14/03/2016 Monday in Parliament


14/03/2016

Similar Content

Browse content similar to 14/03/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!

Transcript


LineFromTo

Hello and welcome to Monday in Parliament, our look

:00:13.:00:14.

A tabloid newspaper story about the Queen's views on the EU -

:00:15.:00:21.

If the Justice Secretary were to have disclosed

:00:22.:00:28.

this information, he would have breached the principle

:00:29.:00:31.

of confidentiality and prayed in aid the monarch in

:00:32.:00:33.

The Work and Pensions Secretary defends the Government's record

:00:34.:00:38.

We spend more than ?50 billion, which is more than any other OECD

:00:39.:00:47.

country of equivalent size, such as Germany.

:00:48.:00:48.

And taking aid to those who need it most but,

:00:49.:00:54.

in offering help to everyone who needs it, muslim charity workers

:00:55.:00:56.

explain one more peril that they face.

:00:57.:01:03.

The Guantanamo Bay danger, which is that you are photographed and in the

:01:04.:01:10.

background is a known terrorist. Or you are in an area and you get

:01:11.:01:13.

hoovered up because you are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

:01:14.:01:16.

Calls for the Justice Secretary to be investigated over claims

:01:17.:01:18.

the Queen is Eurosceptic have been dismissed by the Government.

:01:19.:01:21.

The Sun newspaper published a story saying the Queen had

:01:22.:01:24.

alleged bust-up with the Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg,

:01:25.:01:30.

who was at the time the lord president of the Privy Council.

:01:31.:01:32.

Buckingham Palace has made a complaint to the press regulator

:01:33.:01:35.

Ipso, and stressed the monarch is politically neutral.

:01:36.:01:39.

Michael Gove has denied briefing the Sun newspaper,

:01:40.:01:42.

but declined to deny being the source of the claim.

:01:43.:01:46.

Her Majesty cannot be supposed to have a private opinion

:01:47.:01:50.

apart from that of her responsible advisers and any attempts

:01:51.:01:56.

to use her name in debate to influence the judgment

:01:57.:01:59.

of Parliament is immediately checked and censured.

:02:00.:02:04.

A minister is, however, allowed to make a statement of facts

:02:05.:02:08.

in which the Sovereign's name may be concerned.

:02:09.:02:12.

I earnestly hope that honourable members will spare me

:02:13.:02:15.

the embarrassment of having to stop them

:02:16.:02:23.

in their tracks if they seek to draw to the House's attention any alleged

:02:24.:02:26.

views of the monarch on the EU or indeed anything else.

:02:27.:02:28.

Three members have categorically denied that they are the source

:02:29.:02:31.

of the justice... They are the source...

:02:32.:02:33.

Yet the Justice Secretary has only

:02:34.:02:40.

said, I don't know how the Sun got all its information.

:02:41.:02:42.

Mr Speaker, the Sovereign's constitutional

:02:43.:02:48.

impartiality is an established principle of our democracy.

:02:49.:02:53.

It is incumbent on those in political

:02:54.:02:55.

office to ensure that this remains the case.

:02:56.:03:00.

Such a breach would be particularly serious and significant.

:03:01.:03:04.

If the Justice Secretary were to have

:03:05.:03:06.

disclosed this information, he would have breached the principle

:03:07.:03:10.

of confidentiality and prayed in aid the monarch in a politically

:03:11.:03:13.

Last week a national newspaper published a story allegedly based

:03:14.:03:18.

on a conversation that took place at a lunch

:03:19.:03:22.

However, my predecessor, the then Lord President,

:03:23.:03:26.

the right-honourable member for Sheffield Hallam,

:03:27.:03:28.

has said very clearly that the story

:03:29.:03:30.

As the House is aware, Buckingham Palace has referred

:03:31.:03:36.

the matter to Ipso, the new press complaints body.

:03:37.:03:38.

Given all of this, Mr Speaker, I do not

:03:39.:03:44.

believe there is any need for further action here.

