Full-time Social Action

Mike Kane Excerpts

Wednesday 8th May 2019 Commons Chamber

[Ben Bradley (Mansfield) (Con)]

I am grateful for the opportunity to raise this issue, and I thank my colleagues who have stayed for the debate. I also thank City Year UK and the National Youth Agency for their important work, and for their help with research.

I am pleased to have secured the debate, because social action and volunteering form a significant part of our national identity. We have all seen the value of volunteers in our own constituencies. In Mansfield, Mansfield Woodhouse and Warsop, our community benefits from dedicated volunteers who give their time to help a wide range of local charities and important causes.

I have met so many wonderful volunteers since I was elected that there are far too many for me to list individually, so I hope that I will be forgiven if I miss out some people, as I inevitably will. Let me, however, pay tribute to all those involved in supporting Framework, MIND, Mansfield Wildlife Rescue, The Beacon Project, Hetty’s, NIDAS—Nottinghamshire Independent Domestic Abuse Services—John Eastwood Hospice, the Shed youth club in Warsop, and Mansfield Woodhouse Community Development Group. There are many more third sector and voluntary organisations in which people are giving their time and money to support amazing work.

Volunteering is often life-changing for those who participate in it. It can be incredibly fulfilling, and can bring about real change in communities. As a younger man, I was involved in scouting for more than 10 years. Through schemes such as the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award programme, I became involved in all sorts of voluntary work in communities, which helped my own personal development. Social action and volunteering can be a great way for young people to learn new skills, build up valuable experience for their careers, and boost their confidence and communication skills. As MPs, we all know that volunteering in politics is just about the only way to get involved and to end up where we are today, in this place.

The debate centres on full-time volunteering, or social action. Working on a full-time social action project has a huge impact, and allows volunteers to immerse themselves in a new challenge. I want to focus specifically on the benefits for younger people, aged between 18 and 25, who volunteer to tackle our country’s biggest challenges. It is hugely worth while, and has two benefits: the projects themselves make a difference, and the participants gain useful skills and experiences.

[Mike Kane (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab)]

I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on securing the debate. I have seen social action projects in my constituency at first hand, at Baguley Hall Primary School. Alongside the staff team, City Year UK does vital work in helping to increase attendance, improve behaviour and outcomes, and support pupils. Does the hon. Gentleman agree with me, and with the Holliday report, that the Government should be doing more to support social action, and to recognise and encourage full-time volunteers?

Discrimination in Football

Mike Kane Excerpts

Thursday 11th April 2019 Commons Chamber

[Mims Davies]

It is absolutely right that across Government, we stand fully beside the police if they have the evidence and back them up. I have met with West Midlands police about the forthcoming Commonwealth games and its commitment to ensure that the community is well policed and looked after, and this issue is surely part of that.

[Mike Kane (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab)]

As you know, Mr Speaker, I am a lifelong Man City fan and a season ticket holder, so I am extraordinarily proud of what Raheem Sterling does on the pitch and his action on anti-racism off it. My wife and I are also fans of Wythenshawe Town. In January, the manager James Kinsey took the players off the pitch when the assistant referee was clearly racist to one of our players. That accusation against the assistant referee was subsequently proven and he faces a charge of disrepute, yet the club and the manager still face charges for leading the players off the pitch. Does the Minister agree that the FA needs to show more consistency and leadership on whether and when players should walk off the pitch and whether there should be fines for it?

[Mims Davies]

I absolutely agree with the hon. Gentleman. The FA needs to review its rules and guidance to enable clubs to be effective and consistent in these situations. As we have heard, ultimately we are talking about a workplace, where people should not be subjected to abuse but supported either to walk away or to stand up to it.

Flybmi

Mike Kane Excerpts

Monday 18th February 2019 Commons Chamber

[Ms Ghani]

My hon. Friend has my assurance, and I would be at fault if I did not mention Birmingham airport, which I grew up very close to and to which we are obviously committed, as he can no doubt tell by our commitment to High Speed 2 stopping at the airport. We are committed to all our regional airports, which is why we have the “Aviation 2050” consultation under way to make sure we do all we can to ensure the sector continues to remain healthy.

