House of Commons Hansard Debates for 21 Mar 1991

Dr. Cunningham : I should have thought that the hon. and learned Member for Burton (Mr. Lawrence), who practises at the Bar, would have been one of the first to recognise the need for such a debate.

Mr. Lawrence : I am grateful--

Mr. Speaker : Order.

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Dr. Cunningham : The hon. and learned Gentleman need not be grateful to me because I am not paying him any compliments. There is widespread dismay and concern about these matters, and it would be appropriate for the House to have an opportunity to debate them, although not in a party- political way because we know that such events have a long history. The Leader of the House would go some way towards restoring his tarnished reputation if he found time for such a debate.

Mr. MacGregor : The hon. Gentleman's remarks about a general election were rather stale and somewhat irrelevant. He asked about the money resolution. The way in which we propose to deal with that is for the general convenience of the House and is procedurally in order. I explained on Tuesday that we needed to get the Bill next week because that is to the advantage of local authorities and community charge payers. We shall be interested to hear in next week's debates and in the debate on the no confidence motion the view that the Opposition now take of the Bill, because their view is far from clear.

The Opposition are entitled to table no confidence motions and, as always, I have arranged time for a debate. We welcome the opportunity for a debate, but I wonder what can have possessed the Labour party to engage in a debate which will cruelly expose its lack of coherent policies. As the hon. Gentleman knows, we propose to reduce the charge to local residents by £140 per person in the coming year, and to get that done quickly is our reason for proposing speed on the Bill next week. Does Labour oppose that? We propose to pay for that reduction by increasing taxes on spending. Would Labour reverse that? There is no rush because next week there will be ample opportunity to expose the deficiencies in Labour's policies.

It is a short Bill of five clauses. We have had a full day on the purposes of the Bill and on other matters today and we shall have a full day on Monday during which the matter can be further discussed. We shall also debate it on Tuesday and Wednesday because the no confidence motion seems to be related to it. That means that there is plenty of time to debate these matters.

The hon. Gentleman spoke about criminal justice. It was entirely fair of him to say that this is not a party matter but one that concerns the whole House. My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary has announced the setting up of a royal commission. I have noted the hon. Gentleman's request for a debate. I rapidly had to find time for a debate on the no confidence motion. My problem is that there is a great deal of business for the House to conduct when we return after the recess. I shall certainly bear in mind the hon. Gentleman's request.

Several Hon. Members rose--

Mr. Speaker : Order. In consideration of hon. Members who wish to participate in the Budget debate, let me say that questions to the Leader of the House should be directed strictly to next week's business. Most hon. Members who wish to do so have asked questions on the other statements.

Mr. Michael Jopling (Westmorland and Lonsdale) : I was about to apply myself to today's problems because I suppose it is many years since we had statements which lasted until about 9 o'clock. Can my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House find some way to facilitate those of us

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who wish to speak on the Budget? Could he find a way to extend beyond 10 o'clock the business on the third day of the Budget debate? I cannot think of a way to do that, but my confidence in his ingenuity is so great that perhaps he can think of one.

Mr. MacGregor : I understand my right hon. Friend's frustration. As he knows, there is no procedural way to do what he suggests. The best contribution that I can make is to keep my answers extremely short.

Mr. James Wallace (Orkney and Shetland) : No doubt the Leader of the House will recall that in November, when we last had a no confidence motion, Conservative Members were somewhat divided on the question of leadership. The result of the debate was a nauseating display of unity among Tory Members. Exchanges today have shown that divisions are again occurring. What does the right hon. Gentleman divine to be the tactics of the Leader of the Opposition on this occasion?

Mr. MacGregor : I recall that occasion, and there was complete unity on this side of the House, as there will be on Wednesday. For the second time in a short period, Opposition Members will fall flat on their faces.

Mr. Peter Bottomley (Eltham) : Does my right hon. Friend agree that, if the Government had not come forward with £140 for each community charge payer, there would not be a no confidence motion? Perhaps next week the Labour party will explain why the extra help to those that they claim to represent causes it to say that the Government have got it wrong rather than that the Government have got it right.

Mr. MacGregor : The Opposition will have a great deal of time next week to explain that and to answer questions about their proposals which have not yet been answered.

