Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to introducing auto-enrolment for employee share schemes.

The Government believes it is appropriate to allow employers and employees to decide whether to offer and participate in employee share schemes based on their business and individual needs.

Companies can offer shares to their employees in various ways. To encourage wider employee share ownership, the Government offers four tax advantaged share schemes: Save As You Earn (SAYE), Share Incentive Plans (SIPs), Company Share Option Plans (CSOP) and Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI). Where offered, these schemes provide a range of tax advantages for employees who wish to acquire shares in the company for which they work.

Companies offering SAYE and SIPs are required to open the schemes to all employees. CSOP and EMI are discretionary schemes, which means options can be offered to select employees to help recruitment and retention.

The Government keeps all taxes and reliefs under review.