to Question 24423 on Employers' Contributions, how many and what proportion of the half of employers that will see no change have (a) one, (b) two, (c) three, (d) four and (e) more than five employees.

As is the case with all tax policies, the Government has published a detailed assessment of the policy in the Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN). This includes impacts on the exchequer, the economy, individuals, households and families, equalities, businesses including civil society organisations, and details on monitoring and evaluation. The TIIN can be found below:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/changes-to-the-class-1-national-insurance-contributions-secondary-threshold-the-secondary-class-1-national-insurance-contributions-rate-and-the-empl The Tax Information and Impact Note sets out that around 250,000 employers will see their Secondary Class 1 NICs liability decrease and around 940,000 will see it increase. Around 820,000 employers will see no change. Information on employers listed is not available as we do not hold the breakdown requested by employer size.

Pursuant to the Answer of 23 January 2024 to Question 24423 on Employers' Contributions, if she will provide disaggregated cost figures for the hospitality sector for the same period of time.

As is the case with all tax policies, the Government has published a detailed assessment of the policy in the Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN). This includes impacts on the exchequer, the economy, individuals, households and families, equalities, businesses including civil society organisations, and details on monitoring and evaluation. The TIIN can be found below:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/changes-to-the-class-1-national-insurance-contributions-secondary-threshold-the-secondary-class-1-national-insurance-contributions-rate-and-the-empl The Tax Information and Impact Note sets out that around 250,000 employers will see their Secondary Class 1 NICs liability decrease and around 940,000 will see it increase. Around 820,000 employers will see no change. Information on employers listed is not available as we do not hold the breakdown requested by employer size.

Pursuant to the Answer of 23 January 2024 to Question 24423 on Employers' Contributions, if she will provide disaggregated cost figures for the retail sector for the same period.

As is the case with all tax policies, the Government has published a detailed assessment of the policy in the Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN). This includes impacts on the exchequer, the economy, individuals, households and families, equalities, businesses including civil society organisations, and details on monitoring and evaluation. The TIIN can be found below:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/changes-to-the-class-1-national-insurance-contributions-secondary-threshold-the-secondary-class-1-national-insurance-contributions-rate-and-the-empl The Tax Information and Impact Note sets out that around 250,000 employers will see their Secondary Class 1 NICs liability decrease and around 940,000 will see it increase. Around 820,000 employers will see no change. Information on employers listed is not available as we do not hold the breakdown requested by employer size.

Pursuant to the Answer of 23 January 2024 to Question 24423 on Employers' Contributions, how many and what proportion of the employers that will see a change in their employer National Insurance have (a) one, (b) two, (c) three, (d) four and (e) more than five employees.

As is the case with all tax policies, the Government has published a detailed assessment of the policy in the Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN). This includes impacts on the exchequer, the economy, individuals, households and families, equalities, businesses including civil society organisations, and details on monitoring and evaluation. The TIIN can be found below:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/changes-to-the-class-1-national-insurance-contributions-secondary-threshold-the-secondary-class-1-national-insurance-contributions-rate-and-the-empl The Tax Information and Impact Note sets out that around 250,000 employers will see their Secondary Class 1 NICs liability decrease and around 940,000 will see it increase. Around 820,000 employers will see no change. Information on employers listed is not available as we do not hold the breakdown requested by employer size.

Pursuant to the Answer of 23 January 2024 to Question 24423 on Employers' Contributions, how many and what proportion of the 865,000 employers listed have (a) one, (b) two, (c) three, (d) four and (e) more than five employees.

As is the case with all tax policies, the Government has published a detailed assessment of the policy in the Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN). This includes impacts on the exchequer, the economy, individuals, households and families, equalities, businesses including civil society organisations, and details on monitoring and evaluation. The TIIN can be found below:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/changes-to-the-class-1-national-insurance-contributions-secondary-threshold-the-secondary-class-1-national-insurance-contributions-rate-and-the-empl The Tax Information and Impact Note sets out that around 250,000 employers will see their Secondary Class 1 NICs liability decrease and around 940,000 will see it increase. Around 820,000 employers will see no change. Information on employers listed is not available as we do not hold the breakdown requested by employer size.

Whether her Department offers its staff shared parental leave from their first working day.

HMT staff must have worked continuously for the Civil Service for at least 26 weeks to be eligible for shared parental leave and pay. Staff can also take unpaid parental leave in addition to shared parental leave if they meet the eligibility criteria. The Employment Rights Bill will remove this eligibility requirement and staff will be entitled to unpaid parental leave from their first working day. HMT will implement this legislative change when it comes into force.