To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what discussions he has had with the computer industry concerning the implementation of the proposed new council tax.

The Department has had preliminary discussions with major suppliers and has commissioned a study of the feasibility and desirability of a national software specification. Now that the Local Government Finance Bill has been published, we will be discussing the computing aspects in detail with all interested parties.

As the computer industry, council finance officers and many other non-partisan critics are sending the same messages to the Minister and to the Government that the new tax is ill-prepared, the timetable for its introduction is too tight, it will require a poll tax-type register and will be even more risky and difficult to introduce than the poll tax, why do not the Government for once follow a sensible course and scrap the poll tax, abandon their proposals for the new tax and leave it to the next Parliament and a Labour Government to introduce a fairer rates system?

The hon. Gentleman is not only scaremongering, he is wrong. Sadly, not all those involved are unanimous in their approach. Some organisations, including the local authority associations, do not want a national specification and that does not make it easy. However, I can offer some reassurance to the House, because we hope that we will have some of the regulations in draft by Christmas. We will discuss the regulations and the Bill with the local authority associations tomorrow.