Column Number: 176Schedule 10 - Schedule 10 - Amendment of enactments that operate by reference to accounting practice
Finance Bill (except clauses 4, 5, 20, 28, 57 to 77, 86, 111 and 282 to 289, and schedules 1, 3, 11, 12, 21 and 37 to 39)
2:30 pm
Mr Quentin Davies (Grantham and Stamford, Conservative)
I am grateful to the Economic Secretary for that assurance and for his acknowledgment that I was right in saying that the matter had not been raised on Tuesday. We have set the record straight.
However, as a matter of principle, the fact that wording is standard should not mean that it is not open to challenge during annual passage of the Finance Bill. The whole purpose of this exercise, which you, Mr. McWilliam, and many colleagues who are more distinguished than I spend many hours on every summer, is to expose to public scrutiny and debate the Taxes Acts. As it is the only opportunity that we have to do so, it would be contrary to the role of Parliament if the notion that is implicit in what the Economic Secretary just said were to become accepted in this Committee— that, because a piece of wording is standard, it is no longer open to challenge or even subject to explanation by the Government.