Mr. Geoffrey Lofthouse (Pontefract and Castleford) : Will the Leader of the House arrange for the Home Secretary to come to the House next week to make a statement about a serious situation that has developed in the west Yorkshire police? Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that there is great worry in west Yorkshire about the fact that the criminal fraternity is well in advance of the police on new technology? Is he also aware that criminals in that area were buoyant last week when they saw an announcement from the police authority that, as well as having lost 500 policemen on the beat, it is now unable to fill the vacant post of assistant chief constable? The Home Secretary is obliged to come to the House and tell us why he is not forcing the Department of the Environment to allow that authority to fill the post in accordance with the Home Secretary's criteria.

Mr. MacGregor : I shall draw that point to the attention of my right hon. Friend, but it is impossible to fit in a statement of that sort next week.

Mr. James Lamond (Oldham, Central and Royton) : Remembering that the right hon. Member for Chingford (Mr. Tebbit), when Secretary of State, used to delight in coming to the Dispatch Box to announce new jobs that had been established--for instance, 400 jobs in a motor manufacturing plant--is there any chance that next week the appropriate Secretary of State will come to the Dispatch Box, perhaps on Tuesday when there is a lobby on the matter, to explain what help the Government think

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that they can give to the more than 3,000 workers who have been laid off by British Aerospace, including 675 at the Chadderton plant in Oldham? Can they look to the Government for any help in their difficulty?

Mr. MacGregor : As the hon. Gentleman may know, the company has said that it took the measures that it announced this morning to protect the long-term future of the business. It said that it is imperative that it achieves further improvements in operating efficiency if it is to maintain its competitive position in the world market.

On the commercial side, the company has quoted the effects of world recession, the weakness of the United States dollar and the continued price pressure on air fares as grounds for the need to reduce costs. I am afraid that I see no cause for a statement next week on this matter.

Mr. Patrick Cormack (Staffordshire, South) : Is my right hon. Friend aware that there will be not only unanimity among Conservative Members next week but relief, gratitude and enthusiasm in equal measure?

Mr. MacGregor : I am grateful to my hon. Friend.

Dr. Jeremy Bray (Motherwell, South) : Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that since his last business statement the Select Committee on Trade and Industry has published its report calling for an early debate in the House on the closure of Ravenscraig, and that since the report was completed the situation has further deteriorated, with the closure of another blast furnace? Do the Government intend to find time for an early debate, given that the right hon. Gentleman has already announced today that the Government are bringing forward the remaining stages of the British Technology Group Bill after Easter? Is he aware that in Committee Ministers undertook to carry out certain consultations and that it is unlikely that they will be completed by then? Could the business perhaps be delayed?

Mr. MacGregor : I certainly do not want to delay the business, but I shall draw the hon. Gentleman's point about the remaining stages of the Bill to the attention of my right hon. Friends.

The Government are carefully considering the Select Committee's report, including its recommendation of an early debate, and we will respond to it in the usual way.

Mr. Tom Cox (Tooting) : Is the Leader of the House aware that earlier this evening television interviews were held with the leaders of Conservative authorities who expressed deep disgust with the statement made by the Secretary of State for the Environment? If there is to be confidence in local government on the part of those who serve in it and of the public who look to it to provide services, is it not time that we had a much fuller statement on what is to replace the poll tax instead of the airy- fairy statements that we have heard today?

Mr. MacGregor : I did not see the interviews because I have been sitting in the Chamber for some hours waiting to make this statement--so I have heard some pretty full statements from my right hon. Friends on the subject.

Mr. Max Madden (Bradford, West) : On the "Poll Tax (Panic and Bribery) Bill" next Monday and Tuesday, I assume that the money resolution will be open-ended. Presumably the Secretary of State will deal with it, because

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we shall want a great deal of detailed information, especially about whether people in receipt of rebates and transitional relief will receive some or all of the £140.

I assume that the guillotine motion on Tuesday's business can be debated for a long time and may therefore eat into the debate. Therefore, can the debate be extended to midnight to give us a minimal opportunity of debating this attack on parliamentary democracy, and so that the Secretary of State can answer many of the questions that he was clearly unable to answer this afternoon?

Mr. MacGregor : It is ridiculous to describe this as an attack on parliamentary democracy. We are trying to get the measures through the House--allowing a reasonable amount of time for them, given that it is a small Bill--to help community charge payers and local authorities.

The money resolution will be proceeded with in the same way as such resolutions always are. The timetable motion on Tuesday will proceed similarly. It will be published and on the Order Paper tomorrow.