:03:45.:03:47.

Does my right-honourable friend agree with me that

:03:48.:03:51.

what we are witnessing is a poorly disguised example of a tendency

:03:52.:03:54.

of the party opposite to play the man

:03:55.:03:56.

and not the ball in the circumstances?

:03:57.:04:05.

Will he further agree with me that the workings

:04:06.:04:07.

of the Privy Council are a matter for

:04:08.:04:09.

the Privy Council and are not the same rules that apply

:04:10.:04:11.

to ministers who are tangible to this House of Commons?

:04:12.:04:14.

My honourable friend is absolutely right and it is worth

:04:15.:04:17.

saying, Mr Speaker, that the conversation

:04:18.:04:19.

that is alleged to have taken place, which the former Lord President

:04:20.:04:21.

said did not take place, actually did not take these

:04:22.:04:24.

I've always considered it an honour had a privileged to be a member

:04:25.:04:30.

of the Privy Council and I take it very seriously the trust

:04:31.:04:33.

who are part of that Privy Council.

:04:34.:04:36.

I think the allegations carry a great deal of

:04:37.:04:38.

currency and, if they are not properly investigated,

:04:39.:04:40.

they can undermine the whole of

:04:41.:04:42.

the Privy Council and everybody in it.

:04:43.:04:44.

I think the Prime Minister was right to say

:04:45.:04:47.

that it would be very serious if a member of the Privy Council

:04:48.:04:51.

was the source of the Sun newspaper story

:04:52.:04:56.

and, therefore, I think it is beholding upon the Government

:04:57.:05:01.

to ask the member involved to come to this

:05:02.:05:04.

House and to make a statement himself to lay this matter to rest.

:05:05.:05:09.

As the Lord High Chancellor is the keeper of the Queen's

:05:10.:05:13.

conscience, is it not inconceivable that he could misapply his

:05:14.:05:15.

Is it not further important that in the Privy Council oath,

:05:16.:05:22.

privy counsellors swear that they will do their uttermost

:05:23.:05:24.

to bear faith and allegiance unto the Queen's Majesty

:05:25.:05:28.

and will assist and defend all jurisdictions, pre-eminences

:05:29.:05:31.

and authorities granted to Her Majesty, and annexed

:05:32.:05:36.

to the Crown by acts of Parliament or otherwise,

:05:37.:05:38.

princes, persons, prelates, states or potentates.

:05:39.:05:40.

How, therefore, how, therefore, could members of the Privy Council

:05:41.:05:49.

go off and be European Commissioners swearing

:05:50.:05:51.

I have never been to this palace,

:05:52.:05:53.

I don't know what takes place but the most bizarre thing,

:05:54.:06:03.

for me, what on earth was the Queen doing

:06:04.:06:05.

Mr Speaker, I think the response to the honourable gentleman's

:06:06.:06:29.

comment across the House, I think, suggests

:06:30.:06:31.

not everyone disagrees with the views put forward.

:06:32.:06:38.

What I'd say to him is I hope, before the end his illustrious

:06:39.:06:41.

career, he does have a chance to go to the Palace.

:06:42.:06:44.

Earlier, Opposition MPs lambasted ministers over the latest cuts

:06:45.:06:51.

to disability benefits, with one accusing the Government

:06:52.:06:53.

of waging an on-going war against disabled people.

:06:54.:06:56.

Iain Duncan Smith and his team were appearing in the Commons

:06:57.:06:58.

for the first time since the announcement last Friday

:06:59.:07:01.

of changes to Personal Independence Payments,

:07:02.:07:03.

people with the extra costs associated

:07:04.:07:07.

with disabilities and long-term illnesses.

:07:08.:07:13.

He is going to take away ?1.2 billion, completely

:07:14.:07:23.

eroding access to Personal Independence Payments for 200,000

:07:24.:07:25.

people and cutting it by one third from ?70 to ?50

:07:26.:07:28.