[Mike Kane (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab)]

In the event of a no-deal Brexit, there could be no expansion of airline routes from the UK to the EU. That is what is causing the huge uncertainty for operators in the UK. After two and a half years of negotiation, can the Minister not see the damage being done to the sector?

[Ms Ghani]

I believe the hon. Gentleman is mistaken, as we are working with the EU to deal with deal and no-deal scenarios: we have published no-deal technical notices; we have tabled a number of statutory instruments, which are progressing well; and the EU has confirmed that it will maintain the connection between the EU and the UK to allow flying to continue. But if he is concerned about a no-deal scenario, he should vote for the Prime Minister’s deal.

Tax Avoidance and Evasion (Isle of Man)

Mike Kane Excerpts

Tuesday 7th November 2017 Commons Chamber

[The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mel Stride)]

May I begin by congratulating the right hon. Member for Barking (Dame Margaret Hodge) on securing this important debate and on raising these important issues in her speech? She has, of course, been a determined campaigner over many years on these matters, especially as the Chair of the Public Accounts Committee. I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in this debate and to be given the chance to discuss the Government’s approach to tackling tax avoidance and evasion. I will respond to as many of the points that the right hon. Lady raised as I can.

The Government take all allegations of tax avoidance and evasion extremely seriously. If any new allegations come to light, we will treat them with similar seriousness. We have a strong track record of tackling tax avoidance and evasion. By implementing 75 measures since 2010, we have secured £160 billion in additional tax revenues. But more on that later; I will now respond to the points raised by the right hon. Lady.

The right hon. Lady has raised the allegations regarding aircraft importation into the Isle of Man, which were also covered in the BBC’s “Panorama” programme in the last two days. I should first note that the Isle of Man, like all Crown dependencies, is a separate jurisdiction with its own democratically elected Government, under which it is responsible for fiscal matters. However, under the Isle of Man Act 1979, it has agreed to follow VAT rules very similar to the United Kingdom’s.

While the Isle of Man must apply VAT rules similar to the UK’s, the administration of the tax, including tackling avoidance and evasion, is the responsibility of its tax authorities. However, when required, the UK Government are always happy to provide advice and technical assistance to help the Isle of Man counter evasion and avoidance. I welcome the announcement from the Isle of Man Government that they are conducting a review of their procedures on VAT and the importation of aircraft. I also welcome their invitation for Her Majesty’s Treasury to carry out an assessment of these procedures, and I can inform the House that Treasury officials have been in the Isle of Man today, engaged in that important process. That is a responsible and appropriate approach to addressing these allegations and correcting potential non-compliance.

The UK Government will continue to work with the Isle of Man to help it address these issues and take steps to put an end to any evasion or avoidance. Where there are any problems of tax avoidance and evasion, these should be dealt with by us fixing these issues together and not by ending our co-operation with the Isle of Man.

Let me turn now to some of the specific points the right hon. Lady raised. She referred to the plethora of leaks there have been over the years, and she is quite right. She congratulated The Guardian, among others, on its part in ensuring the dissemination of the information that has come to light. However, there is an important point here, which is that HMRC is determined to follow up any information, from whichever quarter, to ensure we clamp down on tax evasion and non-compliance. Yet despite repeated requests over the last 10 days, The Guardian and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists have refused to hand over that information. If the right hon. Lady is able to assist in that, as well as congratulating the individuals concerned, that would be of great assistance to the Government and to her endeavours.

[Mike Kane (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab)]

Last night, the chairman of the Cayman Islands stock exchange said that journalists should be imprisoned. Does the Minister not agree that that was outrageous?

[Mel Stride]

I was not actually aware of those comments, but I can say that, from the Government’s perspective, we are certainly not in the business of advocating the locking-up of any journalists.