Mr. Nigel Spearing (Newham, South) : Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the debate in European Standing Committee A next Wednesday may be the last opportunity that the House has to discuss the controversial order to do with the export of live horses, a subject about which many Members have received a great deal of

correspondence? Does he recall that the Prime Minister gave an undertaking to my right hon. Friend the Member for Bethnal Green and Stepney (Mr. Shore) that there would be reports relating to the intergovernmental conferences on monetary and political union in the Community? Can he assure us that after Easter the House will be given a verbal statement after those Council meetings, and that the Government will not rely on scrutiny by Select Committees such as the one that is to meet next Monday?

Mr. MacGregor : I shall consider the hon. Gentleman's second point. As for his first, I agree about the importance of the document relating to the protection of horses during transport. Like many colleagues, I have received voluminous mail on the subject and I am sympathetic to those who have written to me. The Government's position has been made clear : we are endeavouring to achieve all the safeguards that we require. It would be possible to raise this matter on the Floor of the House during the agriculture debate in the week we come back.

Dr. Norman A. Godman (Greenock and Port Glasgow) : I believe that the Leader of the House said that European Standing Committee B is to meet twice next week. As someone who was appointed to that Committee with no consultation--I do not know what parliamentary crime I committed that I should have been put on it--I remind the right hon. Gentleman that on 22 January he said, among other things : "It seems likely that each Standing Committee will have about two sittings per month."--[ Official Report, 22 January 1991 ; Vol. 184, c. 271.]

Yet we are meeting weekly, and now there are to be two meetings a week. May we have an early statement on the frequency of these meetings or perhaps on an increase in the number of Committees? I am asking for a break.

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Mr. MacGregor : Someone else will have to explain what crime the hon. Gentleman committed to cause him to serve on the Committee. As I have often said, I am keen to review the workings of these Committees as we get more experience of them. They have not met at all in some weeks. One of the issues, as it was when EC documents were scrutinised in the previous system, is that the timetable is not entirely in our hands because it depends on what business is coming up in the Community. One step that we have taken to assist members of the Committee is to give them as much notice as possible of when it will meet usually longer notice than in the statement that I made to the House. I am certainly prepared to look into whether there should be more members and into other issues that may arise once we have more experience of the working of the Committees.

Mr. Tony Banks (Newham, North-West) : I do not know whether the Leader of the House missed me during questions on the last couple of business statements, but he may be interested to know that I was in Canada studying baby harp seals which used to be clubbed to death, rather in the same way as the Government are clubbing democracy to death in Parliament. He will be aware that the killing of these baby seals ended as the culmination of a political campaign in the House and in the European Parliament, which forced the Canadian Government to impose a ban. It now looks as though that Government may be considering allowing an extension of seal culling, so I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether we can have a debate, if not next week, as soon as possible thereafter, on animal conservation. It is a matter of great concern to many Members in the House and to many more people outside it. In such a debate we could discuss the Canadian seal cull along with many other matters relating to animal welfare.

Mr. MacGregor : I had not realised that one of the qualities of the hon. Member for Newham, North-West (Mr. Banks) was arrogance. I shall puncture his arrogance and say that I did not miss him during the past two business statements.

Mr. Banks : Cutting.

Mr. MacGregor : I apologise for cutting the hon. Gentleman. On the serious business that he raises, I was not aware of such a development. There may be other ways in which the issue can be raised in the House, but I shall bear in mind what he said.

Mr. Harry Barnes (Derbyshire, North-East) : The Community Charges (General Reduction) Bill that affects all of our constituents will not be published until after this question has been answered. That means that many hon. Members who have already left for various reasons will be unable to gain ready access to it. What avenues are available to introduce amendments to such a significant Bill, which will be dealt with in the House in very inadequate circumstances on Tuesday?

Mr. MacGregor : I am sure that hon. Members who are sufficiently interested in tabling amendments will have arranged to obtain copies of the Bill. The normal arrangements for dealing with amendments will apply in this case.

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Easter Adjournment

Mr. Speaker : I remind hon. Members that, on the motion for the Adjournment of the House on Thursday 28 March, up to nine Members may raise with Ministers subjects of their choice. Applications should reach my office by 10 pm on Monday next. A ballot will be held on Tuesday morning and the result made known as soon as possible thereafter.

