Ninth Special Report - Venture Capital: Government Response to the Committee's Nineteenth Report

This is the government's response, published 20 October 2023.

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

HM Treasury agrees that the EIS and VCT sunset clauses should be extended and that diversity data could be improved, but disagrees with making diversity data a condition of eligibility or with extending the company age and funding limits.

• On the sunset clauses, the Chancellor has stated his "firm intention" to extend the schemes beyond 6 April 2025, and HM Treasury "will provide further details on the schemes beyond 2025 at a future fiscal event".
• HM Treasury agrees that diversity data transparency and consistency could be improved and "will explore ways" to achieve this, but "does not agree" that eligibility for the schemes should be contingent on providing it.
• On a 'comply or explain' policy for the Investing in Women Code and Women in Finance Charter, the government "remains to be convinced" it should apply to EIS, SEIS and VCT eligibility, noting the British Business Bank already operates such an approach for its applicants.
• HM Treasury "is not convinced" that extending company age limits is the best way to support regional funding, and "disagrees" with consulting on higher funding limits, citing the risk of displacing investment from smaller companies.

Read the government's response ↗ Report an error