Schedule 23 - Corporation tax relief for employee share acquisition

Part of Finance Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 3:15 pm on 12 June 2003.

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Photo of Dawn Primarolo Dawn Primarolo Paymaster General (HM Treasury) 3:15, 12 June 2003

There is obviously a lesson here for me: do not try to be helpful to the hon. Gentleman.

I was more than surprised by the comments of the right hon. Member for Fylde. I would not care to go through the debates on previous Finance Bills and see how many times he came down on the side of parliamentary draftsmen. Of course I take responsibility for the matter, so let us try another way. Not only is the amendment not needed, but to make it work would require changes in a large number of other areas. New rules would have to be introduced into schedule 22. I was trying to be kind to the hon. Member for Eddisbury. Not only is the amendment unnecessary; it does not even work and would require more changes to schedule 22, which would make the provision more complicated.