Arrivals Duty Free at UK Airports

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Thursday 30th March 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

My Lords, I reassure the noble Lord that the Government fully understand the contribution that tourism makes to our economy. To pick up his point about the Covid pandemic, through the pandemic the UK Government provided over £37 billion to support the tourism, leisure and hospitality sector in the form of grants, loans and tax breaks. Since then, the Government have contributed to various successful campaigns to stimulate recovery, including the £10 million National Lottery Days Out scheme and efforts by VisitBritain to deliver its international marketing campaign.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords, following the question from the noble Lord, Lord Vaizey, who mentioned the Scottish National Party, is the Minister aware that in Scotland we have had a Minister for Tourism—which includes what we are talking about in this Question today—since 1999, but the current Government of Scotland have made no such appointment? Instead, they have appointed a Minister for Independence, when the Prime Minister has rightly ruled out a referendum. As a Treasury Minister, will she get her officials to look into this unauthorised expenditure by the Scottish Government?

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

My Lords, I will say that it shows that the Scottish Government’s priorities lie in the wrong place, instead of seeking to address the priorities of the people of Scotland, whether it is tourism or improving their health and education systems. I think the people of Scotland would welcome a greater focus on those issues and less of a focus on something on which we recently had a referendum that settled the issue.

Carers in England

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Monday 6th March 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords, the Treasury does not seem to understand that by spending more money in one area, you can save even more in another area. If we spend more money in care homes, we can save a lot of money in the health service. As my noble friend Lord Haskel said, if we spend more money on carers, they can go out to work and help the economy. I have great faith in the noble Baroness. She has a lot of experience and is very persuasive. Will she go back to the Treasury and try to persuade it of this truth?

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

Perhaps I can persuade the noble Lord to have a little more faith in the Treasury’s attitude towards these things. I set out in an earlier answer the additional money that is going into social care this year and next, which was announced alongside healthcare spending. But the amount that we were putting into social care was precisely to acknowledge the role it plays, for example, in reducing delays to discharge that are affecting our health system.

Alcohol Duty Bands

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Thursday 12th January 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

My Lords, one of the big changes that we are making to alcohol duties is to ensure that higher-strength alcohol is taxed at a higher rate. This puts the points that the noble Lord makes at the heart of our approach. The normal process is to review alcohol duties on a yearly basis and take a decision in the round, and that will continue.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab Co-op)]

My Lords, what discussions have the Treasury and the UK Government had with the Scottish Government, who clearly have an interest in this in relation to two aspects—one being minimum-unit pricing, which has not had the desired effect that the Scottish Government expected, and the other being their consideration of implementing a tax on whisky producers in Scotland to raise money to cover some of the expenditure of the Scottish Government?

[Baroness Penn (Con)]

My Lords, the Government have regular dialogue with the Scottish Government—indeed, the Prime Minister is there today. I agree with the noble Lord that the minimum-unit pricing approach has not always had the desired effect. The UK Government’s position is to address this through the level of duties, and relating that to the strength of alcohol. That is the better approach, and one that we can take now that we have left the EU.

Income Inequality

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Thursday 21st January 2016 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend to commission research into the impact on social cohesion of income inequality.

[The Commercial Secretary to the Treasury (Lord O'Neill of Gatley) (Con)]

My Lords, income inequality is falling and is close to its lowest level since the mid-1980s. The Government have taken action to reduce inequality and poverty by boosting the incomes of those in work through the new national living wage, by taking 3.8 million working-age individuals out of income tax since 2010 and by reducing worklessness, with more people now in work than ever before.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

My Lords, with FTSE 100 chief executives—only four of whom actually founded their companies—earning 183 times the median earnings for a full-time worker, and with the chief executive of HSBC, for example, receiving £7.5 million in the year that its profits went down by 17%, does the Minister agree that it is a miracle that there is not more social unrest in this country? Will the Government consider setting up a commission to make recommendations on ways in which this terrible income inequality can be dealt with?

[Lord O'Neill of Gatley]

My Lords, as I suggested in my opening formal comments—and I am happy to provide plenty of data to back up the substance because it is so wide—true measures of income inequality, whether in terms of disposable income or of what is called original income, have for many years shown a decline in income inequality. How chief executives are remunerated by their companies, particularly in the quoted sector, depends on the decisions of their boards and shareholders.

Income Per Capita

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Tuesday 14th July 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord O'Neill of Gatley]

My Lords, while again I use this opportunity to encourage all Members to read our brilliant document, I shall also make reference to forces that I believe are important from my previous life on the topic of sustainable development and GDP per capita, one of which is indeed the performance of a country’s trade balance, particularly its export performance. That is something that our private sector needs to take the lead on. All that a Government should do is to make sure that it has the right environment to allow it to flourish.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

My Lords, this is no laughing matter. Can the Minister explain to the House how the proposed changes in child tax credits will affect the per capita income of those involved?

[A noble Lord]

It is on page 64.

