HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is reminding customers who need to complete a tax return for the 2021 to 2022 tax year to let HMRC know by 5 October 2022. They can do this by registering for Self Assessment.

Before customers can complete their first tax return, they need to register with HMRC to receive their Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR). Customers need their UTR to file a return. The tax return deadline for the 2021 to 2022 tax year is 31 October 2022 for those completed on paper forms, and 31 January 2023 for online returns.

HMRC is encouraging customers to plan ahead to give themselves the best chance to complete their Self Assessment on time. Customers who file early will benefit from knowing what they owe, allowing them to budget and pay at a time that suits them. If customers are due a refund, they could get it back quicker. Customers have until 31 January to pay any tax owed.

Myrtle Lloyd, HMRC’s Director General for Customer Services, said:

By registering early, Self Assessment customers will have plenty of time to prepare and access all the help available to them before they start their first tax return.

Help and support is available to anyone completing a return, just search ‘Self Assessment’ on GOV.UK.

Customers can check if they need to complete a tax return by using the free online tool on GOV.UK. Customers who are new to Self Assessment for the 2021 to 2022 tax year may include:

• those who are newly self-employed and earned more than £1,000
• a new partner in a business partnership
• those who have received any untaxed income
• those claiming Child Benefit but they or their partner have an income above £50,000

Self-employed customers must also register for Class 2 National Insurance contributions.

The easiest way to complete a tax return is online. Once a customer is registered for Self Assessment, they can use their UTR to access their tax return, as well as details of their income or earnings and other financial records. Detailed information on what documents are needed for Self Assessment are on GOV.UK.

For customers who have already filed their tax return but still need to pay any tax owed, they can visit GOV.UK to find out more about the payment options. Customers can now make Self Assessment payments quickly and securely through the free HMRC app. If anyone is worried about paying their tax bill, support is available on GOV.UK, for example if customers are unable to pay in full, they may be able to set up a monthly payment plan online if the tax owed is less than £30,000.

All Self Assessment customers need to be alert to the risk of criminals emailing, calling or texting claiming to be from HMRC. Scams come in many forms – some threaten immediate arrest for tax evasion, others offer a tax rebate. Contacts like these should set alarm bells ringing and HMRC advises customers to take their time and check scams advice by searching for ‘HMRC scams’ on GOV.UK. HMRC also urges customers never to share their HMRC login details. Someone using them could steal from the customer or make a fraudulent claim in their name.

Find out more about Self Assessment.

The Time to Pay service allows any individual or business who needs it, the option to spread their tax payments over time. Self Assessment customers with up to £30,000 of tax debt can do this online once you have filed your return.

To download the free HMRC app, customers can visit the App Store from their iPhone or Google Play for Android and follow the download and set up instructions from there.

You can pay your Self Assessment bill through your PAYE tax code as long as:

• you owe less than £3,000 on your tax bill
• you already pay tax through PAYE, for example you’re an employee or you get a company pension
• you submitted your paper tax return by 31 October or your online tax return online by 30 December

If you received coronavirus support scheme payments, including from the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme or Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, you will need to include details of all the payments you received during the 2021 to 2022 tax year on this year’s tax return.

The government is offering help for households. Check GOV.UK to find out what cost of living support you could be eligible for.

Data science is the combination of programming code and statistical knowledge to extract understanding and insight from data.

Data has always been a key part of the work of actuaries, and harnessing data science techniques enables GAD to work more efficiently and maximise the value of data for departments across government.

For example, the use of data science techniques allows us to use reproducible analytical pipelines to handle repeatable tasks effectively, and the use of modern coding languages allows us to create ‘self service’ dashboards for clients.

GAD recognises the important part that data science can play in how we process, analyse and gain insights into the high volume of data used in actuarial work.

As part of the GAD 2025 Strategy, we have committed to investing in data science expertise for our actuaries and analysts to ensure that GAD’s clients the highest quality of advice possible. In the rest of this article, we set out how our clients have already begun to experience the benefits of this commitment.

Pensions dashboards

Building on the increased programming expertise required for data science, we have developed several dashboards which are used internally to automate processes which are repeated regularly. We have 3 main dashboards that we use for the public sector schemes that we manage.

