Oral Answers to Questions

Chris Kelly Excerpts

Tuesday 10th May 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gauke]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Even now, our deficit is higher than Portugal’s and it is perfectly clear that we on the Government side are united and determined to bring that deficit down.

[Chris Kelly (Dudley South) (Con)]

T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

[The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr George Osborne)]

The core purpose of the Treasury is to ensure the stability of the economy, to promote growth and employment, to reform banking and to clear up the mess in the public finances that we inherited so that Britain starts to live within her means.

[Chris Kelly]

The Chancellor will know that fraud and error have plagued the tax system since it was introduced. What measures is he taking to bear down on this and what financial impacts does he expect those measures to have?

[Mr Osborne]

I can today report to the House that in the past year Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs has saved an additional £1 billion by tackling fraud and error in the tax credit system. For many years, the flaws in the shambolic administration of tax credits went completely ignored by the Labour party, causing misery for hundreds of thousands of families and costing the taxpayer billions of pounds, but we are now sorting out this mess.