Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: HM Treasury

Oral Answers to Questions

Roger Williams Excerpts
Tuesday 9th December 2014

(9 years, 5 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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I know that the Chief Secretary to the Treasury will not want to talk out opportunities for his own hon. and right hon. Friends. I call Mr Roger Williams.

Roger Williams Portrait Roger Williams (Brecon and Radnorshire) (LD)
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T6. On small business Saturday I visited retail businesses in Brecon, Llanwrtydwells and Talgarth. They told me how pleased they were with the employment allowance, which gave them a reduction of up to £2,000 in their employer national insurance contributions. More than 1,000 businesses benefit from that in my constituency, but up to 500 that are eligible have not applied. What can we do to encourage them to take up this important measure?

Danny Alexander Portrait Danny Alexander
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I am grateful to my hon. Friend for giving me the opportunity to highlight the importance of these changes. As a local Member of Parliament, he has a particularly important role to play in promoting them, as he has done for the businesses already taking them up. I encourage him to continue to do that and to talk to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills about whether there is more we can do to get that message across.