People who are unable, quite often, to use the toilet

:07:29.:07:31.

That comes on top of the cuts to ESA that went through

:07:32.:07:37.

Before I came here this afternoon, Mr Speaker, I asked disabled people

:07:38.:07:45.

what question they would like to put to the Secretary of State and one

:07:46.:07:48.

answer stood out and it was quite simply,

:07:49.:07:54.

Can I just remind the honourable gentleman

:07:55.:07:58.

that under this Government, spending on sickness and disability

:07:59.:08:01.

We spend over ?50 billion, which is more than any

:08:02.:08:09.

other OECD country of our equivalent size, such as Germany.

:08:10.:08:11.

I'm proud of that, by the way, and even under

:08:12.:08:16.

these changes, we will continue to see spending on PIP rise every

:08:17.:08:19.

year all the way to the end of this Parliament.

:08:20.:08:23.

A report published just yesterday from the Women's Budget

:08:24.:08:26.

Group, highlighted that this Tory Government's policies

:08:27.:08:30.

are predicted to be more regressive even than its coalition predecessor,

:08:31.:08:34.

highlighting that single parent women and single

:08:35.:08:37.

female pensioners will see their standard of living reduced

:08:38.:08:39.

His department's policies are negatively

:08:40.:08:45.

Will he go back to the drawing board to

:08:46.:08:50.

create a social security and pension system that is fair and equitable?

:08:51.:08:54.

It comes a little bit rich from the Scottish Nationalists,

:08:55.:08:59.

who are in government in Scotland, who now face

:09:00.:09:02.

a 15 billion deficit which would have absolutely racked

:09:03.:09:04.

them had they gone for independence and not once

:09:05.:09:06.

do we ever hear about the tough choices they might have to take

:09:07.:09:10.

It is a nonanswer, a nonanswer, a hallmark of this dodgy,

:09:11.:09:13.

Let's see if they can do a bit better with this one.

:09:14.:09:25.

Social Security spending on disabled people, as a percentage of GDP,

:09:26.:09:27.

The Conservative manifesto for the last

:09:28.:09:32.

general election pledged not to cut Social Security support

:09:33.:09:34.

How and why has the Government gone back on this commitment and how much

:09:35.:09:44.

more do they think disabled people will be able to take?

:09:45.:09:50.

We actually spend almost double what the Germans spend.

:09:51.:09:52.

We spend about 6% of our Government spending, which is more

:09:53.:09:56.

than we spent on our police and defence

:09:57.:09:58.

Why does the Government have such a compulsive

:09:59.:10:01.

need to hit out at disabled people at every opportunity?

:10:02.:10:03.

Doesn't he realise how difficult it is for

:10:04.:10:07.

these people to lead their lives and yet, at the same

:10:08.:10:10.

time their income is being undermined by the Government?

:10:11.:10:13.

This can only be described as an ongoing Tory war

:10:14.:10:15.

DWP confirmed last week that less than 365,000

:10:16.:10:22.

people are actually on Universal Credit.

:10:23.:10:24.

A staggeringly pathetic success rate of 4.4%.

:10:25.:10:28.

Isn't the only reason the Government is pushing out

:10:29.:10:34.

Universal Credit now to deliver the tax credit cut that will hit

:10:35.:10:37.

thousands of working families in my constituency?

:10:38.:10:38.

Isn't it time the quiet man went silent on pretending

:10:39.:10:41.

I bet that looked good when he wrote it

:10:42.:10:49.

Mr Speaker, my constituent Nick Dale is 36 years

:10:50.:10:53.

old with a complex range of disabilities.

:10:54.:10:55.

His care package has just been reduced by Cambridge

:10:56.:10:57.

county council from 17 hours a week to six and a half.

:10:58.:11:00.

The council tells him he shouldn't see this negatively

:11:01.:11:02.

but as a way, and I quote, of utilising the strength

:11:03.:11:05.

and resources that he may not realise he has

:11:06.:11:07.

