Oral Answers to Questions

Stephen Metcalfe Excerpts

Tuesday 1st December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Felicity Buchan (Kensington) (Con)]

What steps his Department is taking to support self-employed people affected by the covid-19 outbreak.

[Stephen Metcalfe (South Basildon and East Thurrock) (Con)]

What steps his Department is taking to support self-employed people affected by the covid-19 outbreak.

[Simon Baynes (Clwyd South) (Con)]

What steps his Department is taking to support self-employed people affected by the covid-19 outbreak.

--- Later in debate ---

[Jesse Norman]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right about the importance of innovation. She will be delighted to know that the Government are protecting innovators and start-ups from the impact of covid through almost £900 million of future fund loans to date, £79 million for innovation loans as well as other grants, and that comes on top of more than £5 billion of support through research and development tax credits claimed for 2018-19 so far, which support more than £35 billion of R&D expenditure.

[Stephen Metcalfe [V]]

I thank my right hon. Friend for all he has done so far to support the self-employed, but will he keep an open mind when it comes to future support? As he will be aware, millions have benefited from the schemes he has introduced, but there is a minority who have not. As the pandemic is lasting longer than we had imagined, will he look again at what else can be done for those who have had no income for nine months?

[Jesse Norman]

I should make it perfectly clear to my hon. Friend, as the Chancellor has, that we take these points extremely seriously. We have been given many different suggestions over the past few months for ways in which we could accommodate these concerns. We have looked at them very closely, and so far we have struggled to find one that meets the need to avoid the fraud risk that bedevils this concern. I responded last week to the latest request to meet from the Federation of Small Businesses, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and Forgotten Ltd to explore the latest of these schemes. I have also said that I would be happy to meet the all-party parliamentary group, alongside ExcludedUK, to address these questions.