Clause 11
Finance Bill
3:00 pm
Julia Goldsworthy (Shadow Chief Secretary To the Treasury, Treasury; Falmouth and Camborne, Liberal Democrat)
The amendment has many echoes of the principle that was referred to in our debate on an earlier clause and amendment. Again, there is a concern about the differential impact that these kinds of measures will have in rural areas where it is more difficult for people to change behaviour.
However, I listened very carefully to the comments by the hon. Member for Wycombe. I note that the amendment says:
‘No order shall be made under subsection (11) unless the Treasury has compiled and laid before the House of Commons a report containing assessment of the impact of vehicle excise duty on farming, agriculture and on rural areas.’.
I might not have been listening carefully enough, but I do not think that I heard any definition of what the hon. Gentleman might consider to be a rural area. Equally, I am not quite sure why other rural industries, for example horticulture, were not included in the report that the Treasury would have to make.
I take on board the comments by the hon. Member for Wycombe that he has no intention whatsoever of pressing this matter to a vote, but there is another inconsistency that I do not understand. I noted that the hon. Gentleman and his colleagues felt unable to support a similar amendment to the changes to air passenger duty, on the grounds that it delayed the introduction of environmental measures that should be welcomed.