We have created the dashboards using the open-source programming language Python. The dashboards use centralised code, so any changes to the model only need to be made once (rather than for each individual scheme). This saves a significant amount of time and ensures that our approach to all schemes is consistent.

1. Valuation calculations dashboard

By building these calculation routines into a structured model, we are able to ensure consistency of quality across all of the public service pension valuation calculations, rapidly update results for changing assumptions and instantly generate visual representations of the actuarial calculations.

This is brought together in our easy to use valuation calculations dashboard. It consists of drop-down menus and inputs which allow the user to select which scheme they wish to work on and what kind of analysis they want to carry out.

2. Analysis of experience dashboard

The analysis of experience dashboard is used to analyse changes in membership between valuations. It looks at how many members have exited the scheme and how that compares with what was assumed. This analysis allows us to adjust our assumptions going forward to reflect changing membership characteristics and ensure that appropriate contribution levels remain in place.

3. Retirement calculator

The McCloud legal ruling gives some pension scheme members the choice between benefits in two different types of pension scheme.

GAD’s retirement calculator has recently been upgraded by our data science specialists to improve the user experience. It uses Python to project the benefits that people will get at retirement in both schemes. This allows members to view what their own personal benefits will be and make an informed decision on which benefits they choose.

National Situation Centre

In addition to our in-house dashboards that have been developed, we have seconded staff to the National Situation Centre (SitCen). SitCen predict and manage developing crises in the UK. Our staff have used actuarial and data science skills to develop dashboards which support their analysis. Read more about the secondment experience of one GAD member of staff in a blog by Sean Laird.

Heat decarbonisation plans

The UK government has committed to reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050 or earlier if possible. Heat decarbonisation involves reducing the amount of carbon produced by central heating systems. Given the cold weather that we experience in winter, reducing the carbon footprint of our heating systems will be key in our move towards net zero.

The Department for Education (DfE) commissioned external consultants to produce plans for 205 schools to help with the decarbonisation of school estates. The heat decarbonisation plans received for each school contained a variety of Word, PDF and Excel files.

DfE asked GAD to help support its work by:

• creating a database to collate information contained in the heat decarbonisation plans
• extracting the relevant information from the set of documents
• designing a set of criteria to identify which schools to target
• assessing the project against the government’s levelling-up policies

GAD worked closely with DfE to agree the scope of our work and the timeline for delivery of each project stage.

We met several issues when extracting and processing the data from the heat decarbonisation plans provided, such as:

• report formats which varied by school
• documents that were not searchable
• different names being used for the same school across different documents
• figures not always reconciling across documents

To address some of these issues, we used data science techniques to extract and manipulate data.

A ‘fuzzy matching’ technique was used to map school names that were not identical but were likely to refer to the same school.

Our team also used a ‘data scraping’ algorithm to automatically cycle through the documents received to extract specific information.

Not all the required information was available at the start of the project. Having a process that was robust and easy to reproduce and iterate was crucial. We were able to re-run the exercise quickly when more information came to light.

None of this would have been possible without the expertise of GAD’s data scientists.

We provided the client with a clean, centralised database of key data fields from the heat decarbonisation plans. We also produced a ranking of all schools based on decarbonisation priorities. This information allowed DfE to make efficient decisions on funding allocation to schools.

Collaboration with universities

GAD has been working with UK universities this year to suggest data science projects being carried out by students. The projects contribute towards the students’ Masters degrees.

Each project challenged the student to use data science techniques to analyse real world data. Students use techniques such as linear regression and machine learning to analyse the data and derive insights. Actuarial staff from GAD provide oversight and feedback on their work throughout.

The University of Manchester, City University and University College London have taken part this year. The projects we proposed were based around public service pension scheme data collected by GAD during recent projects in this sector.

Unprocessed data from the 2016 and 2020 valuations of the cost of providing public sector pensions is used by students as the basis of some of the analysis.

Areas of focus included:

• Geographic analysis – do the characteristics of schemes different between different UK regions? For example, do salaries and member behaviours vary in practice between regions? What factors might explain any patterns found?
• Workforce changes – how do members progress between different job roles or decide to leave over time? Can we predict the demographics of the scheme in 2024 based on this?

The results of this analysis have been used to support workforce planning and recruitment.

Our relationships with universities are ongoing and we continue to support the development of data science experts.

