Budget Statement

Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville Excerpts

Thursday 21st March 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville]

My Lords, I should like to add a few words to this debate in the gap. I spoke for two minutes in a Question for Short Debate on 11 December last year on the impact of multinational companies’ financial practices and UK tax policies. I shall not speak for longer now on the same subject, not least for fear of my noble friend Lady Browning doing her mental arithmetic on my costs.

I support the plea of the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Bristol earlier on this same subject. In replying to a debate on 11 December, my noble friend Lord Marland, at col. 1050 of Hansard, said that DfID had averaged expenditure of £20 million per annum over five years to support tax regimes throughout the world. He went on to identify specifically DfID spending £11 million in Sierra Leone, £8 million in Tanzania, £8 million in Rwanda, where the tax take rose six-fold, and £21 million in Afghanistan, where the tax take used to be 4% and has now gone up to 11%. DfID is, with the support of HMRC, building up its technical capacity to help further.

At this late moment in the debate I do not expect a detailed comment of any kind in the wind-up of my noble friend the Commercial Secretary, but a reiteration of a continuing commitment to this constructive and productive programme would be both welcome and reassuring.