Business of the House

Andrew Stephenson Excerpts

Thursday 24th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising the issue. I understand that our ambassador would be very happy to meet him and talk it through, and that our ambassador has already raised the matter with the Hungarian authorities. As I understand it, the legislation is aimed not at discriminating against Hindus but at preventing quasi-religious organisations from benefiting from a tax break. It would be quite wrong if Hindus were penalised and I very much hope that the dialogue that my hon. Friend has with the ambassador will enable progress to be made and reassurances to be given to the Hindu community in Hungary.

[Andrew Stephenson (Pendle) (Con)]

The decision to extend small business rate relief until October 2012, which the Leader of the House has mentioned, has been hugely welcome in Pendle, where more than 1,000 small businesses fall into the relevant category and have benefited from paying either reduced business rates or none at all. May we have a debate on the success of that scheme and on what more the Government can do to support small businesses, which are the backbone of the British economy?

[Sir George Young]

I very much hope that the Chancellor of the Exchequer tuned in and heard my hon. Friend make that bid, and that he is able to take it into account as he prepares his remarks for next Tuesday. As I have said, I hope there will be an opportunity to debate the extensive support that we are giving to SMEs when we have the debate on the general economy.