I am very grateful to the noble Baroness for her kind words. We are setting out these changes now to ensure that more pensioners are able to receive support this winter. That is important. As she knows, we have moved to just one fiscal event a year, so, as is now normal, these changes will be fully …
My Lords, the noble Baroness says that growth was anaemic under this Government. As I said before, the UK was ranked seventh out of seven for projected 2025 growth when this Government took power but is now the fastest-growing economy in the G7. We all know what the Tory record on growth was; had th…
On the first half of the noble Baroness’s question, as she knows, as part of the changes to national insurance, the Government recognised the need to protect the smallest businesses and charities, which is why we more than doubled the employment allowance to £10,500, meaning that more than half of b…
I thank the noble Baroness for her speech and those questions. These are important regulations which clarify the situation we have lived under over the last few years, as far as this issue is concerned.
On the several points and questions she has raised, I will answer the last one first, which was …
I think these regulations help clarify all that. As far as small and medium-sized businesses are concerned, the Treasury Select Committee published figures in 2024 on the termination of business accounts in 2023. They were sourced from eight UK banks. The Treasury estimates that, on average, around …
My Lords, I shall also briefly support this amendment. The noble Lord, Lord Faulkner of Worcester, has made the case very well, well supported by my friend Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay. The noble Lord., Lord Faulkner, will recall how we worked together to save Thomas the Tank Engine when we were ha…
I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Neville-Rolfe, and my noble friend Lord Davies of Brixton for their contributions and questions. First, to answer them both, one thing that the Government are after is growth, obviously, but the other thing is financial stability; both of their contributions referred…
Basically, what we are doing is maintaining the status quo. Things have been like this for several years now; we are just ensuring that the status quo continues into the future. We will review it if we need to, such as if the dynamics in the market change, but what we are offering is consistency for…
My Lords, the Statement given in the other place yesterday made many references to the benefits of growth, and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury could hardly contain his excitement when he said that increases in regional productivity could grow the economy significantly. We on this side of the Hou…
I agree with the noble Baroness. As I said previously, the Government have made it very clear that we consider defence an ethical investment. We do not see a conflict between sustainable investment and investment in our world-leading defence sector, and at a time of increasing geopolitical instabili…
My Lords, I am sorry not to have been able to speak at Second Reading, but I take a great interest in the effectiveness of public services and improving them where we can. I was sorry that there was not much discussion that day of the importance of information-sharing across agencies involved in soc…
Could the Minister perhaps show us an example of the kind of guidance that is already given to a childminder or a small primary school? Presumably that is going to be enhanced—I think she said that earlier. Are there, say, 30 questions? Is it just a small form? Is there an online option? Generation …
My Lords, I rise to speak to Amendments 105 to 107 and 109 to 112 in my name, and I am delighted to have the support of my noble friend Lady Noakes and the noble Lords, Lord Morse and Lord Vaux of Harrowden, who has already spoken so eloquently as the mover of the first amendment in the group.
I ag…
I am not sure that I agree. I have sat on a German company. Growth is very poor in Germany at the moment. A company I worked in exited France because of the difficulty with employment protections. Employment protection is not the only issue we are talking about. In my opinion, we are trying to find …
My Lords, it is disappointing that UK pension funds now invest only around 4.4% in British assets, in contrast to between 12% and 18% in Canada. That is no longer good value, given the scale of tax reliefs in the UK. Equally, a mandatory backstop, as apparently favoured by the Chancellor, is hard to…
My Lords, I will speak primarily to pay tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Owen of Alderley Edge. We need to be crystal clear that we would not be here and we would not have come as far as we have—notwithstanding residual concerns—but for her work. Her entry into your Lordships’ House was greeted b…
My Lords, I again thank all noble Lords for their efforts on the Bill since July last year, and all noble Lords who have spoken in this brief debate today. I am also grateful to all three noble Lords for indicating that they will not oppose the Bill further. I will briefly attempt to respond to the …
My Lords, I will ask one simple question: what is flexible working? Perhaps the Minister could reply to that. I have a lot of sympathy with what has been said; I have always encouraged people who want to work part time, dual workers and so on. I have worked at a senior level in business and in gover…
No. The analysis undertaken by CBI Economics is not robust nor representative. It is based on a self-selecting survey from members of groups campaigning against these reforms. The independent Office for Budget Responsibility certified the costing at the Budget in October. The reforms to agricultural…