Clause 68
Finance (No.2) Bill
11:45 am
John Healey (Financial Secretary, HM Treasury; Wentworth, Labour)
Perhaps my hon. Friend the Member for Bishop Auckland (Helen Goodman) missed it, but when we started talking about this group of clauses at the outset, I explained that as an innovation, the IOC required of any bid city its preparedness to make tax arrangements to ensure that the successful city’s delivery of the Olympics was not affected by tax. Therefore, clauses 65 to 67 include a range of organisations—not only the London Organising Committee but the International Olympic Committee—and clause 68 covers the competitors and support staff.
The short answer is that the IOC wanted and required the provision as part of the bid. We gave an undertaking to create it as part of the successful London bid, and clause 68 will honour that undertaking.