Clause 47
Finance Bill
9:45 am
Mark Hoban (Shadow Minister, Treasury; Fareham, Conservative)
The clause has found widespread support within the insurance sector. There was a differential in the tax treatment of equalisation reserves between conventional insurance companies and those people who participated at Lloyd’s, particularly the corporate partnership members. The clause tries to address an important issue that has emerged over the past couple of years: for a certain group of reinsurers, it has become increasingly more attractive, for tax and regulatory reasons, to move their redomicile activities from the UK to Bermuda. The clause should help to redress some of the competitive issues. Will the Minster say a little more about what else the Government are doing to address the competitive challenge that exists in reinsurance, because London has been seen as the primary insurance market? Lloyd’s has a strong brand globally and is an important part of our financial services sector, but there has been that shift from London to Bermuda, and several people have questioned whether the Government are doing enough to reverse that move.