Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Tommy Sheppard and John Glen

Tuesday 21st March 2023 Commons Chamber

[John Glen]

My right hon. Friend makes a very sensible point. This is about finding appropriate development in different communities, and a range of factors will obviously be involved. We have worked closely with local authorities to ensure that we get the right package of measures and legislative changes to enable the development she and her constituents aspire to.

[Tommy Sheppard (Edinburgh East) (SNP)]

13. What recent assessment his Department has made of the impact of withdrawal from the EU on the economy.

Coronavirus: Employment Support

Debate between Tommy Sheppard and John Glen

Thursday 19th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Tommy Sheppard (Edinburgh East) (SNP)]

The very essence of the hospitality industry is to provide social contact. Does the Minister understand the real anger of many in that industry that the Government have given advice to their customers but not to them? If the Government believe premises should close, they should say so, and they should accept the consequences of paying people whose idleness is enforced because of a contribution to a public health emergency. What is so hard to understand is that the system for doing that is staring the Government in the face. It already exists. It is called Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. That is a system for taking money out of wage packets every month and giving it to the Government; now, it should be put into reverse to put money into the pockets of those employees.

[John Glen]

The hon. Gentleman is right to express the deep frustration of people in that sector, and I am sure his words resonate across the House. We have put in resources for 2,000 people from HMRC to take calls for bespoke solutions to deal with some of those issues. He is right that there is also an issue in terms of access to insurance. I was on a conference call with the insurance industry to clarify that where insurance has been taken out, that will be effective. However, he is perfectly right that more work needs to be done, and I have been very clear that more will be forthcoming imminently.

2019 Loan Charge

Debate between Tommy Sheppard and John Glen

Tuesday 20th November 2018 Westminster Hall

[John Glen]

I am very happy to engage with HMRC to get a letter setting out the action taken. I suspect that there might be some constraints on revealing details of individual live cases, but where data are available, I will make them available to hon. Members.

[Tommy Sheppard]

Will the Minister confirm, either now or in any such letter, the Treasury’s objectives in pursuing those companies? Is it to take retrospective action against them to try to recover the great volume of money they received from selling those schemes?

[John Glen]

HMRC’s objective will be to secure the money owed, as per the rules of the tax system. HMRC has enormous power to levy charges of up to £1 million on those individuals who are not complying.

The schemes may have involved provision of a loan with no intention to repay it. The recipients of such payments enjoyed them no differently from the way any of us use our normal income. As such, in the eyes of HMRC, the payments have always been taxable.

I have acknowledged the comments of colleagues who said that the charge on disguised remuneration loans will apply to loans that were made as far back as 1999. It is fair to say that the schemes were never permitted. They were defective, going back to then.