(Except clauses 7, 8, 9, 11, 14, 16, 20 and 92)
Finance Bill
10:30 am
Stephen Timms (Financial Secretary, HM Treasury; East Ham, Labour)
I beg to move,
That the Committee shall meet—
(a) on Tuesdays at 10.30 a.m. and 4.30 p.m., and
(b) on Thursdays (other than Thursday 4 June) at 9.00 a.m. and 1.00 p.m.,
when the House is sitting.
Thank you, Mr. Atkinson, for your welcome. I wish to take the opportunity to say a few words. I extend a warm welcome to you and to your co-Chairman, Mr. Hood. We welcome the experience and the knowledge that you will bring to our proceedings, as well as your firmness and fairness. I am confident that you will guide us so that our deliberations are thorough and to the point. I welcome Mr. Laurence Smyth, who will be assisting the Committee. I also welcome the hon. Members for Fareham, for South-West Hertfordshire and for Hammersmith and Fulham, and other members of the Conservative party who will be supporting them, particularly those who will be serving on the Committee for the first time. We shall be spending a lot of time together during the next few weeks.
I also welcome the hon. Member for Taunton to our proceedings. I am pleased that I shall be stoutly supported throughout our debates by my hon. Friends the Exchequer Secretary and the Economic Secretary, who I am delighted to see here. I know that they will want to join me in welcoming my hon. Friends on the Labour Benches to the Committee and to express warm thanks to them in anticipation of our progress.
I wish to put on the record my thanks to the many advisers and representatives who have already given advice throughout the preparation of the Bill. We shall obviously be welcoming further contributions from them as we scrutinise it in greater depth during the next few weeks. They do a great deal of work and make an important contribution to our task. I look forward to our deliberations as we fulfil our duties in examining the Bill in Committee.