The second point the right hon. Lady raised was that we were “tinkering at the edges”—I think that was the expression she used—in clamping down on avoidance. Nothing could be further from the facts of the matter. Since 2010, we have brought in £160 billion, as I said, and £2.8 billion of that was from clamping down on those who have sought to hide wealth in overseas jurisdictions. We have one of the lowest tax gaps in the world, and the lowest in our history. She will probably know that if we were to have today the level of tax gap that we saw under the previous Labour Government, we would be about £45 billion worse off as a consequence. That is important money that we need in our Exchequer for the purposes of employing doctors, nurses, teachers and members of the police force, and of keeping our hospitals and all those vital public services that are the hallmark of a civilised society.

The right hon. Lady referred to the Duchy of Lancaster and transparency. The Duchy does of course publish its accounts—it lays them before this House, in fact. There has been no suggestion that I am aware of that any of the Duchy’s activities or investments have been improper or illegal. Of course, the Queen voluntarily pays tax on all the earnings from the Duchy of Lancaster.

The right hon. Lady referred specifically to Bright-House. She is correct in her assertions that it has been fined by the FCA for the kinds of activities that she mentioned. However, those investments were, I understand, primarily made in 2005 under the previous Labour Government rather than under this Government. I believe that the amount invested as at today’s date is something in the order of £3,000 in total.

The right hon. Lady asked why HMRC allowed the Isle of Man situation to happen in respect of VAT and aircraft. Let us see what the investigation yields rather than perhaps jumping to a series of conclusions currently based on—from what I have seen, at least—a couple of television programmes. However, there may well be something there, and we will get to the bottom of it in due course.

The right hon. Lady asked about the sharing agreement in place between the Isle of Man and the United Kingdom in respect of VAT. She is right that there are at the moment ongoing discussions on a new formula. She referred to an automatic uplift in the Isle of Man’s share under that formula—it is a 4.5% uplift—and suggested that it may be overly generous. It will not be in the long run; once all the surveys and research have been carried out, in the event that it is found to be more generous than it should have been, there will be a clawback mechanism within the arrangement. In terms of transparency, once the formula is concluded it will be available within the public domain. On her assertion that this is a one-way subsidy from the United Kingdom to the Isle of Man with regard to VAT, I should say that there have been years when quite the reverse has been the case and there has in fact been a transfer from the Isle of Man to the United Kingdom from which we, and indeed her constituents, have benefited.

The right hon. Lady made a clarion call for us to tackle avoidance schemes and those who enable them. I confess that the Finance Bill that went through this House very recently was not the most entertaining of Bills; it ran to about 775 pages and was highly technical. However, I point her to the provisions within it for ensuring that those who enable tax avoidance will now be subject to sanction and penalty.

I hope that I have covered the majority, at least, of the points that the right hon. Lady raised. I again recognise the sterling work on this issue that she has done over many years, and pay tribute to her for it. I conclude, Mr Speaker, by wishing you a very—

Technical and Further Education Bill (First sitting)

Mike Kane Excerpts

Committee Debate: 1st sitting: House of Commons
Tuesday 22nd November 2016 Public Bill Committees

[Kelvin Hopkins]

Q It is a major factor. When Michael Gove was Secretary of State, I asked him why we were having to recruit so many engineers from abroad. He said that we were not training enough ourselves because our mathematics was not good enough and we could not get them up to the standards required. Resource is surely what the problem is.

Bill Watkin: It is certainly one of the problems. There is also the shift in what qualifications are available. To move away from apprenticeships and technical professional education for a moment and talk about the academic curriculum, we have just seen, for example, the loss of use of maths and the loss of statistics from the range of qualifications available. That means that young people coming into a sixth-form curriculum looking to study maths only have one route available for them at the moment. That is almost a commercial decision made by awarding organisations, but it is enormously unhelpful to young people who want to support their studies in engineering and physics by following a course of maths because the only course available is an A-level in maths. We would like to see, for example, a core maths qualification and a part 2 core maths that has A-level branding and equivalence, so that there is an alternative to an A-level maths qualification.

