Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by the Financial Secretary to the Treasury on 25 January that "I and my officials do not believe that [the directors income support scheme] as framed overcomes the fundamental issues of protecting taxpayers’ money and safeguarding it against fraud and abuse" (HC Deb, col 137), which aspects of the proposal for a directors income support scheme by the Federation of Small Businesses do not (1) protect taxpayers' money, and (2) safeguard against fraud and abuse.

The Directors Income Support Scheme, as currently framed, is intrinsically reliant on self-certification. As the Government cannot readily verify this information, an effect of this reliance on self-certification is to open the scheme up to an unacceptable level of fraud by organised criminal groups and others who would seek to exploit these schemes. The Government cannot expose the tax system to these risks, but continues to engage with the FSB regarding these concerns.