His mother is appalled by his loss and the

:11:08.:11:11.

patronising tone borrowed from the Government.

:11:12.:11:17.

Mr Speaker, if I lift the Secretary of State's wallet in the lobby

:11:18.:11:20.

tonight, would it help him utilise hidden strength he didn't

:11:21.:11:23.

Or would you be as furious as I am about the way Nick

:11:24.:11:27.

The Minister Justin Tomlinson said he would be happy to take a look

:11:28.:11:31.

Plans to reduce subsidies for onshore wind farms should have

:11:32.:11:35.

no effect on business, the energy minister's insisted.

:11:36.:11:38.

The early exit for cash incentives for green energy

:11:39.:11:41.

was removed by peers in the House of Lords

:11:42.:11:43.

but the Government has insisted on the measure,

:11:44.:11:45.

saying it was an election manifesto commitment.

:11:46.:11:49.

But other parties have objected, saying action needs to be taken

:11:50.:11:51.

The SNP have called the move a betrayal,

:11:52.:11:54.

this would not happen when the power

:11:55.:11:57.

The power over the renewables obligation

:11:58.:12:06.

against the explicit undertaking that the Government had given

:12:07.:12:08.

I think there is an element of trust and betrayal of trust that has come

:12:09.:12:16.

That is something that has woven its way through the integrity

:12:17.:12:25.

--That is something that has woven its way through the entirety

:12:26.:12:28.

of the Government's handling of onshore wind and the closure

:12:29.:12:30.

The industry had, for a long period of time, I think,

:12:31.:12:34.

trust in the Government. That trust has vanished.

:12:35.:12:36.

We want to know that the power is there

:12:37.:12:39.

--whether the wind is blowing or not.

:12:40.:12:46.

Whether the sun is shining or not, people expect continuous power

:12:47.:12:49.

to light and power their homes and industry needs continuous power

:12:50.:12:52.

So on all these grounds, wind doesn't cut the mustard,

:12:53.:12:55.

Mr Deputy Speaker, and I'm very glad we now have a Government

:12:56.:12:58.

I think when history comes to be written of the last 15 or 20 years,

:12:59.:13:05.

what the European Union is doing and what the

:13:06.:13:08.

previous Labour Government did on energy policy will go down as one

:13:09.:13:10.

The Government remains committed to end subsidies for onshore wind. I am

:13:11.:13:28.

grateful to my honourable friend for their clear support expressed during

:13:29.:13:32.

this debate. But the Government is also conscious of the need for

:13:33.:13:35.

industry certainty and so, in response to the question from the

:13:36.:13:39.

honourable member for Southampton Test, I would like to make it clear

:13:40.:13:43.

that if Royal Assent for this bill goes beyond the 31st of March, the

:13:44.:13:47.

Government intends that the provisions to come into force from

:13:48.:13:50.

the date of Royal Assent and does not intend to backdate the

:13:51.:13:51.

provisions. That, in each of the last five

:13:52.:13:53.

months, the record for a global temperatures has been broken

:13:54.:14:00.

and every month with February And then this other fact,

:14:01.:14:04.

Mr Deputy Speaker, that atmospheric concentrations

:14:05.:14:10.

of CO2, and it's hard to get your head round this,

:14:11.:14:12.

are now higher than they have been for at least

:14:13.:14:16.

a million years. Because that is what

:14:17.:14:18.

the scientists tell us. The UK's renewable energy

:14:19.:14:22.

potential is vast. The costs of solar and

:14:23.:14:25.

wind power is falling. The need to leave

:14:26.:14:27.

the vast majority of fossil fuel reserves on the ground

:14:28.:14:29.

gets more mainstream by the week. There is no longer a case

:14:30.:14:32.

for using the EU emissions trading system as an excuse

:14:33.:14:35.

for not meeting our own carbon budgets by cutting our own

:14:36.:14:39.

emissions here in the UK. The global carbon budget

:14:40.:14:41.

is rapidly shrinking and there is simply no

:14:42.:14:43.

room for free riders. I think the UK should be leading

:14:44.:14:45.

the race to a zero carbon economy, not weaseling our way out

:14:46.:14:48.

of making a fair contribution. You're watching

:14:49.:14:54.