[Mike Kane (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab)]

Q This is an interesting panel because it represents sixth forms and FE colleges. In Greater Manchester, where my constituency is, further education is a devolved function but sixth forms are not. We have just gone through an area review process, which I supported. Fortunately, we have strong civil servant and political leadership in Greater Manchester, but I can only describe the process as tortuous and complicated. It has come out of a number of reviews around mergers and synergies of FE colleges—it does not affect sixth forms. You get to that position and then have to enter negotiations between the FE colleges about co-operation. That really is a process of herding cats, in my opinion. There are things I would like to say, but this is an ongoing process so I will not say them in public for now, but the Government’s area review programme is going to be rolled out in places that are less well organised than Greater Manchester. It could be a recipe for chaos. Do the panel want to comment on that?

Richard Atkins: It would be best if I started. As you probably know, I have been the FE commissioner for about four weeks. I was not involved in chairing or attending the Greater Manchester review, although I know Theresa Grant, who chaired it. I am going to Manchester in the next three or four weeks to see how things are going and to talk to the individual colleges. I sat and observed the Education Committee scrutinising area reviews about two weeks ago. Generally, I think the process has worked reasonably well. Clearly they begin from a premise that each college is an independent corporation and therefore is able to make its own views. I accept that that can lead to what you describe as tortuous negotiations, because each college needs to be convinced and persuaded of the right solution.

We have now done waves 1, 2 and 3 of the five waves. Nearly 200 colleges have been through area reviews; some 88 of them are working towards merger, 50 of the sixth-form colleges are considering becoming academies, and 62 colleges have confirmed that they want to go for stand-alone status. We have done that in a remarkably short period. Colleges that are changing the nature of what they do can apply for a restructuring facility to support that. We have done that with a remarkable amount of co-operation and good will. I do not think the process is in any way perfect or a silver bullet that will resolve all the structural problems.

It became obvious in the Education Committee that it is different in each area. There are 37 area reviews, based on the local enterprise partnership areas, and experiences genuinely differ from one area to another. If you had told me at the beginning that at this stage, two thirds of the way through, we would have 88 colleges considering merger and that 62 stand-alones have had to carry out a rigorous analysis of their own data to be sure that they can stand alone financially—. I hope that what emerges from the process is a network in which more colleges are financially sustainable. I do not disagree that having those independent corporations gives governors the opportunity to make decisions for themselves, and therefore a high level of persuasion and influence is required to try to get the best results for learners.

In my new job, with my team of advisers, I am currently seeking to ensure that as often as possible, we get the right solution. I do not think it is a silver bullet. I do not think at the end of it we will have the perfect set of colleges across England, but I do think we will be in a significantly better place than we were when the process started only just over a year ago.

David Hughes: The Government have a choice. In Wales and Scotland, the Government decided to impose structural change, and in England they did not. There are pros and cons with both. We have to remember that we have had for the past 25 years in post-16 a managed market and a managed competition. It is probably fair to say that in the past four or five years, the management bit of that has been getting smaller and smaller, so we do have competition post-16. We recently challenged a decision by a regional schools commissioner to open a new sixth form in east London, because we think that sometimes competition really goes against the interests of young people in terms of quality and breadth of curriculum.

As Richard says, the area review process has been variable across the country. In some areas, it has helped enormously to move things forward quickly; in other areas, it has been more difficult and more awkward. We have got to think about the 2,100 school sixth forms, over half of which recruit fewer than 100 learners into year 12. The Government’s guidance suggests that you need at least 200 to make it both financially and educationally viable. In our autumn statement submission, we have asked, and we keep saying again and again, that if it is right for area reviews to happen for colleges with the rigour that Richard talked about and with really detailed five-year financial plans, why not do that with school sixth forms?

We have hundreds of thousands of young people learning in very small school sixth forms; you can make that work, but it is really difficult to get the breadth and quality right. We would really like to see that same rigour applied to school sixth forms. We know that some local authorities are starting to do that themselves, and it would be great to see Government supporting that and getting a framework for it across the country. You do not have to do it all at the same time but it would be nice to see that rolled through, in the interests of young people in terms of the quality and offer that they get.

