Clause 12 - Subscription limits
Child Trust Funds Bill
9:30 am
Ms Ruth Kelly (Financial Secretary, HM Treasury; Bolton West, Labour)
The hon. Gentleman makes a good point, and it is fairly straightforward to provide a reasonable valuation in the case of quoted shares. However, in the case of unquoted shares not only is it difficult to provide a valuation but in many instances it is easy to manipulate their value once the valuation has been made, to pump value into them. I am advised by the Inland Revenue that it would therefore be necessary to back up the legislation with a raft of anti-avoidance measures to ensure that parents did not use that device to conceal the value from the Revenue. Furthermore, having tested out the appetite of providers for accepting shares and gilts, we find that it is limited; they think that it is likely to be an extremely small market, only at the higher end. We should also bear it in mind that, particularly through the stakeholder account, we are trying to achieve an account that is risk controlled and works to the advantage of the child.