Small Businesses: Finance

Debate between Lord Newby and Lord Foulkes of Cumnock

Wednesday 25th February 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby]

As I explained, gross lending to small businesses was up by 25% last year. That is the figure, my Lords. The noble Lord shakes his head, but that is the figure. Banks have not been as open-handed to small businesses as they were before the crash, partly because at that stage in some cases they were lending irresponsibly and partly because they have had to strengthen their balance sheets—something which the noble Lord has been very keen to encourage.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

Was finance for small businesses discussed at any of the 56 meetings Ministers had with HSBC over the past five years?

[Lord Newby]

Good try, my Lords.

Tax Avoidance and HSBC

Debate between Lord Newby and Lord Foulkes of Cumnock

Monday 23rd February 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, there are 10 minutes for everybody, so let me be brief. I agree with my noble friend in her core view. I have not read in any detail what my noble friend Lord Macdonald has said, but HMRC has made it clear that now that the restrictions on the use of the information from France have been lifted, it is looking closely at that new information and will refer cases to the CPS for prosecution as appropriate. I think that bonuses at HSBC are matters for its board and shareholders.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

My Lords, that really was an astonishing and disgraceful Statement. I heard it in the House of Commons, and it was outrageous how the Chancellor tried to portray Labour as the friends of the tax evaders. If that is the case, why is it that £5 million has been given by HSBC to a political party—not the Labour Party but the Tory party? Why is it that there are three Peers who are either members of the board or advisors to HSBC—not Labour Peers but Tory Peers? Perhaps I can remind the Minister that in the July my noble friend Lady Royall and I raised a question about the appointment of the noble Lord, Lord Green of Hurstpierpoint. The noble Lord, Lord Strathclyde, and others pooh-poohed the question and said that there was no need to worry about it. Now we are being told that we did not raise it at the time. I raised it because the noble Lord never turned up at the House, and that is why I dubbed him the Scarlet Pimpernel. He really has to come and face the music about his role as the chair of HSBC.

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, I am sure that the noble Lord, Lord Green, like many other noble Lords, will read the noble Lord’s comments with great interest.

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, the important thing to note is that the problems that we are now looking at—never mind who was in government—arose before the new regulatory regime was in place, before the banking industry itself set up its new standards body, and before there was the kind of scrutiny of what is happening in the banks that there is now. Everyone agrees that there needs to be a change of culture in the banks, including many who are in senior positions in those banks. I agree completely that Parliament has a role to play in calling the banks to account, and I hope that both Houses will continue in it.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock]

My Lords—

Barnett Formula

Debate between Lord Newby and Lord Foulkes of Cumnock

Tuesday 10th February 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much has been allocated to the Scottish Government in Barnett consequentials in the last year.

[Lord Newby (LD)]

My Lords, the Barnett formula was applied in the usual way to changes in departmental spending at both Budget 2014 and Autumn Statement 2014. The Scottish Government received £301 million in extra allocations as a consequence of spending decisions taken by the UK Government.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

My Lords, does the Minister agree that Barnett provides secure funding for the Scottish Government and if they had relied on oil revenues they would not have produced the £7 billion that was in the SNP White Paper, but just over £1 billion, and that an independent Scotland would now be bankrupt? Is it not a good job that we voted no in the referendum?

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, it is always a pleasure to agree with the noble Lord. It is, however, worth underlining the point that he has just made. There would be a £6 billion deficit compared to the figures in the Scottish Government’s November 2013 White Paper in respect of oil revenues, which would mean that for that reason alone the Scottish deficit in 2016-17 would be more than 6% of GDP, one of the biggest in the developed world.

Finance: Fiscal Devolution

Debate between Lord Newby and Lord Foulkes of Cumnock

Wednesday 9th July 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, there are obviously strong arguments which would enable cities to raise more funding. Those have been resisted by the Treasury under successive Governments. As they are moving towards drawing up their manifestos, I am sure that all the parties are considering whether they want to change those long-standing practices.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

My Lords, rather than more piecemeal devolution, is the time not now right for a more comprehensive and coherent look at devolution throughout the whole of the United Kingdom, so that we have a sensible system, and that some kind of commission—a constitutional commission or royal commission, under a wise and experienced chairman—should be set up as soon as possible?

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, I was waiting for the last part of that sentence. I am sure that all noble Lords will bear the noble Lord’s expertise in mind, should a commission be established. I think that, once we have the outcome of the Scottish referendum, all parties and all people who are interested in constitutional change in the UK will want to revisit the issue. The exact way we do it is also something that I think all the parties are thinking about as they draw up their manifestos.

Payday Loans: Advertisements

Debate between Lord Newby and Lord Foulkes of Cumnock

Thursday 3rd April 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, I do not have any specific response to that, except to say that the ASA is able to investigate any complaints about the effect of ads on particularly vulnerable groups, which potentially would include gamblers. Certainly, if you watch paid-for sport television, you get a very large number of ads for online betting, which I find distasteful—but, as with many things in life, there is an interesting argument to be had about the line between what is distasteful and what should be banned.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

My Lords, it is a pity that the Minister has resorted to statistics to try to explain this away. All it needs is one of these very cleverly devised adverts to put pressure on children or to influence children to put pressure on their parents, who can ill afford to take out these loans. Will the Minister answer the question put by my noble friend Lord Mitchell: when he brings forward his Bill, will the Government give sympathetic consideration to supporting it?

