Speeches by Yang.

“Just to go a bit deeper, Dr Bertram, how would increasing taxation on online gambling decrease the social harms? What would be the mechanism, in terms of the price or market response?”

“Mr Kenny, you have had a long career in the gambling industry, having co-founded Paddy Power several decades ago, and you have seen the growth of the industry. Do you also believe that different parts of the industry have different levels of harm? Do you think that there are some parts of the industry that are riper fo…”

“Dr Bertram, your organisation, the Social Market Foundation, also believes that gambling is undertaxed. You have made an estimate of the harm that gambling does through problem gambling. Would raising tax on gambling lower the social harms associated, and if so, how?”

“Mr Jung, your organisation, the IPPR, has said that gambling is undertaxed. Last year, the effective levy across the whole gambling industry was 22%. Could you set out why you think that rate is too low?”

“I have heard from local residents, as well as local refugee charities in Reading, who are all calling for the use of hotels to house asylum seekers to end as soon as possible. That practice began five years ago as a result of the previous Government’s irresponsible build-up of the backlog of claims. Will the Leader of …”

“Professor Blyth, you mentioned in your questionnaire that you have been particularly interested in the complex dynamics of the gilt market—a particular interest that I think we all now share in the UK. Could you speak a little about what you see as the main vulnerabilities in the gilt market, and whether you think that…”

“Is there a world in which we need more of that extreme case modelling to be better supervisors, better regulators?”

“You mentioned the liability-driven investment crisis that happened in late 2022. Have we—has the FPC—learned the right lessons from that crisis?”

“When you talk about the increased risk premia of UK gilts, how much of that is still down to the damage done by the 2022 Truss Budget that you mentioned, and how much is down to fresh factors since then?”

“Last month, I held a SEND community consultation in south-east Reading in my constituency, attended by over 60 parents, children and local experts. We all agreed that the current system is broken, and one of the young people, Megan, spoke about the feeling of being let down by the system and constantly fighting a never…”

“On that final point made by Professor Advani, in the summer our sister Committee, the Public Accounts Committee, reported that HMRC does not know how many billionaires pay tax currently in the UK. Why is HMRC in that position and how quickly can it be fixed?”

“There is some nodding in the panel. Is the panel in furious agreement, or does anyone want to add anything?”

“Do you think such a shift should be implemented via a tax switch? If so—I appreciate that this is a slightly philosophical question—do you think that such a switch would break Labour’s manifesto promises?”

“The previous Treasury Committee wrote a report about tax reliefs; there are over 100 non-structural tax reliefs, costing roughly the equivalent of the NHS budget each year. I have a question for anyone on the panel: how have we come up with so many tax reliefs? And is there any evidence out there that they do what they…”

“I am going to move from the countryside to our towns and cities, and I will talk about rental profits. Ms Curtis, the Resolution Foundation has suggested broadly shifting from national insurance to income tax to create a more level playing field between different types of income. What would be the impacts on growth and…”

“Does the panel feel that HMRC is underequipped at present to administrate a modern tax system?”

“Is your proposal the equalisation of those rates with income tax?”

“What kind of fixing needs to be done?”

“Turning to wealth taxes—a topic that has come up very frequently recently—Professor Advani, you were part of the commission on wealth taxes a few years ago. Could you start off by just describing what wealth taxes are and why the commission came to the conclusion that we should fix our current wealth taxes in the UK?”

“Mr Neidle?”