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Small Businesses

My Lords, I cannot speak on behalf of HMRC in indicating that large back payments could be delayed, let alone waived. However, I made the statement that I did about the sensitivity that the Revenue is displaying towards businesses. Obviously, there will be all the greater need for that sensitivity in the economic climate that we are moving into. On the noble Lord’s second question—if I may, I shall come back to him subsequently on his last question concerning replacement staff, because I do not have the information—as part of the recapitalisation, RBS, HBOS and Lloyds TSB committed to, "““maintain the availability and active marketing of competitively priced lending to SMEs at a level at least equivalent to that of 2007””." That is not to say that the volume of lending will be the same because, as I said, that depends as much on the quality and quantity of demand as it does on the supply of lending. We expect that banks accessing the scheme will need to review their business strategies in order to take account of the recapitalisations and the commitments that they have made. We look forward to the outcomes of this work.