Bill Watkin: I should just reiterate the difference between sixth-form colleges and school sixth forms, because they are not the same thing at all. I entirely agree with what David was just saying. To give an example, a sixth-form college straddles—usually successfully but sometimes slightly awkwardly and uncomfortably—two sectors: the FE sector and the schools sector. A sixth-form college offers a school-type curriculum, but it does so with economies of scale. For example, I recently visited a college that has 1,000 students studying maths A-level, and another where there are 400 students studying psychology A-level. These are not the small school sixth forms that David was just talking about; they are large colleges that are incorporated and therefore usually included in considerations about the FE sector. They were also included in the area review process, and there are those who say that it was not entirely helpful not to include school sixth forms while including sixth-form colleges—that did not necessarily make a great deal of sense.

The other consequence of straddling those two sectors is the relevance of the Bill to sixth-form colleges. Much of what is in the Bill will have only a very limited impact on a small number of colleges, and most of them will not be hugely touched by it. There are two areas of particular interest to sixth-form colleges: one is the insolvency regime and the impact on their finances, and the second is the applied general qualifications, which are enormously important to sixth-form colleges. Applied A-levels, BTECs and applied general qualifications are an enormously important part of a blended curriculum offered to students in sixth-form colleges as a pathway to high-end destinations such as universities; two students recently got into biomedical degrees at Russell Group universities with entirely BTEC provision. That is the sort of curriculum that sixth-form colleges offer.

[Mike Kane]

Q Richard, may I just challenge you a bit further? Say you have two successful FE institutions and the recommendation from the area review is to merge—this scenario is not a million miles away from what is going on—but they say, “No, we are independent institutions. Forget it.” We know that they can stand alone, but the review said that they should come together. What is the stick? What is the incentive? How do you get from the world as it is, to the world as you want it to be?

Richard Atkins: I have two points. If they were both very successful and could produce the sorts of data that David referred to, they would probably be stand-alone anyway. If they could produce five-year data that showed that they would be financially sustainable and would continue to be very successful, they would probably opt for stand-alone and we would probably support that. We have got one or two cases like that.

If they cannot produce those data and we and the steering group think that merger is the best solution—this is possible, and we are doing it in at least one or two cases at the moment—we will put that recommendation in the report. The college can still opt independently not to do it. That means it will never be able to access the restructuring fund; if something went wrong in future, it would not get access to the large restructuring fund that is currently available. Of course, it would be subject to the new insolvency regime if this legislation goes through, so the world looks quite a lot tougher for it post-2018 if it chooses to ignore the evidence-based work that my team will have done and will have shared with the local steering group.

It is possible to bury your head and say, “We don’t accept the evidence that you are putting in front of us. We can’t produce robust plans for the next five years, but we are going to go it alone anyway. We won’t co-operate with anyone.” By doing that, those governors would be taking a big risk—a risk for their learners as well as for themselves. Let us say that the insolvency legislation goes through. I am generally supportive of that legislation in this role, and as a principal—as you probably know, I stepped down from being a principal earlier this year, after 21 years—I would have been supportive of it. You are taking quite a risk if you are prepared to confound the recommendation that we would make, along with the other members of the steering group. But you are right to say that ultimately these colleges are independent, and as a long-serving principal, I got the highest level of job satisfaction when my college enjoyed a degree of independence.

David Hughes: We need to be a bit careful on this. I remember twice being asked by Ministers when I was in the civil service to try to show the evidence that large colleges were more effective—well, once with Bill Rammell and then with John Hayes to show that small colleges were more effective. There is no evidence of size making that much difference. Leadership makes the difference, and context is king. The competition that I talked about can undermine the best led college, but leadership is the key thing.

