Asked by: Lindsay Roy (Labour - Glenrothes)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent fiscal steps he has taken to support small and micro-sized businesses in Scotland.
Answered by David Gauke
The government is committed to supporting small businesses across the UK, and has recently taken a number of measures to support Scotland’s 326,000 SMEs.
In February 2014, the Start Up Loans programme went live in Scotland, and has already supported 500 Scottish entrepreneurs to start their own business with £1.6m of loans.
In April 2014, the Government launched the Employment Allowance to allow businesses and charities throughout the UK to deduct up to £2,000 off their employer National Insurance contributions (NICs) bill each year. By June 2014, 57,000 Scottish SMEs had benefitted from this scheme. Also in April 2014, the government increased the rate of the credit payable to loss-making SMEs investing in research and development from 11% to 14.5% and doubled the Annual Investment Allowance to £500,000 until 2016 to support business investment.
The Government has also launched new tax reliefs for the production of high-end television, animation, video games and theatre and introduced the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme to support small early stage companies seeking equity investment.
Asked by: Lindsay Roy (Labour - Glenrothes)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what progress he has made on tackling tax avoidance in the UK; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by David Gauke
This Government is committed to taking strong and robust action to tackle tax avoidance. Since April 2010 the government has made 42 changes to tax law, closing loopholes and introducing major reforms to the UK tax system. These include the introduction of a General Anti-Abuse Rule and strengthening the Disclosure of Tax Avoidance Schemes regime.
Through a tougher monitoring regime for high-risk promoters of tax avoidance schemes, backed up with penalties, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is taking significant action to discourage people from entering into expensive avoidance schemes which, in the majority of cases, don’t work. We legislated for Accelerated Payments in this year’s Finance Act, which will enable HMRC to collect disputed tax upfront, along with the new High Risk Promoters regime.
We have invested £1 billion over this spending review period to tackle tax avoidance and evasion. HMRC have secured over £77bn in compliance yield since the beginning of the parliament; £31 billion of which was from large businesses, and £850m of which was from High Net Worth individuals. Around 80% of the avoidance cases heard in the courts are being won by HMRC, with 30 wins protecting £2.7bn of tax in 2013/14
Asked by: Lindsay Roy (Labour - Glenrothes)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many (a) internal and (b) external complaints have been received by his Department about alleged breaches of the Civil Service Code of Conduct since 2010; and what actions his Department has taken in response to each such complaint.
Answered by David Gauke
The Civil Service Code sets out the clear procedure that civil servants should follow if they believe they are being required to act in a way which conflicts with the Code, or they become aware of action by others which they believe conflicts with the Code. Complaints are normally dealt with by the line management chain in the first instance, with the most serious cases escalated to senior managers, HR or the Permanent Secretary. Because most issues are dealt with locally or within the line management chain, there is no formal or systematic register of all complaints within the department.
Where a Civil Servant is not satisfied with how the matter has been handled by a Department, he or she can raise the matter with the Civil Service Commission. The Commission publishes details of the number of complaints received annually.
Asked by: Lindsay Roy (Labour - Glenrothes)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment he has made of the level of bank lending to small and medium-sized businesses since May 2010.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government has introduced measures to improve both bank and non-bank lending to businesses, such as the Funding for Lending Scheme, the British Business Bank and the Appeals Process.
Against this backdrop, gross lending to small and medium sized businesses in 2014 Q1 was almost 15% higher than in the same quarter a year earlier; and 32% of SMEs that have been through the Appeals Process have had their initial loan rejection overturned.
Asked by: Lindsay Roy (Labour - Glenrothes)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent estimate he has made of how much the reduction in the additional rate of income tax to 45 per cent will be worth each year for a person earning £1 million a year.
Answered by David Gauke
I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer I gave today to the hon. Member for Sefton Central (Bill Esterson).