Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of Company Share Option Plans in incentivising workforce retention in the manufacturing sector.

The Government offers four tax-advantaged employee share schemes. These support business growth by aligning employee and shareholder interests, incentivising employee productivity and supporting recruitment and retention.

HMRC publishes annual statistics on the uptake and use of tax-advantaged employee share schemes, including the Company Share Option Plan (CSOP) scheme.

In addition, qualitative research into three of the tax-advantaged share schemes was published in 2023, which included consideration of CSOP uptake with different sectors. This is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/share-schemes-evaluation