New Clause 3 - Treasury consent
Finance Bill
5:00 pm
Dawn Primarolo (Paymaster General, HM Treasury; Bristol South, Labour)
I can certainly do that. However, I do not know whether consideration of section 765 will be concluded; that will depend on how the consultation goes. When the Bill for the merger to create HMRC was confirmed on the Floor of the House and in Committee, it was said that we hoped that the first sets of recommendations would be available for the 2006 Finance Bill—that is on the record, although I cannot give a specific Hansard reference—but I cannot give an assurance that one of them will be about section 765.
The hon. Gentleman is right that such a review, which examines powers and what is appropriate and what should be done, will not be conducted in one year and appear in a single Finance Bill. As the Revenue and Customs merge, it will be important to make sure that everything is considered. I am afraid that the case is not made now for the abolition of the provision, but I accept some of his detailed points on how the provision operates and I hope that, given that it is under consideration within the wider review on corporate tax reforms, he will withdraw his new clause at this stage, and await the consultation.