Deprived Areas
Debate between Baroness Penn and Lord Suri
Baroness Penn (Con)
This Government’s approach to reducing low wages is the introduction of the national living wage. We have also extended the national living wage to apply to younger cohorts of people, and we have a longer-term commitment on the level of that national living wage to try to eliminate low pay altogether.
Lord Suri (Con) [V]
My Lords, what are the Government doing to address the lower rates of testing and vaccination among underserved communities at the risk of Covid?
Baroness Penn (Con)
My noble friend raises an important point. On testing, we have been piloting alternative delivery models based on identifying the trusted individual for people in underserved communities and enabling them to encourage their members or service users to start testing; that has been incredibly effective. For vaccines, we have a community champion scheme which applies a similar logic, and we are taking vaccinations to places and sites where people will access them and improve take-up rates.
G7 Global Tax Agreement
Debate between Baroness Penn and Lord Suri
Baroness Penn (Con)
My Lords, a global minimum rate of 15% will protect against multinational tax avoidance while leaving appropriate room for countries to use corporation tax as a lever to support their economic, fiscal and environmental objectives.
Lord Suri (Con) [V]
My Lords, given that there is more work to do to agree the details of this tax agreement, it is only right to remove the digital services tax once the new agreement is finalised and in place.
Baroness Penn (Con)
My Lords, I can reassure a number of noble Lords that the noble Lord is correct that we will be removing the digital services tax only once we have full agreement and a plan for the implementation of a new international system. That is the position of the UK and it is supported by several other countries in the negotiations, such as France and Canada.