Clause 6 - Road fuel gas
Finance Bill
10:15 am
Mr Andrew Tyrie (Chichester, Conservative)
We have a battery of clauses on hydrocarbons coming up, and I shall not make many general comments about them, except to say that it seems to me that the underlying purpose of virtually all of them is to raise revenue. We had a reminder yesterday that the Transport Minister wants to tax people out of their cars.
I have taken a close look at the clauses and my impression is that, when one scratches the surface, one finds that many of the environmental arguments are slightly less rigorous than they initially appear. We have already had a good canter around clause 5 on the Floor of the House. I should at this point alert the Committee to my interests, which are listed in the Register of Members' Interests. As far as I am aware, none could possibly be said to conflict with the clause or any other clause that will be considered in Committee. I worked for BP some 20 years ago, so I have a vague idea about these hydrocarbon clauses and I have reacquainted myself with some of the terms over the past few days.