Monday in Parliament. Still to come - a bit

:14:55.:14:56.

of a depressing thought for anyone I suspect that most members of this

:14:57.:14:59.

House pay more in income tax But first, direct intervention

:15:00.:15:04.

from the Government is needed with South Yorkshire Police

:15:05.:15:12.

to improve the force's handling of cases of child sex abuse,

:15:13.:15:15.

the House of Lords has been told. A Lib Dem peer expressed concern

:15:16.:15:19.

at the way the cases He said the figures

:15:20.:15:22.

spoke for themselves. This has been highlighted

:15:23.:15:26.

by the recent Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary

:15:27.:15:29.

report which said that South Yorkshire Police still needs

:15:30.:15:33.

to make major improvements, and the release on Friday

:15:34.:15:36.

of a BBC report through freedom of information

:15:37.:15:40.

requests of ten forces across the country, that showed that

:15:41.:15:43.

one in five cases that are reported but in South Yorkshire

:15:44.:15:48.

it is one in 16. Very serious claims and,

:15:49.:15:55.

in fact, that report, the HMIC report, at least did point

:15:56.:15:58.

to the fact that there had We have got Professor

:15:59.:16:02.

John Drew, who is looking independently into that,

:16:03.:16:05.

and we will be following very carefully what his responses

:16:06.:16:08.

were, but it is very important that that particular area,

:16:09.:16:12.

which has been the centre of so many of the cases,

:16:13.:16:15.

has the public confidence, and I know that is something we will

:16:16.:16:21.

be watching very carefully indeed. An independent peer also raised

:16:22.:16:25.

the importance of good structures. Is the Minister aware

:16:26.:16:28.

that there are a large number of different models being

:16:29.:16:31.

tried across the country of cooperation between

:16:32.:16:34.

the police and other agencies? Indeed, my own county of Norfolk

:16:35.:16:37.

is attempting to put services closely together and I am grateful

:16:38.:16:42.

for the investigation into the local boards,

:16:43.:16:46.

but what is the Government doing to ensure that the practice

:16:47.:16:50.

is pooled together, and that the best practice

:16:51.:16:54.

is promulgated right Lord Bates said this was vital work

:16:55.:16:58.

to prevent abuse in the future. The Government's been accused

:16:59.:17:04.

of cutting off its nose to spite its face by pushing away

:17:05.:17:07.

Muslim charities best placed to offer aid to victims

:17:08.:17:10.

of the refugee crisis. Two former international

:17:11.:17:13.

development secretaries, from very different ends

:17:14.:17:16.

of the political spectrum, came together to tell

:17:17.:17:18.

MPs change was needed. The Muslim community

:17:19.:17:22.

tends to be big givers, so there's tens, indeed,

:17:23.:17:25.

hundreds of millions of pounds donated, mostly to Muslim charities,

:17:26.:17:28.

not exclusively by Muslims but overwhelmingly,

:17:29.:17:32.

and not working exclusively, either, in the Muslim

:17:33.:17:35.

world, but predominantly, because of where the

:17:36.:17:37.

crises are currently. And since Islamic Relief,

:17:38.:17:41.

which is the oldest and biggest and the one which I think

:17:42.:17:45.

both of us know best because it was in Birmingham

:17:46.:17:48.

and we worked with them when we were in Government,

:17:49.:17:51.

was listed in, I think, an Israeli Ministry of Defence list

:17:52.:17:56.

of questionable NGOs or something, Suddenly in Britain, and DFI,

:17:57.:18:02.

they were pushing them away and, as someone said to me,

:18:03.:18:09.

if Oxfam or something got criticised by a foreign Government,

:18:10.:18:14.

you would expect our Government to say, what is it?

