House of Lords – Call for Evidence – update

We were delighted to be invited to provide oral evidence to the House of Lords Economic Affairs Sub-Committee on 13 November 2023.

Having provided written evidence to address the questions posed by the Committee, we attended in person to present our views and explain changes that we considered critical to moving forward in the right way with the proposed merged R&D Expenditure Credit scheme for both SMEs and large companies. Also on the table was a discussion on proposals for a separate scheme for R&D intensive loss-making SMEs.

There appeared to be consensus amongst those providing evidence around the critical aspects of the draft legislation on the merged RDEC scheme, primarily around whether the changes represent a simplification to the existing regimes and, most importantly, around the matter of who gets the relief in situations where work is contracted from one party to another.

The Autumn Statement has already addressed some of the key points raised in evidence and the Autumn Finance Bill will provide more detail in due course.