Dawn Primarolo (Paymaster General, HM Treasury; Bristol South, Labour)

I beg to move,

That during proceedings on the Finance (No. 2) Bill (except Clauses 13 to 15, 26, 61, 91 and 106, Schedule 14, and new Clauses relating to the effect of provisions of the Bill on section 18 of the Inheritance Tax Act 1984), the Committee do meet at half-past Ten o'clock and half-past Four o'clock on Tuesdays, and five minutes past Nine o'clock and half-past Four o'clock on Tuesdays, and five minutes past Nine o'clock and a quarter to Two o'clock on Thursdays, when the House is sitting.

On behalf of the Committee, Mr. O’Hara, I warmly welcome you and your co-Chairmen, Sir John andMr. Benton. You are all experienced and knowledgeable, and I am sure that you will keep us in order. We look forward to your expertise and are confident that our deliberations will be both thorough and relevant. I extend a warm welcome to the hon. Member for Chipping Barnet (Mrs. Villiers) who will lead for the Opposition in Committee and to the members of her team, the hon. Members for Rayleigh (Mr. Francois) and for Fareham (Mr. Hoban), and those who support them.

I welcome Mr. Cranmer, the Clerk to the Committee. I am pleased that we shall benefit again from his significant experience of Finance Bills. I also welcome the Hansard staff, as I do the hon. Member for Falmouth and Camborne (Julia Goldsworthy) and her Liberal Democrat colleagues. I am pleased to see the hon. Member for Dundee, East (Stewart Hosie). He has been assiduous on the Floor of the House. No doubt he will welcome his happy and long stint in Committee, but perhaps he can tell me about that at the end of our proceedings.

I will be supported in Committee by the Financial Secretary and the newly appointed Economic Secretary, who is truly looking forward to being here every Tuesday and Thursday—morning and afternoon. That will come as news to him. Given that my hon. Friends will follow our proceedings in great detail, I hope that they will not be disappointed. The good news is that we have only one Finance Bill this year, not two—or three Bills, as we had last year. I look forward to our debates in the coming weeks. I hope that we can conduct ourselves in an appropriate manner, being pressing in debate, but always remaining civil. We shall need to behave in such a way to get through the proceedings and for the sake of our sanity.

Theresa Villiers (Shadow Chief Secretary To the Treasury, Treasury; Chipping Barnet, Conservative)

I echo the Paymaster General’s welcome to you,Mr. O’Hara, and to your co-Chairmen. My team and I also look forward to working with you, as we do with the right hon. Lady and her team in the constructive and co-operative manner that she has just mentioned. Obviously, we shall make it clear when we disagree with the Government on certain points, but we hope in many instances to table amendments that go more towards ascertaining the meaning of the Bill and teasing out uncertainties, rather than necessarily pushing for a Division and a change in the published Bill.

I also echo the Paymaster General’s welcome to the hon. Members for Falmouth and Camborne and for Dundee, East. I particularly welcome Back Benchers. It is not always considered to be a great privilege to discuss the Finance Bill in Committee, but although it may prove to be a fairly long and gruelling experience, we are well aware of the importance of the task ahead of us. Indeed, as my hon. Friend Member for Rayleigh said a few weeks ago, in the past there has almost been an outbreak of Stockholm syndrome in the Committee as matters become a little eccentric after several weeks discussing the details of United Kingdom financial legislation. With those words, I welcome the sittings motion.

Colin Breed (Shadow Minister, Treasury; South East Cornwall, Liberal Democrat)

I, too, welcome you to the Chair, Mr. O’Hara. I think that my hon. Friend the Member for Falmouth and Camborne has written to you, apologising for not being able to be here this morning due to a prior speaking engagement that she could not get out of.

It is many years since I had the great pleasure of sitting on the Finance Bill Committee and, from my memories, I was not certain that I wanted to renew that experience immediately. However, I look forward to working with Committee members co-operatively on this Bill to try to tease out of the Government some of the important issues that will affect hon. Members, and our constituents, in the months and years to come.

Edward O'Hara (Knowsley South, Labour)

Before we proceed, I have several announcements to make. The Ways and Means and money resolutions agreed by the House and on which the Bill is founded are available in the Room. There has, apparently, been a software bug, which means that the contents pages of the Bill as printed are slightly inaccurate. If hon. Members have an inaccurate version, they may obtain new contents pages, printed separately on green paper, which are available in the Room.

In view of the resolutions of the House relating to the declaration of interests, right hon. and hon. Members are required to declare relevant interests when they table amendments as well as when they speak to them. Copies of the relevant rules are available from the Clerk.

Again, as usual with the Finance Bill, because of the quantity of paperwork, boxes are available to store papers between sittings. Hon. Members who make use  of that facility should note that the filing cabinet containing the boxes will be locked when the Committee is not sitting.

The Vote Office would be very grateful if we could try not to mislay copies of the Budget documents, for the obvious reason that supplies are short and, if we keep losing them, it may be embarrassed in finding replacements.

I should, as usual, like to draw attention to the fact that adequate notice must be given of amendments. Neither my co-Chairmen nor I will, as a rule, call any standard amendments, including any starred amendments that may be reached during an afternoon sitting.

Finally, please switch off all mobile phones.