:18:15.:18:18.

There was no detail. And look into it and try

:18:19.:18:20.

and sort it rather than say, oh, well, some people don't

:18:21.:18:24.

like you so we will push you away. These Muslim charities

:18:25.:18:28.

are doing fantastic work. They can often get to places that

:18:29.:18:30.

others simply cannot reach, and they are very heavily supported

:18:31.:18:34.

within the United Kingdom. ?300 million has been donated

:18:35.:18:38.

from amongst British Muslims, and we saw for ourselves the way

:18:39.:18:46.

this was going into extremely difficult and troubled places,

:18:47.:18:49.

keeping displaced people alive. And we need to give this

:18:50.:18:54.

very strong support, and Britain has been right

:18:55.:18:56.

at the front in terms of using our taxpayers' money to help

:18:57.:18:59.

dispossessed people and, in a way, we are sort of cutting

:19:00.:19:04.

off our nose to spite our face if we are not supporting those

:19:05.:19:08.

British charities which are Andrew Mitchell said the whole point

:19:09.:19:10.

of humanitarian support was that it was offered to everyone,

:19:11.:19:17.

regardless of who they were. Those very brave people,

:19:18.:19:22.

who are humanitarian actors, who are taking relief,

:19:23.:19:25.

and help and support, to those who are desperately

:19:26.:19:27.

in peril, The best example of this, of course,

:19:28.:19:31.

is the International Red Cross. But they are there purely

:19:32.:19:37.

to help people whose... And, therefore, by placing them

:19:38.:19:40.

in a position which one of them, when we were there, referred

:19:41.:19:46.

to as the Guantanamo Bay danger, which is that you are photographed

:19:47.:19:50.

and in the background Or you are in an area

:19:51.:19:53.

and get hoovered up because you are in the wrong

:19:54.:20:00.

place at the wrong time, and find yourself somewhere

:20:01.:20:02.

you don't want to be, so there is a real danger to some

:20:03.:20:04.

of these humanitarian actors that this terrorist legislation

:20:05.:20:07.

not only restricts their financing but actually places an added burden

:20:08.:20:11.

upon them, when they are doing dangerous and difficult work

:20:12.:20:15.

relieving people in very difficult circumstances, and that, too,

:20:16.:20:19.

needs to be addressed. The UK NGOs are procuring

:20:20.:20:22.

and bringing stuff right up to the border and then

:20:23.:20:25.

handing it over. It is Syrians who are doing

:20:26.:20:27.

the delivery inside, and it was one of them, a doctor,

:20:28.:20:29.

who said, sometimes they will end up

:20:30.:20:38.

in Guantanamo, which is shocking and outrageous, when

:20:39.:20:40.

they are trying to, So, yes, there was this

:20:41.:20:42.

feeling that they were... They were being accused,

:20:43.:20:45.

that they were suspects. If they help people in areas

:20:46.:20:48.

controlled by groups they might get themselves

:20:49.:20:53.

into difficulty. "We are doing it anyway,"

:20:54.:20:56.

but some sort of resentment And I think it is both inefficient

:20:57.:21:01.

and it's not the way to make friends It wasn't just because they

:21:02.:21:07.

were a Muslim charity, or indeed based

:21:08.:21:10.

in Birmingham, that they became a big partner

:21:11.:21:11.

when I was working It was because they were willing

:21:12.:21:18.

to work with quality in really difficult areas like the Kashmir

:21:19.:21:23.

border with Azad Kashmir, for example, where there

:21:24.:21:25.

are refugees and it is And I should say, because,

:21:26.:21:27.

after 9/11, anything with Islam or Muslim in its title gets sniffed

:21:28.:21:34.

at, I did ask our security services Oh, right, yeah.

:21:35.:21:40.

