Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Anthony Browne and Victoria Atkins

Tuesday 21st March 2023 Commons Chamber

[The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Victoria Atkins)]

We have looked very carefully at this, because we know that many in the House have been citing this figure. What concerns us about that analysis is that the study does not appear to take into account the behavioural ramifications of changing the current regime or of making it less competitive than that of our international partners. We do have to remind ourselves that non-domiciled taxpayers pay UK tax on their UK earnings to the tune of £7.9 billion.

[Anthony Browne (South Cambridgeshire) (Con)]

The Leader of the Opposition led his charge against the Budget by saying that the UK was the sick man of Europe, yet the IMF shows that the UK had the fastest-growing economy in the G7 not just last year but the year before, and that since the Conservatives came to power in 2010 the UK has had the fastest-growing economy of the major economies in Europe. Does my right hon. Friend the Chancellor agree that, although there are clearly major economic challenges, there are many reasons—not least the tech sector in South Cambridgeshire—to be confident about the future of the UK economy?

Finance Bill

Debate between Anthony Browne and Victoria Atkins

Committee stage
Wednesday 30th November 2022 Commons Chamber

[Victoria Atkins]

I thank my hon. Friend for the constructive and eloquent way in which he has represented the interests of his constituents and those critical businesses in his constituency. I genuinely take this matter very seriously. In addition to a wider roundtable meeting that I am having next week with a broader range of sectors that may be affected by this, I wonder whether it would meet with his approval if we could have a meeting before Christmas specifically with the life sciences industry to try to ensure that we continue to see the thriving industry he has described, while also bringing about these much-needed changes to the R&D tax reliefs.

[Anthony Browne]

I thank the Minister for that positive and constructive response. I would be absolutely delighted, and I know that the industry would be delighted, to sit down with her urgently in the next few weeks to go through the different options.

My last comment on the R&D tax credits is on evaluation. Various people have mentioned in this debate and on Second Reading the effectiveness of those and whether they lead to more research and development. Clearly, we do not want to give good taxpayers’ money to businesses if they do not end up doing what we want them to do, which is doing more research and development. New clause 3 asks for evaluations. There are various published evaluations by His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and other bodies already about this, but I would just caution against reading too much into the headlines, because the evaluations I have read combined the whole spectrum of businesses that claim research and development tax credits, including the fraudsters, the chancers and the people who are just doing stuff they would do anyway and trying to get a tax credit for it, and all the knowledge-intensive companies in life sciences and other sectors that are doing the valuable research we want to encourage.

I would caution the Government to base any policy on an evaluation of how the tax credit is spent on the businesses that they want to encourage, as opposed to the fraudsters and the chancers that they do not. Any change to the regime needs to try to separate and distinguish between those two branches. As a result of the constructive approach taken by the Government, who I know want to sort this out, I do not think new clause 3 is necessary and therefore I will not be supporting it. I do support the Finance Bill, however, and commend it to the Committee.