BILL PRESENTED

Community Charges (General Reduction) Bill

Mr. Secretary Heseltine, supported by the Prime Minister, Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Secretary Newton, Mr. Secretary Hunt, Mr. Secretary Lang, Mr. Michael Portillo and Mr. Robert Key, presented (under Standing Order No. 48 (Procedure upon Bills) ) a Bill to make provision for, and in connection with, a reduction in the amounts of community charges for the financial year beginning on 1st April 1991 and the payment of grants to charging authorities in England and Wales and local authorities in Scotland : And the same was read the First time ; and ordered to be read a Second time tomorrow and to be printed. [Bill 120.]

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Orders of the Day

WAYS AND MEANS

Order read for resuming adjourned debate on Question [19 March].

AMENDMENT OF THE LAW

Motion made, and Question proposed,

That it is expedient to amend the law with respect to the National Debt and the public revenue and to make further provision in connection with finance, but this Resolution does not extend to the making of any amendment with respect to value added tax so as to provide--

(a) for zero-rating or exempting any supply ;

(b) for refunding any amount of tax, otherwise than by virtue of goods or services supplied to one person being treated for the purposes of section 14(3) of the Value Added Tax Act 1983 as supplied to another person ;

(d) for relief other than relief applying to goods of whatever description or services of whatever description.-- [Mr. Norman Lamont.]

Question again proposed.

Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation

Mr. Speaker : In view of the delayed start of the debate, I am grateful to the Front-Bench spokesman for saying that they will limit their speeches to 15 minutes each. I understand that the wind-up speeches will be five minutes each to enable hon. Members who have been waiting patiently to speak to do so. I ask them, too, to tailor their speeches to about 10 minutes.

8.40 pm

The Secretary of State for Employment (Mr. Michael Howard) : At last we come to the event for which I know the whole House has been waiting throughout this long day.

In his Budget speech my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer set out the three essential foundations for the renewed growth in jobs that we all want to see. First, the prospect is for sharply falling inflation-- down to 4 per cent. in the last quarter of the year, and even lower in 1992. Secondly, interest rates are coming down--a reduction of two full percentage points since last October. Thirdly, my right hon. Friend predicted that output would stabilise in the next few months and then grow again--by 2 per cent. between the first half of this year and the first half of 1992.

In short, while the immediate prospect is for rising unemployment, the basis is already laid for a resumption in the jobs growth that has been such a remarkable feature of the second half of the 1980s ; and for falling unemployment. How quickly unemployment comes down will depend partly on the speed with which pay settlements come down. The latest figures show a small fall in year-on-year average earnings, but that is not enough and it is not happening quickly enough. Within the exchange rate mechanism, wage negotiators ultimately have no option, if they want to remain competitive, but to bring unit wage costs into line with those of our European competitors. If that lesson is not

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learnt, more jobs will be lost. In that context, I particularly welcome the measures announced in the Budget to encourage more profit-related pay schemes and to stimulate employee share ownership.

The Government have always attached considerable importance to the financial participation of employees in the companies for which they work. One of the most effective ways of increasing commitment at work is to give employees a direct stake in the ownership and prosperity of the business for which they work. Tax reliefs to stimulate financial participation have been introduced or extended in almost all Budgets since 1979. A number of proposals in the latest Budget continue this process and take financial participation still further.

Those proposals are further evidence of the Government's commitment to financial participation as an important element in employee involvement. They will provide an important strengthening of the links between the rewards people receive and the performance of the company for which they work. They are important further steps on the road to making our pay and rewards systems more responsive to profitability.

However, although the medium-term prospect for jobs is optimistic, I do not underestimate the anxiety and uncertainty of those who are unemployed at the present time about how long they will be unemployed and how quickly they can get back to work. While unemployment remains high, I am determined to ensure that those unemployed people have the best possible advice and support and, where necessary, special help to put them on the road back to a job.

As a result of the measures that I announced a year ago, we already have in place throughout the country a comprehensive package of counselling and job -search advice geared to the specific needs of individuals. The central feature of those measures is an initial interview for all newly unemployed people and an individual back-to-work plan showing how that person can best help himself and how he can be most effectively helped by the employment service. I announced yesterday that I propose to build on that new counselling framework extra advice and help with job search. I am providing the employment service with £55 million in extra resources for 1991-92 on top of the resources already announced. Of that, some £38 million will ensure that its standards of service to its clients are maintained and, where possible, enhanced. Some £17 million will provide more help for those who do not find work in the first few weeks of unemployment.

