• Ed Davey: Exempt social care from National Insurance tax hike
• Budget: online gambling tax “a missed opportunity” for fairer NHS and care funding
• Govt makes new commitment to create a ‘national cancer plan’ at Lib Dem led debate
• Scot Lib Dems respond to government ditching pilot of juryless trials

Ed Davey: Exempt social care from National Insurance tax hike

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey has called on the government to exempt social care from the employer’s National Insurance tax rise.

The Chancellor has provided extra funding for the NHS and other public sector organisations to cover the cost of the tax rise. However, the vast majority of care providers are private and so won’t benefit from this help.

98% of care providers – 18,000 organisations – are small employers. The Liberal Democrats have said care providers including care homes and those providing care in people’s homes should be exempt from the National Insurance tax hike.

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

Hammering small businesses with a tax hike is the wrong choice. It will hit people’s wages and jobs, but it also risks worsening the NHS crisis by hiking costs for care providers and pushing some to the brink.

It just shows that yet again the government seems to have forgotten about care. At the very least, the Chancellor should be exempting social care from this costly jobs tax.

Budget: online gambling tax “a missed opportunity” for fairer NHS and care funding

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey is calling on the Government to double the tax on online gambling firms as a “much fairer” way to raise money for the NHS and social care.

IAccording to analysis by the Social Market Foundation, published before the Budget, doubling the rate of Remote Gaming Duty would raise between £575 million and £900 million a year, depending on how much the higher rate reduces online gambling. This is far more than the Treasury expects to raise by cutting inheritance tax relief for family farms.

There was speculation that the Chancellor might increase the duty in the Budget, but she did not make any changes to gambling taxes. Instead, the Budget only announced a consultation on “proposals to bring remote gambling into a single tax … to simplify, future-proof and close loopholes in the system.”

Online gambling revenues increased to £6.5 billion in 2022-23, according to figures from the Gambling Commission. Around 300,000 adults in Britain experience problem gambling, as well as roughly 40,000 children.

Public Health England has estimated that gambling costs the UK economy around £1.4 billion a year, through a combination of financial harms and the impact on physical and mental health, employment, education and crime.

Ed Davey, Leader of the Liberal Democrats, said:

Hundreds of thousands of lives have been devastated by problem gambling – now driven mainly by online casino-style games.

This Budget was a missed opportunity to double Remote Gaming Duty, combating the harms of problem gambling while raising money for our NHS and social care. This would have been much fairer than hitting hardworking families, small businesses and family farms.

Instead, the Government has kicked the can down the road again. Liberal Democrats will continue to urge Ministers to stop dithering and act now, before more lives are ruined.

Govt makes new commitment to create a ‘national cancer plan’ at Lib Dem led debate

Care Minister Stephen Kinnock has today made a new commitment to a “national cancer plan” during a Westminster Hall debate led by Clive Jones, Liberal Democrat MP for Wokingham.

At the debate, Kinnock said that “there does now need to be a national cancer plan” and that the government was in discussions over what form that plan should take. The Minister said that it will be put together after the government publishes its 10 year plan for the NHS in the spring of 2025.

The Liberal Democrats are calling for work on the plan to begin “immediately” and that it should include a guarantee for patients to begin cancer treatment within 62-days of a referral.

Liberal Democrat MP for Wokingham, Clive Jones said:

Receiving a cancer diagnosis is one of the most devastating and shocking moments a person can experience.

After years of Conservative neglect of our health service, sadly many now in this position find the care that they desperately need just is not there.

That is why it is welcome that the government has listened to the Liberal Democrats and will bring forward a national cancer plan to look at these issues.

The government should begin work on this plan immediately and include the Liberal Democrat call for cancer patients to have a legal guarantee to start treatment within 62-days of an urgent referral.

Scot Lib Dems respond to government ditching pilot of juryless trials

Responding to the news that the Scottish Government is ditching its plans for a pilot of juryless trials, Scottish Liberal Democrat justice spokesperson Liam McArthur MSP said:

It has been clear for a long time that operating a pilot for juryless trials would face considerable challenges, not least because of the difficulties in obtaining the agreement of those affected and the lack of clarity around what a ‘successful’ pilot looks like.

The Justice Secretary’s decision to pare back this bill to areas where there is a consensus is the right one. This was a bill seeking to do too much all at once and risking causing more problems for a system that is already struggling to cope with years of SNP government cuts to justice budgets.