§ Mr. Gordon Wilsonasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what measures the Government have taken in the past two years to encourage schemes of employee share ownership in industry; if he will publish figures to illustrate this; and what percentage of the schemes involves voting shares.
§ Mr. Peter Rees[pursuant to his reply, 29 June 1981, c. 249]: In last year's Finance Act we expanded the tax reliefs available for profit sharing schemes approved under the Finance Act 1978 and introduced a new relief for employees who participate in approved savings-related share option schemes. It is difficult to gauge the effect of last year's measures precisely, but the level of applications for approval of schemes continues to be encouraging. The Inland Revenue estimates that more than 90 per cent. of the schemes involve voting shares.