As a result, for the first time, every unemployed person who reaches 13 weeks of unemployment and has no job to start will have a guaranteed offer of an interview--an opportunity to review the back-to-work plan and to assess further options for getting back to work.

New jobs teams will be set up to search out jobs that are suitable for those who have marketable skills and to match individuals to jobs.

Jobs seminars will be run to provide extra advice on job search for those who are not seeking work in the most effective way. For those with more intensive problems and needs, who are already eligible to enter job clubs after 13 weeks of unemployment, more job club places will be provided.

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We are also increasing help to those who have been unemployed for a longer period. In the course of the next financial year, there will be an extra 100,000 opportunities in job clubs and in the new job introduction guarantee scheme. Job clubs work : 66 per cent. of unemployed people leaving job clubs go into work or into training or further education.

Finally, as a result of the further £120 million that I am making available to employment training, up to 245,000 unemployed people will be able to learn skills to improve their chances of getting back to work. That represents the most comprehensive range of help and advice ever made available to unemployed people. It offers some 650, 000 opportunities on Employment Department programmes. It provides a wide range of options, so that the available help matches individual needs. It guarantees help to unemployed people at the point at which they need it most. Above all, it focuses on jobs and getting back to work.

Even at a time of rising unemployment, some 450,000 job vacancies are available in the economy now. Almost 300,000 unemployed people leave unemployment every month. Over 50 per cent. of unemployed people find work within three months of becoming unemployed. The help that we are providing and the new help that I have announced today is designed to ensure that everyone has the best possible chance of getting back to work in the shortest possible time.

May I now turn to one of the most significant parts of the Budget speech : that concerned with initiatives to encourage individuals to invest in their own training. It is of particular importance at a time of economic downturn that we do everything possible to sustain both employer and individual investment in training, so that, as jobs are created, there is a ready supply of skilled people.

The foundations have already been laid for a significant improvement in the skills of the work force. There are many positive signs that skill levels are increasing, and that employers and individuals are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of education and training to our future economic well-being. I draw the attention of the House to the clear signs of that improvement. First, more and more young people, encouraged by the Government's reforms to schools and the further education system, are staying on in full-time education to gain the qualifications that will enable them to progress to higher levels of skill and attainment. Last year, 350,000 16-year-olds chose to continue in full-time education ; the percentage staying on has risen by a third over the past decade. The number of young people taking part in full-time vocational courses in further education is also increasing : in England it has doubled in the past 10 years.

The second clear sign is the success of youth training. The Labour party has a consistent record of opposition to youth training and to the YTS which preceded it. The hon. Member for Sedgefield (Mr. Blair) made a speech in January which set out Labour's supposedly superior alternative to youth training. But, as ever, he had failed to notice what was happening around him. He said that training for young people should lead to jobs or further education and training. Youth training already does that : 88 per cent. of young people who complete their YT course go into jobs, further education or training. He said that training should be based on national vocational qualifications attained, not on time served. Youth training already provides that too : there are no time limits on the training involved, and there is a minimum target level of a

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national vocational qualification level 2. Already, two thirds of those who complete YT gain a vocational qualification--something which was inconceivable 10 years ago. That number will increase in future as training and enterprise councils ensure that all the training they provide for young people leads to a national vocational qualification.

The hon. Gentleman called for closer integration of education and training. That is also already happening--through the technical and vocational education initiative, through education business partnerships and through the assumption from next month of responsibility for work-related further education by TECs. The third clear sign of the improvement in Britain's training performance is that the number of employees receiving job-related training has increased by 85 per cent. since 1984--a remarkable testament to the new commitment of employers to upgrading the skills of their employees. The depth of that commitment is underlined by the results of an Industrial Society survey published only this week. Despite the difficult economic conditions, 87 per cent. of companies say that they will either maintain or increase their expenditure on training this year--more than six times as many as those that say that they will reduce it.

Those positive trends are due in no small part to the wide range of steps that the Government have taken over the past 10 years to create an education and training system that is relevant and responsive to the needs of employers and individuals. But of course we are far from complacent ; we still have much to achieve. We have set in train the reforms that will ensure that the momentum which has been built up does not diminish.

