Budget Resolutions 2006 — Remove Income tax exemption for computer equipment — 28 Mar 2006 at 22:00

Stewart Jackson MP, Peterborough voted in the minority (No).

The majority Aye voters passed a measure to remove the income tax exemption for computer equipment.

In 2003 the government passed the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act. Section 320 of this Act gave an income tax exemption for computer equipment. The aim of this measure was to promote household computer use by encouraging employers to loan computers to employees.

In the debate the government chose to remove this exemption for the following reasons[1]:

  • 'The changes have been made to ensure better targeting of resources to meet the Government's objective of improving access to technology. The home computer initiative was never intended to subsidise those who can already afford computers. Exemptions were being used, contrary to the original intention, for second personal computers and, indeed, for games consoles. There has been a huge fall in computer prices since 1999, and the Government want to focus resources on those who would not otherwise be able to gain access to a computer to increase their IT literacy skills. In addition, computer ownership has risen from 28 per cent. to 60 per cent.'

However, both the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives were against the motion[2]:

  • 'I hope that he will say that my party will vote against resolution 26 on income tax and computer equipment, which withdraws the tax allowance to encourage employees to work from home... the relief was introduced only three years ago by the Chancellor, and it hits a number of buttons. It promotes a better work-life balance, reduces the need to commute and travel into the office, and promotes a wider understanding of IT through having more equipment in the home. I cannot understand why, at two weeks' notice, against a background of the Department of Trade and Industry promoting the scheme on its website, it is suddenly to be withdrawn.'

This measure eventually became law on 19 July 2006 when the Finance (No. 2) Bill 2006 received Royal Assent.

The Finance Bill set the government's budget for the 2006/2007 financial year.

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Debate in Parliament | Source |

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Party Summary

Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.

What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.

What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.

What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.

PartyMajority (Aye)Minority (No)BothTurnout
Con0 182 (+2 tell)093.9%
DUP0 7077.8%
Lab322 (+2 tell) 0091.8%
LDem0 61096.8%
PC0 30100.0%
SDLP3 00100.0%
SNP0 5083.3%
UUP0 10100.0%
Total:325 259092.7%

Rebel Voters - sorted by party

MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division

Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote

NameConstituencyPartyVote
no rebellions

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