Oral Answers to Questions

Calum Miller Excerpts

Tuesday 20th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Rachel Reeves]

I was very pleased that the Scottish salmon association welcomed the trade deal that we secured with the EU yesterday. Some 70% of the fish that is caught in UK waters is sold into European markets. That will now benefit from the sanitary and phytosanitary deal that we have secured within that deal. We have rolled over the deal that the previous Government secured, giving certainty to fishermen in Scotland and across the UK. We have made it easier for them to export into European markets. We have ensured that we can sell shellfish again into European markets, and we announced yesterday the £360 million package of measures to support coastal and fishing industries. The Scottish National party is now in an absurd situation where it supports Reform and the Tories in opposing the deal with the EU.

[Calum Miller (Bicester and Woodstock) (LD)]

I welcome the Chancellor’s answers on growth. She has been a strong champion of the Oxford-Cambridge growth corridor, but my constituents are concerned to know that she will lend her support to Lord Vallance’s efforts to join up across Departments and ensure that there is the social infrastructure to support the growth. My constituents worry that hospitals, schools and roads will not keep up with the ambitious pace that Lord Vallance is proposing.

[Rachel Reeves]

That is an opportune question, because I will be meeting Lord Vallance this afternoon to discuss the work he is taking forward on the Ox-Cam corridor to bring more good jobs, paying good wages, not only to Oxford and Cambridge, but, crucially, to the towns and cities in between. Some of the extra money we are putting into capital investment will absolutely be going to support the huge growth opportunities in that part of the world.

National Insurance Contributions (Secondary Class 1 Contributions) Bill

Calum Miller Excerpts

Consideration of Lords amendments
Wednesday 19th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Calum Miller (Bicester and Woodstock) (LD)]

The Minister makes the point that this is secondary for primary care providers. However, he does not acknowledge that primary care providers still do not know how they will be compensated by the Government, as I hear from dentists, community pharmacies and social care providers in my constituency. We are very close to the start of the tax year and those small businesses are providing critical primary care services in our communities. How can they operate when the Minister obfuscates and says other people might talk to them at a later stage about the money that they might receive? Would it not be easier for the Minister to accept the Liberal Democrat amendment from the House of Lords and clear up this matter today?

[James Murray]

For clarity, primary care providers who are independent contractors will not receive the direct support that the Government provide to Departments and other public sector employers. The pressures that those providers face are considered in the round before funding is provided to them, so the solution is arrived at in a different way from the way suggested by the hon. Gentleman.

As I set out earlier, the revenue raised by the decisions set out in the Bill will help fund public services, including those provided by the NHS and other social care providers. The amendments would put much of that funding at risk, so to support these amendments is to support higher borrowing, lower spending or other tax rises.