Income Tax

Lord Hughes of Woodside Excerpts

Wednesday 19th November 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, as noble Lords will be aware, at the G20 last year the Prime Minister had this issue at the top of the agenda, since when the OECD has produced a whole raft of measures aimed at ensuring that companies pay their fair share of tax. Noble Lords will have seen the end of what was called the “double Irish” tax avoidance scheme in Ireland, and there are currently European Commission probes against tax avoidance in the Netherlands and Luxembourg. There has been a real tightening-up in this area, which was reinforced at the recent G20 summit.

[Lord Hughes of Woodside (Lab)]

My Lords, will the Minister reflect on what he has just said? If I heard him right, he said that most government departments were paying the minimum wage and that some are considering introducing it. Was that a slip of the tongue? Surely, no government department is paying less than the minimum wage. Did he mix up the minimum wage and the living wage?

[Lord Newby]

I am not sure, my Lords, but what I meant to say was that while all government departments obviously pay the minimum wage, a number are paying the living wage and we are encouraging more to do that.