Children: Television

Lord Christopher Excerpts

Tuesday 1st July 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, the noble Baroness makes a strong point. Again, this is the point that the industry is making and that the Treasury will listen to and consider over the coming months.

[Lord Christopher (Lab)]

My Lords, nobody so far has mentioned the regulator. To assist the Minister in the matter of age, I would like to cast noble Lords’ minds back to 1981, which certainly the noble Lord, Lord Grade, will recall, when the Independent Broadcasting Authority was interviewing candidates for franchises in independent television. The chairperson, Lady Plowden, always reserved to herself the question of children’s programmes. The regulator has, of late, fallen behind in addressing a number of issues, certainly children’s programmes appearing on television. Will the Minister approach the regulator to see whether some studies should not be made about what children today would like to see?

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, that is an extremely interesting point and I will definitely take it back. One of the key points to make about the difference between now and the period the noble Lord was talking about is that, paradoxically, there are now a lot more children’s TV channels and routes by which children get their entertainment.

Spending Review

Lord Christopher Excerpts

Wednesday 26th June 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Deighton]

I agree with my noble friend that managing the public finances responsibly will be a continuing exercise of considerable discipline. On managing current spending, we have introduced the welfare cap on the overall budget as well as the cap on specific benefits that we saw in the previous Budget. Departmental budgets are being managed with discipline. There has also been a real focus on switching from current expenditure to capital expenditure, which should support the enhancement of the productive capacity of the economy and thus help us with tax revenues. Those components should continue to be an urgent and aggressive focus of the Government’s fiscal management.

[Lord Christopher]

Page 5 of the Printed Paper Office version of the speech says:

“We will end automatic progression pay in the Civil Service by 2015-16”.

That is a very serious breach of faith. Quite apart from anything else, how are the Government going to do it?

[Lord Deighton]

We are going to do it simply by implementing it in 2015-16. As I understand it, many of the structural changes to Civil Service pay have already been made in many departments. This is just equalising the system right across the service.

Taxation: Income Tax

Lord Christopher Excerpts

Monday 24th June 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby]

No, my Lords.

[Lord Christopher]

My Lords, perhaps I may help. According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, two or three years ago the loss to the Revenue due to anticipation was £1 billion. That was the figure that the OBR gave and it has not been contradicted. When will we know what the degree of postponement is this year? If I may say so, in my opinion both of these losses could have been stopped with a two or three-line clause in the Finance Bill, which both he and I could have written.

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, I think that the noble Lord overestimates my drafting skills.

Economy: Government Policies

Lord Christopher Excerpts

Wednesday 7th December 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sassoon]

No, my Lords, that is precisely not the conclusion from the IFS report. What the IFS report also pointed out was that Labour’s plans—the plans of Mr Alistair Darling in his March 2010 Budget—

“would, if [they] had been implemented, now of course have implied even higher debt levels over this parliament than those we will in fact see. That would have left an even bigger job to do in the next parliament”.

There would have been £100 billion of additional debt if we had followed Labour’s plans, and that was under Mr Darling. Mr Ed Balls has so far announced unfunded commitments of £91 billion a year—£326 billion of unfunded expenditure. Mr Ed Balls wishes to pave the road to Rome, if not to Athens.

[Lord Christopher]

My Lords, did not the Conservative Party embrace Labour’s spending plans?

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, what my right honourable friend the Chancellor said we would do is to stick precisely to the spending plans that he set out in the March Budget and the subsequent spending review. That is what we will do, and that is what will keep our interest rates low.

Banking: Royal Bank of Scotland

Lord Christopher Excerpts

Tuesday 1st February 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, with regards to the proposed possible settlement with the banks in Project Merlin, discussions are ongoing with the intention of seeing that the banks pay smaller bonuses than they would otherwise; that they are more transparent about their pay; that they make a greater contribution to local communities and the regional economies; that they treat customers fairly; and that they lend, materially and verifiably, more than they were planning to the businesses of Britain—especially small and medium-sized enterprise—so that they can grow and create this year. If we do not get such a settlement, my right honourable friend the Chancellor has made it clear that nothing is off the table. As to the Independent Commission on Banking, it is an independent banking commission and it will do its own thing as it sees fit.

[Lord Christopher]

Will the Minister clarify one of his answers in relation to the amount that will come to the Treasury this year? Will he please explain how—and when—those bonuses that are paid in shares and in a new vehicle entitled “cocos” are taxed?

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, the tax rules around deferred compensation are complex and depend on the sort of instrument being paid. Some tax on certain instruments is levied up front and some is levied later, so it depends very much on the circumstances of the individual instrument and the taxpayer. But, of course, some tax might indeed be levied later on.

Housing: Shared Ownership

Lord Christopher Excerpts

Monday 25th October 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, questions about what people can afford to pay are essentially for the mortgage provider to judge in the context of its commercial decisions, made within the responsible lending guidelines set down by the FSA.

[Lord Christopher]

My Lords, can the Minister offer a view on why equity release schemes should be regarded as sub-prime mortgages? I should have thought that such arrangements were highly desirable, given the age distribution that we face.

[Lord Sassoon]

My Lords, I regret that I am not going to be drawn into making judgments which are for the financial regulators to make.