Clause 10 - Further contributions by Inland Revenue
Child Trust Funds Bill
5:00 pm
Ms Ruth Kelly (Financial Secretary, HM Treasury; Bolton West, Labour)
It is always good to have a real debate in Committee. As the child trust fund develops there will be conflicting arguments about how it could be used in future. As far as I am aware, we are the first country that intends to introduce a nationwide policy of this sort. I welcome the fact that there is active debate about how it could be developed, and I am pleased that the hon. Member for Tatton is quoting my evidence to the Treasury Committee back at me so often.
There have been gatherings of people who are interested in the policy and who have tried to think through how it might apply more widely in future. One idea is to use the policy to promote voluntary activity among young people. However, I put it to the Committee that the young people that we are talking about will not be doing voluntary work for some time yet. It would be premature to commit to such a policy while we assess the merits of arguments, such as that of the hon. Member for Yeovil, about whether it would really encourage the voluntary spirit or whether it would act against it.
If we were to encourage credits to be given for voluntary work, there would be no need for the Revenue to be involved; the proposal made by the hon. Member for Tatton is unnecessarily restrictive. If charitable organisations want to arrange for credits to be given to children who participate in voluntary work, nothing in the regulations prevents them from doing that.
With the child trust funds, we have set out a foundation on which we shall build, and I look forward to further debate on the subject, but, for the reasons that I have set out, I urge the hon. Gentleman to withdraw his amendment.