When the area review comes through with a recommendation for merger, the right thing for the colleges to do is to go through a due diligence process to examine the proposal further. In some circumstances, it is very correct that they make the decision not to go through with it, because they have to have at their heart the interests of their institution, their learners and their community. The area review will not always get that recommendation right. We have to have a degree of realism: the colleges are independent institutions, making their own decisions, and sometimes not to go forward with that recommendation might be the right thing.

Ian Pretty: The area-based reviews, as a general process, struck me as reasonable. Where it has become more challenging is that the key objectives were that you wanted fewer, larger, financially sustainable colleges; that was the premise on which the ABR process was set up. As I said earlier, the key thing for me is the extent to which you have looked at things such as the skills plan and the pathways first, putting in place things such as the insolvency regime, and then perhaps the ABR process would have been an easier process for many.

I think that it is absolutely right that further education colleges are allowed to be independent and remain independent. I recognise that that creates frictions in terms of their not necessarily agreeing to things, but that was how they were set up back in 1992. The risk with all this, in terms of the ABR and the current lack of an insolvency regime, is that I do not think you have the flexibility to be able actually to create the merged institutions that you might or might not want. I have a personal view that a solvent college merged with an insolvent college is not a solvent college; that causes problems afterwards.

Speaking as an organisation, I know that the association has representatives in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland—we have five colleges altogether there—and I think there is a lot that the Department for Education and Government can learn from the experience, particularly in Scotland, which did bang them together to create regional colleges. They could look at the successes and the failures. There are strong successes there, and there are colleges where the merger has not been so successful.

[Gordon Marsden]

Q I would like to continue on the theme of the implications of the area reviews and to come back to you, Richard, if I may. As you have already said, you have had a distinguished career as a college principal and have held leadership positions in the Association of Colleges, so at least for the moment, until you are covered in the bureaucracies, you can see from both angles. I want to ask you about the implications of 88 colleges moving towards merger. Sir Francis Drake famously said that

“it is not the beginning, but the continuing of the same, until it be thoroughly finished, which yields the true glory”.

Although, the question here is whether there will be glory or lots of pain along the way. I want to press you on two particular points.

The context of this, as Ian Pretty has alluded to, is two things: first, the critical National Audit Office report, which really bashed the former Department for Business, Innovation and Skills right around the head over some areas and set off alarm bells about financial stability—I am sure that played a major part in the insolvency regime set out in the Bill—and secondly, on a year-on-year basis, when we exclude apprenticeship funding, the trajectory of funding for FE colleges from Government has been going down.

The situation is febrile and, in some cases, is producing that number of mergers. Once they are merged, there are then of course the consequences for the staff and students. For example, when two colleges merge in a suburban or rural setting, the implications for them being able to maintain their courses, which are after all the viability of those colleges, will be significant if issues such as travel do not come into it. I see nothing in the Bill at the moment—and little has been said by Ministers—about where the funding to support that process will come from.

My second point picks up on what my colleague Mike Kane said earlier about his experiences with Greater Manchester—I am a native Mancunian by birth, so I understand the area’s issues well, and the cohesion that already exists, and lots of other areas will not have that cohesion. We are going through a period of significant devolution from Government of responsibilities and funding—for what it is worth, I am wholeheartedly in favour of that—and skills and FE will be affected. We have a situation in which things are beginning to be set in stone in combined authorities or mayoralties that are likely to have significant powers in the next couple of years, but they might well come along and say, “Actually, this didn’t include us. We want to unpick it.” What do you have to say to that?

Richard Atkins: May I take the first question first? Thanks for setting it in context. If I may do the same, you are right that I had a long career as a principal, and when I started there were 469 FE and sixth-form colleges; there are 321 today. Some of those mergers have been very successful, but not all. But just as in business and other walks of life, some mergers do succeed. For example, takeovers are often more successful than mergers, but some have been very successful. I remember when towns such as Derby had two or three colleges, but now they have one strong college. So I think that in a number of cases the mergers we are proposing through area reviews may well strengthen college provision in that part of the country, but I do not for one minute think that every one of them will work out as if a magic wand has made it all brilliant and successful immediately.

