Non-domicile Status

Lord Petitgas Excerpts

Tuesday 28th January 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

Yes.

[Lord Petitgas (Con)]

My Lords—

[Lord Grocott (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms and Chief Whip (Lord Kennedy of Southwark) (Lab Co-op)]

There is plenty of time for both noble Lords to ask a question. We will have the noble Lord, Lord Petitgas, first, and then my noble friend.

[Lord Petitgas (Con)]

My Lords, do the Minister and the Government have any hard evidence, perhaps through a recalculation of the effects of the Bill on non-doms, that this news that was announced in Davos will have a tangible effect on the emigration of a lot of these non-doms? This does not look like a U-turn at all—for which the Government should be commended— but rather more like an L shape. The reason why I am asking this question is because the key criticism from the non-doms, and the reason why they are leaving, is that if someone lives here as a non-dom for four years they will have a 10-year tail on the inheritance on all their offshore assets. That is clearly something that is not acceptable to most of them. What I heard in Davos does not change that, and therefore I am not sure it really changes very much.

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I am very grateful to the noble Lord for passing on the feedback that he heard. I am assuming that he agrees with this Government’s policy on non-doms, since he was an adviser to the previous Government when they actually took our policy, implemented it, and scored £20 billion for it. So I am assuming that he approves of our policy and of the fact that we are raising that revenue. The changes that we are making to the system to make it simpler and more attractive to use are based on speaking to the relevant stakeholders and ensuring that they find it attractive to use. As I say, the system that we are implementing is actually more competitive than the system that it replaces.