Administration and expenditure of the Chancellor's departments, 2006-07
Administration and expenditure of the Chancellor's departments, 2006-07

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Treasury Committee

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2008-03-07

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 9780215513960

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This is the first annual scrutiny by the Treasury Committee of the Chancellor of Exchequer's Departments. The Committee sets out a number of conclusions and recommendations, including: that the Treasury should include within its' annual reports a summary of the results of the annual surveys of stakeholder opinion and the Treasury's response to stakeholders; the Committee recommends that the Treasury set itself a target to ensure that the Public Service Agreements finalised as part of the next Spending Review in 2009 or 2010 include a clear statement about the resources to be allocated across Government to the delivery of each Agreement; the Committee criticises the Treasury's failure to meet its objective for the appointment of professionally-qualified Finance Directors in all Departments by December 2006 and that a relevant accountancy qualification be described as an essental criterion in all future post advertisements; the Committee views the Value for Money Delivery Agreements across Government as disappointing, and wants the Government to develop programmes that measure quality of service and efficiency effectively; the Committee commends the Royal Mint's return to profitability but is concerned about the ambitious target set for next year; that the Office of Government Commerce has failed to publish a regular annual report; the Committee expresses surprise that HM Revenue and Customs had approved a 60% increase in senior civil service bonus payments over a period of poor performance and headcount reductions, also the Committee highlights the problems experienced in VAT registrations and the failure of HMRC to meet its processing target of VAT receipts as well as poor administration of tax credits.

Administration and Expenditure of the Chancellor's Departments, 2007-08
Administration and Expenditure of the Chancellor's Departments, 2007-08

Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Treasury Committee

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 174

ISBN-13: 9780215526014

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The Treasury Sub-Committee calls for much greater transparency from the Treasury in accounting for the liabilities taken on by the nationalisation and part-nationalisation of financial institutions. The report recommends that these disclosures appear in the annual Treasury resource accounts. Furthermore they should be at least as comprehensive as those made by major corporations and go further than meeting the minimum acceptable accounting standards. In particular, the Report notes that the Treasury's 2007-08 Annual Report and Accounts cover the Government's financial relationship with Northern Rock but do not comment on its performance under temporary public ownership. Given the level of interest in the fully nationalised institutions of Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley, and the Treasury's role in their governance, the report recommends that key performance information for these institutions be published in the resource accounts as well. The wholesale nationalisation of Northern Rock, and Bradford & Bingley has created governance responsibilities for the Treasury while these entities remain under public ownership. The Government's announcements of October 2008 created further responsibilities regarding the oversight of part-nationalised banks, and created a new body, UK Financial Investments (UKFI). The report calls for UKFI to report annually to Parliament and to be accountable to the Treasury Committee. The Committee wants the Government to identify and publish performance indicators for UKFI, and to report against these measures on a six-monthly basis. All these developments are additional challenges for the Treasury and require it to act in areas its current staff base may not be fully equipped for or familiar with. The Government must ensure the Treasury is sufficiently resourced to manage the extended responsibilities arising from the economic downturn, especially those regarding financial stability.

Administration and expenditure of the Chancellor's departments, 2008-09
Administration and expenditure of the Chancellor's departments, 2008-09

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Treasury Committee

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2010-03-09

Total Pages: 186

ISBN-13: 9780215544506

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The Chancellor's departments faced extraordinary challenges during 2008-09, mainly arising from the need to respond to the emerging financial crisis and associated economic downturn. The report concludes that it is very difficult to draw final conclusions regarding their level of success - too much remains unfinished business. It draws attention, in particular, to the new relationship between the Treasury and UKFI, and recommends that the Government considers whether the formal terms of the relationship need some re-definition in the light of experience. The report is particularly concerned by the dire results for HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) of a cross-Government staff survey pilot study. The Report calls for HMRC management to publish a clear and detailed plan to provide focus and direction to their efforts to re-engage with their workforce. Noting a rise in customer complaints and that, on average, only 57 per cent of calls to HMRC contact centres were answered during 2008-09. HMRC should publish more data to enable effective scrutiny of its performance against its targets, data which is essential for tax gaps to be closed and for the take up of the working tax credit to be assessed and improved. The Report is critical of the failure of most departments to provide accurate and timely monthly in-year figures to the Treasury. Other sections of the report cover National Savings & Investment, the revaluation of UK statutory ports and the performance of the Royal Mint.

