National Insurance Contributions (Termination Awards and Sporting Testimonials) Bill (First sitting)

Debate between Bill Grant and Peter Dowd

Tuesday 14th May 2019 Public Bill Committees

[Bill Grant (Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock) (Con)]

Q It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms McDonagh. Testimonials are common among sports groups, and they are not necessarily confined to football—they occur in cricket, rugby and so on. One would assume that there was consultation or engagement with clubs or representative bodies. What feedback did you get from them about the changes you propose?

Robert Jenrick: our interest in reforming national insurance contributions for sporting testimonials is long-standing, as is our interest in reforming termination payments, so this measure has been considered for some time. We consulted on it. Inevitably, in the course of that, we got representations from a number of sporting bodies, and Treasury officials and Ministers met some of them. For example, my predecessor, David Gauke, who was then Financial Secretary to the Treasury and is now Lord Chancellor, met the England and Wales Cricket Board, which took a particular interest in this measure. As a result, we took the decision to increase the threshold from £50,000 to £100,000. That is a significant change. Evidence we produced in 2013 suggested that the average applicable testimonial raised around £72,000 a year, so the change will take the vast majority of testimonials out of this measure, which applies only to testimonials that bring in significant receipts.

As far as I am aware, we have not received any representations from sporting bodies since we made the changes to income tax two years ago, and we have received no further representations from sporting bodies since I introduced the Bill a few weeks ago, so I think it has been received reasonably well.

[Peter Dowd]

Q May I follow up on a point that Mr Wood made? I felt a certain amount of ambivalence about the statement that the impact on the charity sector would be minimal. Any pound whatever lost to the charity sector is a loss to the charity sector and to the community, so I am slightly worried that the attitude seems to be, “It’s not much.” It will be something. In today’s society, given austerity, any loss to the charity sector is crucial, so it would help if we firmed up at some point what we believe the loss will be.

Robert Jenrick: Perhaps I can firm that up now. If the sportsperson used payroll giving, the loss would be zero. The individual and the sporting testimonial committee need to register for payroll giving, which is available without limit. In that case, there will be no loss to the charity whatever.