Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, will he make an assessment of the potential merits of reducing the amount of corporation tax payable by a social enterprise if the amount spent on social impact of the enterprise is 50 per cent or more of that enterprise's previous year’s profits.

The government recognises the important contribution that businesses can make in addressing social issues in the UK.

However, providing special tax treatment for social impact costs would be costly, complex to administer, difficult to defend against abuse, and could lead to competitive distortions.

To help address the challenges that social enterprises face raising capital, the government introduced the Social Investment Tax Relief in 2014 to support investment in social enterprises across the UK.

In April 2017, the government increased the amount of investment that qualifying social enterprises could raise through this relief to £1.5 million.