Work of the Committee in 2007
Work of the Committee in 2007

Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Treasury Committee

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2008-01-18

Total Pages: 36

ISBN-13: 9780215038128

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This report gives an account of the work of the Treasury Committee and Sub-Committee in 2007. The report identifies four main themes of work: (i) a flexible reponse to topical issues; (ii) a strengthened and continuing priority for the scrutiny of the key elements of economic policy; (iii) a continuing commitment to scrutiny of the expenditure and administration of the Chancellor's of the Exchequer's departments; (iv) a commitment to innovations in practice. The report analyses the extent to which the Committee has fulfilled the core tasks of departmental select committees. Reports produced by the Committee, for this 2007 period, include: Are you Covered? Travel Insurance and its Regulation, (HCP 50-I, session 2006-07, ISBN 9780215032638); Unclaimed Assets within the Financial System, (HCP 533, session 206-07, ISBN 9780215035806); Financial Inclusion Follow-up: Saving for all and Shorter Term Saving Products, (HCP 504, session 2006-07, ISBN 9780215038128).

The Economic Constitution
The Economic Constitution

Author: Tony Prosser

Publisher: OUP Oxford

Published: 2014-03-13

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 0191027391

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There has been little analysis of the constitutional framework for management of the UK economy, either in constitutional law or regulatory studies. This is in contrast to many other countries where the concept of an 'economic constitution' is well established, as it is in the law of the European Union. Given the extensive role of the state in attempting to resolve recent financial crises in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, it is particularly important to develop such an analysis. This book sets out different meanings of an economic constitution, and applies them to key areas of economic management, including taxation and public borrowing, the management of public spending, (including the Spending Review), monetary policy, financial services regulation, industrial policy (including state shareholdings) and government contracting. It analyses the key institutions involved such as the Treasury and the Bank of England, also including a number of less well-known bodies such as the Office for Budget Responsibility. There is also coverage of the international context in which these institutions operate especially the European Union and the World Trade Organisation. It thus provides an account of the public law applying to economic management in the UK. This book also adopts a critical approach, assessing the degree to which there is coherence in the arrangements for economic management, the degree to which economic policy-making is constrained by constitutional norms, and the degree to which economic management is subject to deliberation and accountability through Parliament, the courts and other institutions.

Banking Reform
Banking Reform

Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Treasury Committee

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13: 9780215523617

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This report follows on from the Committee's report on the crisis at Northern Rock (5th report, HC 56-I, ISBN 9780215038388) and the lessons to be learned by the Treasury, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the Bank of England (the Tripartite authorities). It examines legislative and practical changes that are needed. The overall case for legislative action in the field of banking regulation is compelling but the Government's preparations for new legislation may not be in place by late February 2009. The Committee recommends that the legislation provides: greater clarity about the nature and objective of "heightened supervision"; an explicit statutory power for the Bank of England to recommend to the FSA that a firm be made subject to the new Special Resolution Regime; a clear institutional separation between the executive functions of the Bank and the non-executive role of the Court of the Bank of England. Practical measures should include: the strengthening FSA's capacity to regulate; the Tripartite authorities must develop a communications strategy to secure public and market confidence in their new powers; and depositor protection arrangements must be developed which will function smoothly and effectively in the event of a bank failure. The Committee makes recommendations on "heightened supervision" and the Special Resolution Regime, identifies priorities for reform of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme to protect depositors, and sets out proposals for strengthening the Bank of England. The new Tripartite Standing Committee must assume a central and continuing role in the financial stability work of the authorities at all time.

The 2008 Budget
The 2008 Budget

Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Treasury Committee

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 174

ISBN-13: 9780215514554

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This report examines the forecasts and measures contained in the 2008 Budget (HC 455, session 2007-08, ISBN 9780102953336). The Treasury's lower forecasts for economic growth in 2008 and 2009 are above the average of independent forecasters, suggesting that the Treasury may have given insufficient weight to the risks of continued financial market turbulence and that some of the UK economy's characteristics that have proven beneficial in past crises (rapidly rising residential property prices, close links with the US and an increasing reliance on the financial services industry, for example) might prove to be conduits through which the current problems in global financial markets are transmitted to the UK real economy. The further weakening of the forecasts for the public finances is noted, and it appears premature for the Treasury to state that it is "on course" to meet the golden rule in the next economic cycle, given the lack of an end date for the previous economic cycle. Measures on child poverty are welcomed, but there is a need for a clear explanation on deployment of resources to ensure that the target to halve child poverty by 2010-11 will be achieved. The abolition of the 10 pence rate of income tax will most affect those under 65 years of age, in childless households, earning under £18,500: the Committee feels this group is an unreasonable target for raising additional tax revenues. The Treasury should commission research into whether the withdrawal of the 10 pence income tax band and high marginal deduction rates are creating disincentives that could frustrate the Government's welfare to work objectives. The Committee also calls for a national Saving Gateway targeted at low-income households and more consideration of tax changes on the middle and lower income groups of non-domiciled taxpayers.

