(Except clauses 3, 5, 6, 15, 21, 49, 90 and 117 and new clauses amending section 74 of the Finance Act 2003)
Finance Bill
10:30 am
Philip Hammond (Shadow Chief Secretary To the Treasury, Treasury; Runnymede and Weybridge, Conservative)
I join the right hon. Lady in her comments. I am delighted to have the opportunity once again to serve on a Committee under your chairmanship, Sir Nicholas, and that of Mr. Cook and Mr. Hood. Finance Bills do not always attract this degree of public interest, and it is not entirely clear to me that each clause and schedule of the Bill will be scrutinised with the same enthusiasm by the media and the electorate, but some of them certainly will be.
Our job as an Opposition, and that of the other Opposition parties represented on the Committee, is to scrutinise what the Government propose, explore the alternatives and establish whether they have properly looked at all of the alternatives and considered the representations that are made by experts outside the Committee and the House, in order to test the robustness of the Government’s thinking.
We shall no doubt hear during the Committee’s proceedings, in response to Opposition amendments, a lot of nonsense about how we and others are making spending or tax-cutting commitments. It was clear from the debate on the Floor of the House last week that not all Members understand the conventions and rules relating to Finance Bills, so it might be worth placing on the record the fact that, while Opposition Members and Government Back Benchers may table amendments proposing reductions in taxation, it is the prerogative of Ministers of the Crown to table amendments that would increase taxation.
Frankly, that leaves Opposition Members in some difficulty when trying to present balanced alternatives to Government proposals. Members of Opposition parties have no difficulty when presenting their ideas in the round during debate—perhaps I anticipate what the hon. Member for Taunton will say to us in a few moments in relation to amendment No. 1—but in response to the cry, “Why have you not tabled an amendment to do it?” the answer will often be that we simply are not able to get amendments selected that would present a balanced package response to some of the Government’s proposals.
This Finance Bill has attracted an unusual level of public interest—at least in relation to certain provisions—and I hope that we will have a genuine debate on the Government side on some of those provisions. In other words, I hope that the Government Whips have failed in their efforts to create an entirely sanitised Public Bill Committee, and that we will have some contributions from Labour Members. I have been looking at the majorities that some of them enjoy, and they will be extremely focused on the public debate about some elements of the Bill. I hope that we will hear from them and have an opportunity to debate with them as their minds are focused by events going on around us. I have no objection to the sittings motion that the right hon. Lady has proposed and look forward to the progress of the Committee’s business.