Tax Avoidance (Public Servants)

Debate between Gareth Thomas and Danny Alexander

Thursday 2nd February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

I well understand why people would see it that way—frankly, I see it that way myself. It is interesting that already today we have heard one example, from my hon. Friend the Member for South Norfolk (Mr Bacon), who is a member of the PAC, of a similar arrangement made under the previous Government. Of course, the review will not look back on arrangements that have now been discontinued, but will look at those currently in existence in the public sector in order to ensure that everyone pays their fair share of tax. I know that my hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth West (Conor Burns) will strongly agree with that.

[Mr Gareth Thomas (Harrow West) (Lab/Co-op)]

In December, I tabled a round robin question to every Department asking whether senior staff in Departments, Executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies were

“paid by means of payments to a limited company”.

On 5 December, the Under-Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, the hon. Member for Kingston and Surbiton (Mr Davey), who has responsibility for consumer affairs, replied on behalf of BIS:

“The Department's policy is that staff salaries are paid into employees’ bank accounts.”

He also wrote that

“there is no evidence that any senior civil servants in the Department for Business Innovation and Skills and its non-departmental public bodies are paid by means of payments to a limited company in lieu of a salary.”—[Official Report, 5 December 2011; Vol. 537, c. 152-3W.]

Why did they get it wrong, and why did I not get an answer from the chief executive of the Student Loans Company?

[Danny Alexander]

That answer described the arrangements as I understood them until I received information about this case in the past few days. The inquiry that I have put in place will reveal whether any more of these arrangements exist elsewhere in Government.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Gareth Thomas and Danny Alexander

Tuesday 6th September 2011 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

I can certainly assure my hon. Friend of that. Unlike under the previous Government, No. 10 Downing street and the Treasury work very well together on these issues.

[Mr Gareth Thomas (Harrow West) (Lab/Co-op)]

11. What recent assessment he has made of the level of economic growth.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Gareth Thomas and Danny Alexander

Tuesday 13th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[Danny Alexander]

I am very grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his comments in support, I think, of the policy that we are pursuing. The local enterprise partnerships will be able to choose for themselves and direct where they think investment is needed in their localities. One major tool that they will have at their disposal is the ability, as a public-private partnership, to apply to the regional growth fund for investment in their areas. Obviously, that will be allocated in ways to be announced, but I hope that it will provide a tool for those new bodies to do precisely the sorts of things that the hon. Gentleman set out.

[Mr Gareth Thomas (Harrow West) (Lab/Co-op)]

Businesses in the north-west will have seen the National Institute of Economic and Social Research arguing that growth will now be lower as a result of the Budget; they will have seen two reports of business confidence in their region and throughout the UK tumbling as a result of the Budget; and, just last week, they will have seen the International Monetary Fund’s devastating downgrading of its forecast for UK growth. Are not people in the north-west listening to the Chief Secretary trying to sell the Budget as a Budget for growth entitled to feel that, actually, they are being sold the emperor’s new clothes?

[Danny Alexander]

People in the north-west and elsewhere will have seen the Office for Budget Responsibility’s forecast, which predicts that during the course of our Budget over the next four years we will see rising economic growth, falling unemployment and rising employment. They will have seen also the OECD’s forecast and review of the UK, which was published today and includes the title, “A Strategy To Instill Confidence and Boost Growth”. That is precisely what our Budget is.