asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what response he has received to the proposals for profit-related pay announced in his Budget.

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what response he has received to the proposals for profit-related pay announced in his Budget.

I am glad to say that over 3,500 employers have registered their interest in profit-related pay with the Inland Revenue.

Is not the attraction of profit-related pay much the same as privatisation to those who work in the industries? It gives them a share in the industries and a share in the profitability of the industry in which they work.

Yes, I believe that my hon. Friend is right. Indeed, I would go further and say that there are two distinct benefits that arise from profit-related pay. The first is the greater interest that employees have in the profitability of their company and the better labour relations that stem from that. The second is the greater degree of flexibility that is introduced into the pay system. One of the big problems in this country has been an excessively rigid pay system. Therefore, I am particularly glad that as many as 3,500 employers, many of them large employers, have already registered their interest in profit-related pay with the Inland Revenue.

Mr. Soames.

He is not here.

Mr. Skinner.

Ever present.

Now that the Chancellor seems to be in full stride regarding profit-related pay, will he answer the question that has been put to us continually by the lobbies of the nurses and the other Health Service workers? How could the nurses, ill-paid as they are, obtain any benefit from the profit-related pay system that the Chancellor keeps bandying about?

Nurses should benefit considerably from the reduction in the basic rate of income tax by 2p in the pound, which the hon. Gentleman and his hon. Friends voted against yesterday.