Asked by: Kanishka Narayan (Labour - Vale of Glamorgan)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to support the allocation of a greater share of defined contribution pension capital into UK productive assets, in the context of the Mansion House reforms.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The government published the Interim Report of its Pensions Investment Review at the Mansion House event on 14 November. This Report puts forward ambitious proposals to reform the UK pension system which could unlock productive investment while boosting savers’ pension pots.
The government is currently considering whether further interventions may be needed by the government to ensure that these reforms are benefiting UK growth.
The final report of the Pensions Investment Review will be published in the Spring, ahead of the introduction of the Pension Schemes Bill.
Asked by: Kanishka Narayan (Labour - Vale of Glamorgan)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to reduce friction in the UK’s payments infrastructure.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The National Payments Vision, published at Mansion House 2024, sets out the government’s ambition for a trusted, world-leading payments ecosystem delivered on next generation technology, where consumers and businesses have a choice of payment methods to meet their needs. It sets out two key foundations to deliver the government’s vision: a clear, predictable and proportionate regulatory framework, and resilient payments infrastructure that supports innovation.
The Vision established a Payments Vision Delivery Committee, which is chaired by HM Treasury and attended by senior representatives from the Bank of England, Payment Systems Regulator and Financial Conduct Authority, to drive forward key outputs over the course of this year, including on payments infrastructure.
The Committee, through work led by the PSR and the Bank of England, will set out an approach for the development and delivery of the UK’s retail infrastructure needs and the required governance and funding model to achieve it.
Asked by: Kanishka Narayan (Labour - Vale of Glamorgan)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to increase retail investor participation in UK capital markets.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government wants to see more consumers participate in capital markets and benefit from the long-term financial security that investing can provide.
The Financial Services Growth & Competitiveness Strategy Call for Evidence, which closed on 12 December, asked how increasing retail participation in capital markets could support long-term sustainable growth within the sector and the wider economy. The call for evidence welcomed further evidence on how to improve consumer engagement with investing, and the Government is considering the feedback provided.
At Spring Statement 2025, the Government announced it is looking at options for reforms to ISAs that get the balance right between cash and investing, to earn better returns for savers, boost the culture of retail investment in capital markets, and support the growth mission.
More broadly, the Government is committed to boosting our capital markets to deliver growth across the UK and is pursuing ambitious reforms to make our markets even more competitive. For example, reforms to the Prospectus rules will give investors, including retail investors, access to better quality information and so participate more easily in the capital raising process. The Government is also working with the FCA to review the boundary between financial advice and guidance, to ensure consumers get the support they need to make decisions about their finances.
Asked by: Kanishka Narayan (Labour - Vale of Glamorgan)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the suitability of the current asset and employee number eligibility caps for the Enterprise Management Incentive in supporting the fastest-growing tech startups in the UK.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Enterprise Management Incentive (EMI) scheme is a tax-advantaged share scheme, which allows SMEs to attract and retain high productivity workers that they otherwise would not be able to recruit due to insufficient cashflow compared to larger, more established companies. The asset and employee number eligibility caps ensure the scheme is targeted at those small companies most affected by this issue.
At Spring Budget 2022, a review of EMI concluded that the scheme and its limits remain “effective and appropriately targeted.” Following this evaluation, Company Share Option Plan (CSOP) was expanded from April 2023 in order to support companies as they grow beyond the scope of EMI.
The Government keeps all tax reliefs under review, to ensure they continue to meet their policy objectives in a way that is fair and effective.
Asked by: Kanishka Narayan (Labour - Vale of Glamorgan)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department has made a comparative assessment of (a) levels of devolved health funding for Wales and (b) healthcare demand.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Welsh Government’s Phase 1 Spending Review 2025 settlement for 2025-26 is the largest in real terms of any Welsh Government settlement since devolution. The Welsh Government is receiving at least 20% more funding per person than equivalent UK Government spending in England. That translates into over £4 billion more in 2025-26.