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, when the noble Lord, Lord Mitchell, brings forward his Bill, the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice will have expressed a view on these loans. The Government will take very considerable account of what it says in forming their view about the noble Lord’s Bill.

Economy: Growth

Debate between Lord Newby and Lord Foulkes of Cumnock

Tuesday 11th February 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, the noble Lord may be right. An independent Scotland would have banking assets equivalent to 1,254% of Scottish GDP—more than Ireland, Iceland and Cyprus when they ran into banking difficulties.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

My Lords, does the Minister recall that Alex Salmond used to be an economist with the RBS? Does that not say everything? Will the Minister confirm that economic growth in Scotland in the third quarter of 2013 was much the same as economic growth in the United Kingdom, which shows that devolution is working, that Scotland is getting the best of both worlds and that we are in fact, to coin a phrase, better together?

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, I agree. For example, it is very interesting, looking at what has been happening to unemployment not just over the past few months but over the past couple of decades, that in the 1990s unemployment in Scotland was slightly higher than it was here. In recent years, and particularly in the past few quarters, it has been slightly lower. It shows that Scotland, while moving broadly in line with the UK, can do better than the rest of the UK, as it has done in a number of respects. It is quite difficult to see how it could replicate that pattern if it were independent.

Pensions

Debate between Lord Newby and Lord Foulkes of Cumnock

Thursday 12th December 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they propose to take on the report by the Financial Services Consumer Panel concerning the selling of pensions annuities.

[Lord Newby (LD)]

My Lords, when people have saved up for retirement, the Government agree that they should get the best from their retirement savings. That is why we are already taking action to combat excessive pension charges. It is also why we set up the Open Market Option Review Group, which introduced measures to prompt consumers to shop around for an annuity and secure a better retirement income. The Financial Conduct Authority is also looking, through its thematic reviews, into the important issues that this report raised. The report is a useful contribution to ongoing work in this area.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

My Lords, will the Minister join me in thanking the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail for exposing this latest example of financial institutions cheating their customers? Will he ensure that the Financial Conduct Authority deals with them firmly, as it did yesterday with RBS and Lloyds? Could he also look at some way of ensuring that the people who are punished are those in the institutions responsible and not the bodies themselves, which pass on the costs to their long-suffering customers?

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, I am not sure that I ever thought I would say this, but I join the noble Lord in thanking those newspapers that have drawn yet another financial problem to more general interest and view. The Financial Conduct Authority has new powers and is already showing that it intends to use them very rigorously. It has powers in respect of individuals as well as institutions, and will use them.

Economy: Women’s Incomes

Debate between Lord Newby and Lord Foulkes of Cumnock

Monday 25th November 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, we would like to see—as no doubt the noble Baroness would—a higher proportion of women from those communities being economically active. We are seeing that a much higher proportion of young women in those communities are economically active than their parents were. However, one of the positive things about the rise in the number of women in employment, which I mentioned earlier, is that there is now a higher proportion of women in the labour market than ever before. That is very much to the benefit of women overall.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

My Lords, does the Minister realise that proposals regarding economic policy are to be included in the paper to be produced by the Scottish Government tomorrow? Since the Minister’s noble friend was unable to answer my supplementary question, could he take some advice from the Advocate-General and answer it? A Government can call something a White Paper only if they have the power to implement what is included—and, if the Scottish people were, unfortunately, to vote yes, the Scottish Government’s proposals could be implemented only with the full agreement of the rest of the United Kingdom.

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, perhaps I could refer the noble Lord to the speech made by my noble and learned friend at Aberdeen University last Friday, which very adequately answers his question.

Taxation: Tax Law Enforcement

Debate between Lord Newby and Lord Foulkes of Cumnock

Wednesday 30th October 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, I think that that is way beyond my pay grade.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock (Lab)]

My Lords, I am not going to continue this attack on Sir John Major because it is disgraceful. With respect, the Minister has been giving us the same answer about extra staff for almost the past three years, yet we have illustration after illustration of evasion. First it was Starbucks, then it was Amazon, then it was Philip Green and Irvine Laidlaw; one after the other has been avoiding tax. Has the Minister not yet come to the conclusion that what is needed is legislation to close the tax loopholes?

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, leaving aside the fact that, sadly, I have not been a Minister for three years, the question of closing tax loopholes and dealing with companies that are international by their nature is an international problem. The level of activity now being undertaken via the OECD is on a scale that we have not seen for a generation. Some 15 work streams are currently under way, looking at different aspects of this problem, with a two-year deadline to resolve them. If it were possible to legislate in one country and deal with all these issues, not only we but the US, Germany, France and other countries that find themselves in the same boat would have done it. You cannot operate against multinationals on a domestic basis alone; it must be done internationally. That is what we are doing, and we are putting huge effort and impetus into that work.