Small Businesses: Finance

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Wednesday 25th February 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby]

As I explained, gross lending to small businesses was up by 25% last year. That is the figure, my Lords. The noble Lord shakes his head, but that is the figure. Banks have not been as open-handed to small businesses as they were before the crash, partly because at that stage in some cases they were lending irresponsibly and partly because they have had to strengthen their balance sheets—something which the noble Lord has been very keen to encourage.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

Was finance for small businesses discussed at any of the 56 meetings Ministers had with HSBC over the past five years?

[Lord Newby]

Good try, my Lords.

Tax Avoidance and HSBC

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Monday 23rd February 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, there are 10 minutes for everybody, so let me be brief. I agree with my noble friend in her core view. I have not read in any detail what my noble friend Lord Macdonald has said, but HMRC has made it clear that now that the restrictions on the use of the information from France have been lifted, it is looking closely at that new information and will refer cases to the CPS for prosecution as appropriate. I think that bonuses at HSBC are matters for its board and shareholders.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

My Lords, that really was an astonishing and disgraceful Statement. I heard it in the House of Commons, and it was outrageous how the Chancellor tried to portray Labour as the friends of the tax evaders. If that is the case, why is it that £5 million has been given by HSBC to a political party—not the Labour Party but the Tory party? Why is it that there are three Peers who are either members of the board or advisors to HSBC—not Labour Peers but Tory Peers? Perhaps I can remind the Minister that in the July my noble friend Lady Royall and I raised a question about the appointment of the noble Lord, Lord Green of Hurstpierpoint. The noble Lord, Lord Strathclyde, and others pooh-poohed the question and said that there was no need to worry about it. Now we are being told that we did not raise it at the time. I raised it because the noble Lord never turned up at the House, and that is why I dubbed him the Scarlet Pimpernel. He really has to come and face the music about his role as the chair of HSBC.

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, I am sure that the noble Lord, Lord Green, like many other noble Lords, will read the noble Lord’s comments with great interest.

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, the important thing to note is that the problems that we are now looking at—never mind who was in government—arose before the new regulatory regime was in place, before the banking industry itself set up its new standards body, and before there was the kind of scrutiny of what is happening in the banks that there is now. Everyone agrees that there needs to be a change of culture in the banks, including many who are in senior positions in those banks. I agree completely that Parliament has a role to play in calling the banks to account, and I hope that both Houses will continue in it.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock]

My Lords—

Barnett Formula

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Tuesday 10th February 2015 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much has been allocated to the Scottish Government in Barnett consequentials in the last year.

[Lord Newby (LD)]

My Lords, the Barnett formula was applied in the usual way to changes in departmental spending at both Budget 2014 and Autumn Statement 2014. The Scottish Government received £301 million in extra allocations as a consequence of spending decisions taken by the UK Government.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

My Lords, does the Minister agree that Barnett provides secure funding for the Scottish Government and if they had relied on oil revenues they would not have produced the £7 billion that was in the SNP White Paper, but just over £1 billion, and that an independent Scotland would now be bankrupt? Is it not a good job that we voted no in the referendum?

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, it is always a pleasure to agree with the noble Lord. It is, however, worth underlining the point that he has just made. There would be a £6 billion deficit compared to the figures in the Scottish Government’s November 2013 White Paper in respect of oil revenues, which would mean that for that reason alone the Scottish deficit in 2016-17 would be more than 6% of GDP, one of the biggest in the developed world.

Taxation: Avoidance

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Monday 9th February 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

My Lords, is this not a strange comparison—

[The Lord Privy Seal (Baroness Stowell of Beeston) (Con)]

My Lords, I could not help noticing that the noble Lord, Lord Foulkes, was not here at all for the Statement that my noble friend Lord Newby repeated at the beginning of this Urgent Question. It is our convention that it is appropriate for a noble Lord to be present in the Chamber if he wishes to ask a question about a Statement. As I have taken time in order to make this point, it is of course the turn of a Labour Peer to ask a question of my noble friend should they wish, but I think that the noble Lord, Lord Foulkes, would not be in line with the Companion if he was to ask that question himself.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock]

I heard the full Statement. Can I ask the noble Lord: is it not strange that in the United States—

[Baroness Stowell of Beeston]

My Lords, our convention suggests, as stated in the Companion, that noble Lords must be here in this Chamber to hear the Statement being repeated if they wish to ask a question of the Minister repeating that Statement. The noble Lord, Lord Foulkes, was not in the Chamber to hear my noble friend repeat the Statement.

Finance: Fiscal Devolution

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock Excerpts

Wednesday 9th July 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, there are obviously strong arguments which would enable cities to raise more funding. Those have been resisted by the Treasury under successive Governments. As they are moving towards drawing up their manifestos, I am sure that all the parties are considering whether they want to change those long-standing practices.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

My Lords, rather than more piecemeal devolution, is the time not now right for a more comprehensive and coherent look at devolution throughout the whole of the United Kingdom, so that we have a sensible system, and that some kind of commission—a constitutional commission or royal commission, under a wise and experienced chairman—should be set up as soon as possible?

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, I was waiting for the last part of that sentence. I am sure that all noble Lords will bear the noble Lord’s expertise in mind, should a commission be established. I think that, once we have the outcome of the Scottish referendum, all parties and all people who are interested in constitutional change in the UK will want to revisit the issue. The exact way we do it is also something that I think all the parties are thinking about as they draw up their manifestos.