Barnett consequentials provided to the Welsh Government are not ringfenced for a specific policy area. It is for the Welsh Government to allocate their funding in devolved areas, including health, as they see fit. They can therefore take their own decisions on managing and investing available resources, reflecting their own priorities and local circumstances, and it is accountable to the Senedd for these decisions.
Asked by: Kanishka Narayan (Labour - Vale of Glamorgan)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department has conducted an impact assessment of recent Barnett consequentials for health spending in Wales.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Welsh Government’s Phase 1 Spending Review 2025 settlement for 2025-26 is the largest in real terms of any Welsh Government settlement since devolution. The Welsh Government is receiving at least 20% more funding per person than equivalent UK Government spending in England. That translates into over £4 billion more in 2025-26.
Barnett consequentials provided to the Welsh Government are not ringfenced for a specific policy area. It is for the Welsh Government to allocate their funding in devolved areas, including health, as they see fit. They can therefore take their own decisions on managing and investing available resources, reflecting their own priorities and local circumstances, and it is accountable to the Senedd for these decisions.
Asked by: Kanishka Narayan (Labour - Vale of Glamorgan)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to improve access to growth capital for tech startups at (a) the scale-up stage and (b) other stages.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to improving access to growth capital for startups and scaleups, recognising their vital role in driving economic growth and innovation.
At Autumn Budget, the Government provided over £1bn across the years 2024-25 and 2025-26 for the British Business Bank to enhance access to finance for smaller businesses. This includes additional funding for the Future Fund: Breakthrough scheme, which co-invests in high-growth, innovative firms.
The Government is also working to unlock additional private capital for productive investment. The Government published the Interim Report of the Pensions Investment Review alongside the Chancellor’s Mansion House Speech on 14 November 2024. The proposed reforms in the Interim Report could potentially unlock around £80 billion of productive investment, while boosting savers’ pension pots. The Government will publish the Final Report in Spring 2025. This will further consider the opportunity for, and scope of, investment in the UK by pension funds.
The Government is also taking further proactive steps to increase investment in innovative businesses by creating and managing new funding structures that will deliver returns for investors and deliver capital to high-growth businesses. In November 2024, the British Business Bank completed its £250m Long Term Investment for Technology and Science (LIFTS) investment alongside Phoenix Group with Schroders Capital. The £500m investment vehicle will invest in UK late-stage companies focused on technology and science, with 20% of the fund expected to be invested in life sciences.
Additionally, two UK pension funds, Aegon UK and NatWest Cushon, have agreed to collaborate with the British Business Bank on launching the British Growth Partnership to crowd-in institutional investment into venture capital funds and innovative businesses here in the UK.
Asked by: Kanishka Narayan (Labour - Vale of Glamorgan)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of reforms to UK listing rules, in the context of support for tech companies.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
In July 2024, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) overhauled the UK’s Listing Rules to align our rulebook with leading international counterparts and provide greater flexibility to firms and founders raising capital on UK markets. The Government has also granted the FCA powers to rewrite the UK’s Prospectus Regime, with new rules expected later this year. This will benefit all firms looking to list on UK markets, including tech companies.
The Government is committed to reinvigorating our capital markets to deliver growth across the UK and is pursuing ambitious reforms to make our markets even more competitive.
Asked by: Kanishka Narayan (Labour - Vale of Glamorgan)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of research and development tax relief reforms on (a) startups and (b) scale-ups in the (i) deep tech sector and (ii) other sectors.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
In Autumn 2023, a review of the R&D tax credit system concluded. As part of this review, the previous Government extended the scope of the reliefs to include data and cloud costs, merged the RDEC and SME scheme, and introduced the Enhanced Support for Research-Intensive SMEs (ERIS), which provides a higher rate of relief for loss-making, innovative companies. The life sciences and deep tech sectors are expected to be among the main beneficiaries of ERIS.
The Government is committed to periodically evaluating the R&D reliefs to ensure they are as effective as possible and underpinned by a credible, up-to-date evidence base. It will be some time before the required outturn data is available to conduct an accurate review. The Government will continue to publish annual statistics on R&D claims by sector and company size on Gov.uk