Northern Ireland: Corporation Tax

Debate between Lord Newby and Lord Foulkes of Cumnock

Monday 18th March 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, that is something that we will confirm once we have a final decision in Northern Ireland.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock]

My Lords, does the Minister agree that any decision in relation to Northern Ireland does not constitute a precedent for any other part of the United Kingdom because Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that has a land border with another European Union country?

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, that is the reason why this has become such a big issue in Northern Ireland. The same considerations do not apply elsewhere in the United Kingdom, although I remind the House that the differential between the rate of corporation tax in Northern Ireland and the rate in the Republic of Ireland is now significantly less than it was when this Government came into office.

Business

Debate between Lord Newby and Lord Foulkes of Cumnock

Wednesday 13th February 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock]

My Lords, before we move to the main business of the day, perhaps I may point out that there seems to have been a mistake in the timing of the Urgent Question debate. My understanding was that there would be 10 minutes after the contributions from the Front Benches on both sides. On this occasion that was not the case, and a number of Back-Benchers who wanted to get in were not able to do so. Will the Leader of the House confirm that after the Question repeated by the Front Bench and the reply from our Front Bench, we should then have 10 minutes for Back-Bench questions?

[Lord Newby]

My Lords, I am afraid that the noble Lord is mistaken. The rule is that the Minister repeats the Question and the clock then starts. The 10 minutes will include all questions, including those from the opposition Front Bench.

Air Passenger Duty

Debate between Lord Newby and Lord Foulkes of Cumnock

Monday 28th January 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Newby]

Okay, one noble Lord has called for abolition. I am sorry if I exaggerated the opposition but it certainly felt as though a number of noble Lords were calling for the abolition of the tax.

On the Caribbean, there have been strong arguments presented tonight and over the years about the effect of APD there. I am aware of the strength of the arguments because in a former existence I made them myself. In response to these arguments, changes to the structure of APD were considered as part of the 2011 consultation. For a number of reasons, it proved much more difficult to do it than appeared at first sight. One of the main challenges is that if you adopt the pure principle of a distance-based tax, it would be seen— bizarrely, in my view—as a proxy to taxing fuel. That would be illegal under the Chicago Convention on international aviation, so the Government looked at a rather simpler restructuring. However, they found that the only way they could have done it that would have dealt with the disparity of treatment between the US and the Caribbean would have required an increase in the duty for about 90 per cent of passengers, including those flying to Europe and the USA. The Government felt that, in the current economic climate, it would not be fair to ask the majority to pay more to help fund a cut for the minority.

[Lord Foulkes of Cumnock]

I think the Minister has been listening carefully to the debate. He will recall that I gave him a suggestion; my understanding is that it was not considered in the review. It came up very recently from a meeting between the Caribbean Council and Ministers from the Caribbean. I asked the Minister for a very simple pledge to take this new suggestion back now and discuss it with the Chancellor: Bermuda should be designated the capital of the Caribbean for this purpose only. Surely that is the least he can do for the people of the Caribbean, on behalf of whom my noble friend Lord Morris spoke so eloquently.

[Lord Newby]

The noble Lord, Lord Morris, anticipated me two minutes ago and the noble Lord, Lord Foulkes, has anticipated me just now. I was about to say that I had not heard the Caribbean Council’s suggestion of designating Bermuda the capital of the Caribbean. My experience of the Caribbean does not fill me with hope that, when push comes to shove, there would be much agreement to designate anywhere as its capital. I am not sure whether you can designate somewhere as a capital for one purpose but not a capital for every other purpose. However, it is a new suggestion; I will certainly take it back and we will see whether it deals with the problem. My initial thought, not having heard the suggestion before, is that it is probably not quite as simple as that.

The Government recognise the mutual benefit of tourism and trade between the United Kingdom and the Caribbean. We welcome the work of the UK-Caribbean Forum to establish a new and improved strategic partnership to promote prosperity, growth and development within both regions. No doubt this topic can be discussed in that forum.

The noble Lord, Lord Howell, and other noble Lords referred to the devolution of air passenger duty to Northern Ireland. The Finance Act 2012 devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly the power to set rates on direct long-haul flights leaving from Northern Ireland. The rate on short-haul flights will remain the same as that for the rest of the United Kingdom. In devolving direct long-haul rates to Northern Ireland, the Government responded to the wishes of the Northern Ireland Executive. We also recognised that Northern Ireland is in a unique position within the United Kingdom in that it shares a land border with another EU member state that has a lower rate of aviation tax. Further devolution of air passenger duty to Scotland or Wales is a subject that requires careful continued evaluation before we can be confident of its effects across the UK as a whole.

I return to my initial comment that I thank the noble Lord, Lord Palmer, for securing the debate. The Government want to ensure that aviation and tourism continue to grow to promote economic growth and support jobs across the country more generally. However, we also believe that aviation must bear its fair share of the fiscal burden so that we remain on course to address the record deficit. Air passenger duty makes an essential contribution to the public finances and to this Government’s plans to create a stable platform for growth.