Moving forward

Data science is a growing area of GAD’s expertise. Whether it is Python, R, R Shiny or JavaScript – the list of programming languages is a long one. At the same time we are deploying advanced statistical methods to improve our understanding of the issues faced by our clients, enabling more impactful advice, and ultimately better outcomes for the UK.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has found that Elite Sports and JD Sports broke competition law by fixing the retail prices of a number of Rangers-branded replica kits and other clothing products from September 2018 until July 2019. Rangers FC also took part in the collusion but only to the extent of fixing the retail price of adult home short-sleeved replica shirts from September 2018 to mid-November 2018. All 3 firms colluded to stop JD Sports undercutting the retail price of the shirt on Elite’s Gers Online store.

Elite Sports has been fined £459,000, JD Sports £1,485,000 and Rangers £225,000. The penalties include a settlement discount, reflecting resource savings to the CMA as a result of all 3 parties admitting to acting illegally and helping bring a swifter resolution to the CMA’s investigation. Elite Sports’ and JD Sports’ penalties also include a discount for coming forward with information about their participation in the illegal conduct and cooperating with the investigation under the CMA’s Leniency Programme.

Michael Grenfell, Executive Director of Enforcement at the CMA, said:

At a time when many people are worried about the rising cost of living, it is important that football fans are able to benefit from competitively priced merchandise.

Instead, Elite, JD Sports and, to some extent, Rangers, worked together to keep prices high.

Today’s decision sends a clear message to football clubs and other businesses that illegal anti-competitive collusion will not be tolerated.

During the time of the infringement, Elite was the manufacturer of Rangers-branded clothing and also sold Rangers-branded products directly through its Gers Online store and later in bricks-and-mortar shops in Glasgow and Belfast. The only UK-wide major retailer selling those products at the time was JD Sports.

The CMA’s investigation found that Rangers FC became concerned about the fact that, at the start of the 2018 to 2019 football season, JD Sports was selling the Rangers replica top at a lower price than Elite, which was seen at the time as the club’s ‘retail partner’. This resulted in an understanding between the 3 parties that JD Sports would increase its retail price of the Rangers adult short-sleeved home replica shirt by nearly 10%, from £55 to £60, to bring it in line with the prices being charged by Elite on Gers Online.

The CMA also found that Elite and JD Sports – without involvement from Rangers – colluded to fix the retail prices of Rangers-branded clothing, including training wear and replica kit, over a longer period. This included aligning the level and timing of discounts towards the end of the football season in 2019, to avoid competition between them and protect their profit margins.

More information can be found on the case page: Suspected anti-competitive behaviour in relation to the pricing of Rangers FC-branded replica football kit.

1. For media enquiries, contact the CMA press office on 020 3738 6460 or press@cma.gov.uk.
2. The Chapter I prohibition in the Competition Act 1998 prohibits agreements and concerted practices between businesses which have as their object or effect the prevention, restriction or distortion of competition within the UK.
3. Any business found to have infringed the prohibitions in the Competition Act 1998 can be fined up to 10% of its annual worldwide group turnover.
4. The infringement decision is addressed to the following parties: Elite Sports Group Limited and its parent company Elite Corporation Limited; JD Sports Fashion Plc; and The Rangers Football Club Limited and its parent company Rangers International Football Club Plc.
5. A non-confidential version of the infringement decision will be published shortly.
6. On 7 June 2022, the CMA issued a statement of objections setting out its provisional findings that Elite Sports, JD Sports and Rangers Football Club broke competition law by fixing the retail prices of certain Rangers-branded clothing products.
7. Under the CMA’s leniency policy, a business that has been involved in a cartel may be granted immunity from penalties or a significant reduction in penalty in return for reporting cartel activity and assisting the CMA with its investigation. Individuals involved in cartel activity may also in certain defined circumstances be granted immunity from criminal prosecution for the cartel offence under the Enterprise Act 2002 and from competition disqualification proceedings. The CMA also operates a rewards policy under which it may pay a financial reward of up to £100,000 in return for information which helps it to identify and take action against cartels. For more information on the CMA’s leniency and informant reward policies, go to leniency and rewards.
8. Anyone who has information about a cartel is encouraged to call the CMA cartels hotline on 020 3738 6888 or email cartelshotline@cma.gov.uk.