There is continuing work for me and my team as the agency calls us in to support the implementation of the area reviews, to work out where things are going in the right direction or how to get them back on track, or to come up with alternatives, if necessary, to keep the process going. I do not think that it will be a cliff edge as such. I am talking to colleges a lot about the fact that it is not a cliff edge. I do not see 31 March and the end of the area review steering groups as an absolute cliff edge.

Tax Avoidance and Evasion

Mike Kane Excerpts

Wednesday 13th April 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mark Durkan (Foyle) (SDLP)]

I want to take up the point made by the hon. Member for East Antrim (Sammy Wilson) about enforcement. He mentioned the closure of tax offices in Northern Ireland. I know that a tax office in my constituency is due to be closed in the next few years, which means the loss of work that it was doing on matters including the recovery of overseas taxes.

However, I do not want to join those who have used the debate to make points about the Government’s general tax policy or taxation record, because I think that the public would expect us to be debating the enormous implications of the Panama papers. I do not wish to conflate questions about the syndicated global grand larceny that is revealed in those papers with questions about personal taxation involving the Prime Minister or, indeed, anyone else. I would prefer us to concentrate—in this and other debates that will take place between now and the global anti-corruption summit that the Prime Minister will host—on the sort of issues that we would have been discussing anyway.

We have heard much from Conservative Members about the Government’s record of changing tax thresholds and about what is happening to the taxes of the wealthier people in the country, and we have heard the views of Opposition Members as well, but let us now address some of the global implications of the Panama papers. When we consider the larceny that is represented in those papers and the people who have avoided or evaded taxes, we should bear it in mind that this is not a victimless duplicity or deceit, because other people have been left to pay those taxes. Other firms are having to pay taxes in order to meet the needs of exchequers worldwide, not least those in developing countries. Other people are missing out on services or salaries, because the tax is not there to maintain services at the levels necessary to improve the development of infrastructure or to pay salaries. People are losing out. These are not the politics of envy, but the politics of reality and social justice. These are the politics that say that, in the 21st century, we should live in a world where we are all in it together. That is why fairness in taxation worldwide is so important.

[Mike Kane (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab)]

The hon. Gentleman is, as usual, making a powerful speech. Christian Aid noted recently that an oil company in Uganda had approached Mossack Fonseca in an attempt to avoid paying £400 million worth of taxes there. That is equivalent to the budget of the entire Ugandan healthcare service. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that the avoidance of such taxes is not a victimless crime?

Oral Answers to Questions

Mike Kane Excerpts

Tuesday 1st March 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

My hon. Friend is right to draw attention to the big investment that is being made in our nation’s infrastructure, especially transport infrastructure. We have the biggest rail programme since the Victorian age and the biggest road programme since the 1970s, which the hon. Lady is seeing in the improvements to the A27 and M27 in her area. Of course, an economic policy that destroys all confidence in the British economy would mean no investment.

[Mike Kane (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab)]

T2. The OECD has estimated that tax havens are costing developing countries three times the global aid budget. Does the Chancellor share my frustration over the fact that the UK overseas territories have ignored the pleas of the Prime Minister, and have not introduced beneficial ownership registers? What more can be done to end the secrecy and inaction?

[The Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr David Gauke)]

The United Kingdom is leading the way in respect of a public register of beneficial ownership, but other countries, including the overseas territories, are not committed to that. We continue to engage with them, because we believe that they should follow the same direction as us—as, indeed, should other countries.

Tax Avoidance and Multinational Companies

Mike Kane Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mike Kane (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab)]

The Google tax debacle demonstrates that attempts to patch up the current international tax system are woefully inadequate. Despite the efforts of the OECD and its base erosion and profit shifting overhaul, it appears highly likely that corporate tax will continue to be an optional extra for most multinational companies.

The UK’s tax treaties—this is to do with Ireland as well in terms of Google—with developing countries allow UK firms to limit their tax payments, often in countries where the money is most needed to fund hard-pressed public services. The hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Roger Mullin) rightly mentioned Malawi earlier and I praise him for that.

