New Clause 3 - Treasury consent
Finance Bill
5:00 pm
Dawn Primarolo (Paymaster General, HM Treasury; Bristol South, Labour)
I shall respond first to a few points that the hon. Gentleman made when moving the new clause, then respond on the detail of the clause.
By way of background, I remind the hon. Gentleman that section 765 was never only about exchange controls. The then Conservative Government realised that and concluded that it should be retained following their abolition of exchange controls in 1979. The section was introduced to counter tax avoidance; it has done that successfully and should not be repealed, as it protects a great deal of revenue.
I am familiar with those in the corporate sector who do not like Treasury consents. I have had the benefit, as the hon. Gentleman may have done, of discussing with such people what they think about the consents. The same people probably spoke to the hon. Gentleman and me about the arbitrage regime—they did not like that either. The hon. Gentleman is praying the arbitrage regime in aid now, but when we discussed it previously, he sought to emasculate it so that it did not do its job.