2019 Loan Charge Debate

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Department: HM Treasury

2019 Loan Charge

Teresa Pearce Excerpts
Tuesday 20th November 2018

(5 years, 5 months ago)

Westminster Hall
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Steve Baker Portrait Mr Baker
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I entirely agree with my hon. Friend. Toward the end of my remarks I will come on to the solutions that I propose, but I entirely agree with him that if any company insisted on people engaging in these arrangements it certainly should share the responsibility for what they did.

Teresa Pearce Portrait Teresa Pearce (Erith and Thamesmead) (Lab)
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Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

Steve Baker Portrait Mr Baker
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I will take one or two more interventions, and then I will move on. It is not quite like being a Minister, but very nearly.

Teresa Pearce Portrait Teresa Pearce
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The hon. Gentleman is being very generous with his time and I thank him for securing this debate. On that last point, my constituent was a civil servant for 37 years. In 2010, his team was TUPE-ed from the Ministry of Defence to Hewlett-Packard. He retired in 2013. In 2014, they asked him back to oversee a Ministry of Defence contract, but refused to take him back on pay-as-you-earn and said they would only do it through one of these vehicles. Should my constituent not have had some comfort from the fact that this was an MOD contract? Surely the Government and Government Departments should look at who they are contracting with, to ensure that a man such as this, in his retirement years, is not stung by this charge?