Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jane Ellison and Philip Boswell

Tuesday 17th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Jane Ellison]

My hon. Friend makes a fair point. A discussion about the REACH regulation was on the agenda when the Under-Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union met the chemical industry and, of course, it will continue to form part of our discussions.

[Philip Boswell (Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill) (SNP)]

8. Whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing additional rules to ring-fence the operations of US banks in the UK.

Finance Bill

Debate between Jane Ellison and Philip Boswell

Tuesday 6th September 2016 Commons Chamber

[Jane Ellison]

Treasury Ministers and the Chancellor take points made by my right hon. Friend and his Committee members very seriously. As I said earlier and as has been confirmed in an exchange of letters between my right hon. Friend and the Chancellor, we will consider the issue at future fiscal events closer to the date of the autumn statement. I may be able to write to my right hon. Friend with further information, but that is what I am able to say at the moment.

[Philip Boswell (Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill) (SNP)]

I thank the Minister for giving way. She is being most generous.

Yesterday, in an intervention on the speech of one of the Minister’s colleagues, I asked when we were likely to expect the very important autumn statement. The response was “some time in November, maybe December.” Can the Minister confirm that that is indeed the case?

[Jane Ellison]

As I have said, the date will be confirmed in due course, but I think it reasonable to assume that the window of opportunity to which the hon. Gentleman has referred is broadly correct.

I shall speak briefly—as, again, there is no Liberal Democrat presence in the Chamber—about amendment 179, which deals with the apprenticeship levy. This would exclude qualifying bonus payments to employees of employee-owned businesses from being considered as part of the employer’s pay bill when calculating the levy. To ensure the levy is as simple and fair as possible, the Government have decided to use the existing definition of earnings—those used for employers national insurance contributions. This avoids unnecessary complication. This point about avoiding complication was made repeatedly to us during the consultation. We feel the amendment would add complication and therefore we urge the House to reject it.

Lastly, Labour amendment 141 on employee share schemes proposes a tax exemption for residual cash amounts remaining in share incentive plans when they are donated to charity. While we appreciate the proposal is made with the best of intentions, we are concerned the change would, again, add complexity and the amendment lacks details. We would need further development and evidence of this idea before giving it further consideration.

I will end there, but I may look to respond briefly at the end if there are any further points I can add that would assist the House. I look forward to the debate.