Clause 28
Finance (No. 2) Bill
12:15 pm
Brooks Newmark (Braintree, Conservative)
At the end of last year, the then Minister for Competitiveness, the hon. Member for Brent, North (Barry Gardiner), said of the R and D tax credit:
“The truth is that it hasn't been a success. A lot of it has to do with a misunderstanding of what the R&D baselines were. We are trying to iron that out.”
While I appreciate that clause 28 will take out a wrinkle by including payments to clinical trial volunteers, does the Financial Secretary agree that the Government have some more ironing to do? I ask that question in the context of a comment by John Cridland, deputy director general of the CBI, who said:
“Companies are experiencing too much uncertainty and inconsistency in its application. That has to change if the Government is to achieve its target of R&D spending at 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2014.”
I would be interested to hear the Financial Secretary’s comments on that.