Schedule 13 - Tax relief for expenditure on vaccine research etc
Finance Bill
9:45 am
Mr Paul Boateng (Financial Secretary, HM Treasury; Brent South, Labour)
The measures are as likely to be refused by the Commission as the hon. Gentleman is to disappear into the ether. We can be absolutely sure that both of them will be around for a considerable time. I hope—with my assurance of his fate as well as
the fate of the measures—that the hon. Gentleman will not feel the need for me to give him such an undertaking.
No one can doubt the commitment of the House and the Government to the cause of development aid and global health. I have every confidence that the Commission will give the necessary approvals as the measures are consistent with Community objectives. Therefore, the scenario that the hon. Gentleman paints, in which it is necessary to fill the gap with grants, will not occur.