In the training and enterprise councils and the local enterprise companies in Scotland we now have the means of developing and building on this commitment to training. All 82 TECs and 22 LECs are now in being. More than 1,200 of the country's senior business men and women have committed themselves to providing the leadership needed to develop the skills that industry will need in the 1990s. That leadership has been built not by the regulation and compulsion so much favoured by the Opposition, but through voluntary commitment and willing participation.

Alongside employer commitment we must also stimulate individuals to take responsibility for their own training and development. Again, the way to do that is not by compulsion, but by providing new incentives and widening choice. We have already taken a number of steps in that direction. For 45,000 young people, in 11 pilot areas across the country training credits are only two weeks away. Training credits are a very important development. They offer real purchasing power to the individual and encourage young people to assume, at the very outset of their careers, proper control over their own training and development. If the pilots are successful, training credits will play a major part in transforming attitudes towards training in this country.

Career development loans, which were introduced in 1988, are giving valuable help to individuals who are financing their own training. They have led to a combined investment of £50 million in the training of about 17,000 individuals. Through the TECs, we are ensuring that individuals have access to comprehensive information and advice about training provision in every local area.

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Finally, we have just announced an important new addition to our well-established national training awards, which give recognition for excellence in training. For the first time, the 1991 awards, for which His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales is patron, will include a new award for individual achievement.

The announcement in Tuesday's Budget of tax relief for individuals' expenditure on training provisions provides another important incentive for individuals to acquire new skills or upgrade existing ones. That sends a clear signal of the Government's support for individual effort and will provide a powerful incentive to those who wish to train, but are deterred by the cost. Tax relief will be given at source for training leading to national vocational

qualifications--or SVQs in Scotland--up to and including level 4. The link to national vocational qualifications is essential. The achievement of recognised qualifications, based on standards of competence set by employers, is the best way of ensuring that people have the skills our economy needs.

These developments are all designed to give individuals the information, support and encouragement they need to improve their skill levels and widen the choices available to them. I am confident that they will have a significant impact on individuals' willingness to seek out training opportunities and take responsibility for their own training and development.

The Chancellor rightly referred to his Budget as a "Budget for business". With my special responsibilities for small firms, I take particular pleasure in the substantial additional help for small businesses. Every year my hon. Friend the Minister with responsibility for small firms invites those who represent small firms to put forward their views on what they would like to see in the Budget to assist small firms. We listen to their views and consider with the Chancellor what might be provided.

I am glad to say that this year the process has borne particular fruit with measures that further reduce the tax burden on small enterprises, lift further the bureaucracy and red tape which is the bane of a small firm's life and assist firms having cash flow and liquidity problems in the present recession. I do not propose to list again all the measures that will be of particular benefit to small firms, but I draw the attention of the House to the wide spread of measures.

There are measures which will benefit very small firms. One example is the increase in the VAT registration threshold to £35,000, an increase of 38 per cent. to its highest-ever level in real terms, which will take an estimated 150,000 traders out of the VAT net. A second example is the move from monthly to quarterly payments of PAYE and national insurance contributions for small employers, thereby improving the cash flow for about half all employers.

Dr. John Marek (Wrexham) : I shall make a short intervention because I would like to be helpful. Would not it have been useful if postponed accounting had been introduced this year? It will have to come in next year's Budget, and it would have helped small industry if it had been brought forward to this year.

Mr. Howard : It is always possible to identify other measures, but I think that the hon. Gentleman will recognise that the combined effect of the package that my right hon. Friend introduced on Tuesday, which has been

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widely welcomed by small firms' organisations, will go a long way to improving their position and relieving the burdens presently placed on them.

The increase in the threshold for the small company rate of corporation tax and the carrying back of trading losses from one year to three will be of particular benefit to the small incorporated company.

In addition to these, the Chancellor made two important announcements of concern to small firms. As the Chancellor said, there is a case for a more radical simplification of the taxation of the self-employed. The Inland Revenue will therefore shortly be publishing a consultative document outlining its proposals for change.

The Chancellor also announced a review of the serious misdeclaration of VAT penalty, because of complaints that the penalty it imposed was unfair ; while the review takes place, the penalty has been reduced from 30 per cent. to 20 per cent.

The Budget will help training and businesses, especially small businesses, and will help to foster and create jobs. The Government will continue to create jobs to fuel growth and to raise the prosperity of our people. That is why we shall win the next election and many after it.

8.58 pm

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