According to the IMF, recent calculations have shown that developing countries are losing around $200 billion a year through tax avoidance by companies. The OECD has estimated that tax havens could be costing those developing countries three times the current global aid budget.

The value flowing out of countries from companies not paying their tax is huge: an estimated $l trillion a year. To put that into context, Africa is now a net creditor to the world in terms of the tax it loses from multinational companies operating in African countries’ jurisdictions. According to Oxfam, corporate tax avoidance in the form of trade mispricing by G7-based companies and investors cost Africa $6 billion in 2010—more than enough to improve the healthcare systems of the Ebola-affected countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.

Then there are the sins of omission. Anonymous shell companies in the British Virgin Islands were used to acquire mining concessions in the Democratic Republic of Congo for $275 million. They were then sold for $1.63 billion, costing the state $1.36 billion, or twice the combined health and education budget.

What is to be done? The Prime Minister is hosting an anti-corruption summit in May, and is inviting Heads of State from all over the world to London, but how can the UK lecture other countries on what they should be doing to tackle tax avoidance and tax corruption when the Crown dependencies and overseas territories in our own constitutional backyard are such notorious purveyors of secrecy? I put that case to the Minister on BBC Radio 5 Live just before the election.

We need to insist that multinationals publish their basic accounts in every country. We need to insist that they clean up their backyards, and ensure that British-linked tax havens—the Crown protectorates—cannot continue to act as conduits for tax dodging. We need to stop applying sticking plasters to broken OECD tax rules, and mandate the UN to develop a set of rules that ensure that big businesses pay their fair share of tax in every country in which they do business.

[Anna Turley (Redcar) (Lab/Co-op)]

Will my hon. Friend give way?

[Mike Kane]

I will.

[Anna Turley]

I appreciate—

Greece

Mike Kane Excerpts

Monday 29th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Osborne]

As is often the case, my hon. Friend has gone to one of the interesting points in this whole issue. The best thing to do at the moment is to see how things unfold in the next few weeks, but it is fair to say that there is not an easy and clear mechanism for Greece to leave the euro.

[Mike Kane (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab)]

In the tone of the questions asked by the right hon. and learned Member for Rushcliffe (Mr Clarke) and my hon. Friend the Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott), Greece is, in its own right, a strong bilateral partner to the UK, independently of the eurozone or the EU. I would like to hear more detail of the counsel we have given Greece. More importantly, should not the message be that we stand in solidarity with the Greek people in their time of trouble, whether or not their Government accept that counsel?

[Mr Osborne]

The hon. Gentleman is right to say that Britain has been a long-standing friend of Greece and the Greek people. There is huge affection in Britain for the country and its people, as evidenced by the fact that so many people choose to spend their holidays there. There is such solidarity and friendship with Greece, but Greece has to make its own decisions.

On our contacts with the Government—I was asked about them earlier—I have of course spoken over the past few months with the Greek Finance Minister and our Prime Minister spoke to the Greek Prime Minister just a week or two ago.

Royal Bank of Scotland

Mike Kane Excerpts

Thursday 11th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Harriett Baldwin]

I thank my hon. Friend for a very good point, very well made. It is absolutely the case that we are responsible for ensuring that, as we go forward from this decision point, we get the best possible value irrespective of what the previous Government paid, which was, in retrospect, too high.

[Mike Kane (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab)]

I welcome the Minister to her post. One would expect that the duty of the Chancellor would be to sweat the assets as his disposal, but with the fire sale of Royal Mail and now RBS, the taxpayer is being let down, having had to endure all the pain of the worldwide economic crash caused by the banks with none of the gain in this case.

[Harriett Baldwin]

I really will not take any lectures on letting the country down in terms of economic management. The people who suffer the most when the banks fail, the regulatory system fails and the economy fails are the very poorest in our society. It is outrageous for the hon. Gentleman to suggest that the economic recovery, the clear turnaround in this portfolio of legacy assets and clearing up the mess that his party left behind is anything other than progress.