The Political Economy of Corporation Tax
The Political Economy of Corporation Tax

Author: John Snape

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2011-12-09

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 1847318517

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Excellent technical writing on corporation tax abounds, but it tends to be inaccessible to public lawyers, political theorists and political economists. Although recent years have seen not only an explosion in public law scholarship but also a reawakening of interest in interpretative political theory and political economy, the potential of these perspectives to illuminate the corporation tax debate has remained unexplored. In this important work, John Snape seeks to reconcile these disparate strands of scholarship and to contribute to a new way of understanding and conceptualising the reform of the law relating to corporate taxation. Drawing on important developments in public law scholarship, the study combines elements of political theory and political economy. It advances a new interpretation of corporation tax law as an instrument of rule, through the maximisation of a nation's economic potential. Snape shows how corporate taxation belongs at the centre of any discussion of economic globalisation, not only because of the potential of national tax systems to influence inward investment decisions but also because of the potential of those decisions to shape the public interest that those tax systems might embody. Following public law and politics models, the book looks afresh at the impact of Britain's political institutions, of the processes of its representative government and of the theory that moulds and orders the values that the corporation tax code contains. This is a timely exploration of cutting-edge issues of public policy.

Budget 2009
Budget 2009

Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Treasury Committee

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 60

ISBN-13: 9780215530103

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This report examines the forecasts and measures contained in the 2009 Budget (HC 107, session 2008-09, ISBN 9780102959161). The Committee noted that there is considerable uncertainty around the Government's GDP growth forecasts for 2009-2011, reflecting the fact that the UK economy is in uncharted territory. Whilst it is possible that the Government will meet its growth forecasts on the available evidence the Committee considers this an optimistic assumption. They question the decision to assume that the economy will begin registering positive growth as early as the fourth quarter of 2009 and that the economy will register such strong growth in 2011. The Committee's concern is in that the sharp recovery in consumption forecast for 2011 might be too optimistic given that the UK economy will only just have emerged from a sharp downturn. The strong rebound forecast in consumption growth from 2011 onwards has important implications for whether the rebalancing of the UK economy with a shift away from consumption and a rise in the savings ratio, is merely a short-term phenomenon. The Committee notes it is too early to judge whether the November 2008 fiscal stimulus has been successful.The Committee looked at unemployment and considers it too early to judge whether the Government's proposed guarantee of a job, work placement or training scheme for all young people who have been on Jobseekers Allowance for 12 months together with the monetary and fiscal stimuli will be sufficiently timely and substantial response to the unemployment challenge.For public finances the Committee recommends that future budgets and pre-budget reports provide a sectoral analysis of tax revenues so that as the UK economy becomes less dependent on financial services and other sectors become more prominent, the basis of the Treasury's revenue forecasts can be scrutinised. The Committee was concerned over the lack of any substantial measures to combat child poverty. For the housing market the Committee calls for a more stable framework for the payment of Local Housing Allowance and welcome the help announced for homeowners but regret the delays in implementation and lack of clarity in respect of some of the schemes, recommending that clear information is provided. The vehicle scrappage is noted to be of importance to the car industry and that it has been welcomed in some quarters and await the pre-budget 2009 report to assess how effective the scheme has been. The Committee believes there are uncertainties over the yield to be raised by the 50 percent top rate of income tax and recommend that the Treasury should report in the 2011 PBR on the revenue raised both nominally and as a percentage of the theoretical maximum revenue by this new top rate.Regarding tax relief on pensions the Committee notes the departure from the long standing principle that tax relief for pension contributions should be given at an individuals marginal rate tax and urges the Treasury to monitor the effect of this change, keeping under review the possibility that a cap on annual contributions might be a more equitable way of reducing the percentage of tax relief that benefits the highest earners.

Pre-budget Report 2008
Pre-budget Report 2008

Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Treasury Committee

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13: 9780215526113

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The Treasury Committee's report on the Pre-Budget Report 2008 (Cm. 7484, ISBN 9780101748421) considers that the balance of risks to the Treasury's forecast, for a swift recovery in economic growth for 2010 after a significant decline in output in 2009, is on the downside. The report highlights the lack of bank lending as the single most critical problem for the economy in the near term. The overall effect of the fiscal stimulus remains uncertain, the cost of the reduction in VAT is considerable and, in the view of the majority of commentators, the Treasury's analysis of its impact is an optimistic one. The report notes that the risk of a self-reinforcing deflationary cycle exists in the UK economy at present and recommends that the Treasury prepare and publish the actions it may consider taking should a period of "quantitative easing" be needed. While the need for lower interest rates to maintain economic growth is crucial at the present time, the needs of savers must not be forgotten and the Treasury should consider measures that will also support savers at this difficult time. The report notes with concern that the Pre-Budget Report contains no policy measures which will significantly advance meeting the 2010 child poverty target.