So, I mean, that isn't there. At the end, the chairman

:21:41.:21:46.

of the International Development Committee, Stephen Twigg, said

:21:47.:21:48.

he would take the issue forward. Taxpayers are running out

:21:49.:21:52.

of patience with large companies minimising their tax bills,

:21:53.:21:54.

a Labour peer has told the Lords. The Government was being asked

:21:55.:21:59.

about confidentiality in the tax Several household names were held up

:22:00.:22:01.

as examples of organisations but ministers were mindful that,

:22:02.:22:07.

in budget week, everyone's looking for a hint of

:22:08.:22:11.

what policies are to come. Taxpayers have confidence

:22:12.:22:15.

that the sensitive information they give the HMRC will be

:22:16.:22:18.

protected, and this trust underpins the high

:22:19.:22:21.

levels of voluntary tax compliance So, the public benefit of taxpayer

:22:22.:22:25.

confidentiality lies in the overall effectiveness of the tax

:22:26.:22:32.

administration that I can't for the life of me

:22:33.:22:35.

understand the Minister's answer, Surely we have to seek the right

:22:36.:22:41.

balance between confidentiality and surely transparency in our tax

:22:42.:22:48.

returns would add to the integrity of the tax system

:22:49.:22:56.

and ensure that the HMRC had I suspect that most members of this

:22:57.:22:59.

house pay more in income tax There is a debate to be had

:23:00.:23:04.

about greater transparency, whether on part of HMRC or on part

:23:05.:23:10.

of large businesses, and the Government signalled this

:23:11.:23:13.

by proposing recently to take forward a system of country

:23:14.:23:19.

by country reporting for large but, within that,

:23:20.:23:21.

we think that confidentiality... There are good reasons

:23:22.:23:28.

for having confidentiality, It promotes voluntary compliance

:23:29.:23:31.

and it encourages businesses to be more open and share

:23:32.:23:41.

proprietary information Public patience with large

:23:42.:23:43.

companies, and particularly multinationals, getting away

:23:44.:23:48.

with paying minuscule amounts of tax in relation to the turnovers that

:23:49.:23:52.

they have in the United Kingdom, Surely it does mean

:23:53.:23:57.

that the Government should be addressing why it is that HMRC

:23:58.:24:02.

were unable to get more than ?130 million out

:24:03.:24:06.

of Google over a decade when, in fact, Google had turnovers

:24:07.:24:12.

of over ?4 billion in any one year. And, as we know, my Lords,

:24:13.:24:17.

Google is not the only case. Starbucks and, of course, Amazon,

:24:18.:24:21.

were brought to book by public response because the public set

:24:22.:24:25.

about boycotting their businesses Surely the Government must recognise

:24:26.:24:30.

that to just hide behind the doctrine of confidentiality

:24:31.:24:35.

will not do, and the tax authorities have got to be much more efficient

:24:36.:24:39.

than they have been in the past. I do not think it is true

:24:40.:24:43.

that they are hiding The doctrine of confidentiality

:24:44.:24:47.

that you mentioned was passed by the Labour Government

:24:48.:24:51.

under the act in 2005. And, as for Google, which is not

:24:52.:24:55.

the subject of this question, as the noble lord should know,

:24:56.:24:58.

if he doesn't know, the tax that Google paid was based on taxable

:24:59.:25:03.

profits, not on turnover. Wouldn't the Minister agree that

:25:04.:25:09.

a company's tax should not be determined by the attitude

:25:10.:25:12.

of its PR department or even The HMRC needs to put

:25:13.:25:16.

in place tough standards, so will this Government review

:25:17.:25:22.

the structure of business taxes so that global businesses cannot use

:25:23.:25:26.

tax manipulation as a way to out-compete domestic businesses

:25:27.:25:31.

and small businesses My Lords, the budget

:25:32.:25:35.

is on Wednesday. I am not going to talk

:25:36.:25:38.

about tax policy. Keith Macdougall's here

:25:39.:25:41.

for the rest of the week

:25:42.:25:46.

Download Subtitles

SRT

ASS