Innovations to make heat pumps cheaper and easier to install have been backed by more than £15 million in government funding, helping accelerate the UK’s move away from fossil fuels.

The funding is part of the government’s £60 million Heat Pump Ready programme, which is developing innovative solutions for reducing barriers to the rollout of low carbon technology in homes and businesses across the UK.

A total of 24 projects in England and Scotland have won funding in the second round of the Heat Pump Ready programme.

This funding comes alongside the government’s £450 million Boiler Upgrade Scheme, that provides £5,000 grants to homeowners towards the cost of a heat pump, and a zero rate of VAT for installing clean heating measures and will make it an even more affordable option for people looking to replace a gas or oil boiler in their property.

Heat pumps are already a proven technology that is much more efficient than traditional fossil fuel boilers and provide a reliable, low carbon heating solution for households.

Business and Energy Minister Lord Callanan said:

In light of rising global gas and oil prices, getting low-carbon heating technology into homes is a priority for this government as it will help households ditch the costly fossil fuels that are driving up bills.

Heat pumps are a proven, reliable technology that uses cheaper renewable energy produced in the UK. We are already bringing costs down through the Boiler Upgrade Scheme and slashing VAT to zero, but by finding innovative ways to make them even cheaper and easier to install, we will help more homes see the benefits even quicker.

The key objectives of Heat Pump Ready are to reduce costs and increase the performance of domestic heat pumps, minimise disruption in homes during the process of heat pump installation and develop financial models that support an increase in heat pump deployment.

Innovation support is one part of the government’s strategy to help bring low-carbon heating technology to the mass-market and supports the target of installing 600,000 heat pumps a year by 2028.

Industry estimates that the UK heat pump market grew nearly 50% last year and along with the Boiler Upgrade Scheme, Heat Pump Ready is part of a wider package of policies the government is introducing to scale up deployment and support industry to reduce the costs of heat pumps.

Projects being supported by this stream 2 funding include one in Harrogate in North Yorkshire that is using data from smart meters to help optimise the running of a heat pump in a household energy system, a scheme in Truro in Cornwall that is looking to develop efficient and ecological refrigerants that are used in heat pumps and a project in Thame in Oxfordshire looking at ways to reduce the costs of installing and running a heat pump.

The £15 million stream 2 funding supports 37 small and medium enterprises across the 24 projects in England and Scotland, will support the creation of more than 300 jobs and will leverage £6.5 million of private investment.

Stream 2 of the Heat Pump Ready programme comes alongside streams 1 and 3. Stream 1 is providing over £2 million of funding across 11 projects developing feasibility studies for innovative ways to increase the deployment of domestic heat pumps within their local area. In their applications for Phase 1, project teams have estimated a potential cost reduction of at least 20% could be achieved through coordinated deployment.

Heat Pump Ready is part of the £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP) and funding was announced in October 2021 alongside the Heat and Building Strategy.

As a result of the strategy and with help from projects receiving funding through the Heat Pump Ready programme, the government is confident that, as the market for low carbon heating grows, the cost of technology will fall rapidly. Working with industry, the government is aiming for heat pumps to cost the same as fossil fuel boilers to buy and run by 2030 at the latest with big reductions of at least 25-50% by 2025.

The 24 projects receiving funding through Stream 2 of the Heat Pump Ready programme.

Stream 1 of Heat Pump Ready is providing over £2 million of funding across 11 projects in Newcastle, Sunderland, Leeds, Oxford, Greenwich, Bristol, Teignbridge, Fenland, Perth, Cherwell and Bridgend. These projects are working to develop feasibility studies for innovative ways to increase the deployment of domestic heat pumps within their local area. Projects will then use their project findings to apply for up to £9 million for Stream 1, Phase 2, to trial the solutions they have developed.

Stream 3 of Heat Pump Ready is providing up to £5 million of funding to support learning across the Heat Pump Ready Programme so evidence can be shared across participants and with external heat pump stakeholders. The £450 million Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS), which opened to voucher applications in May 2022, aims to incentivise people by offering grants of £5,000 toward the upfront cost of the installation of an air source heat pump, and £6,000 for a ground source heat pump.

The government has launched an online service to help households make informed choices on installing low carbon heating, including heat pumps, and upgrading the energy efficiency of their homes, as part of its ‘Help to Heat’ support.