I congratulate Mr. Dismore on introducing the Bill and on his admirably brief speech. I do not think that I have ever heard him finish so quickly on a Friday—it has not happened in living memory. He is right to say at the outset that the holocaust was an event of such overriding horror, cruelty and depravity that, as my hon. Friend the Chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee pointed out, parliamentarians on both sides of the House would support any form of restitution.

I declare a sort of interest on this issue. As many hon. Members will know, I served in the Army for just over a decade, from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, and saw active service in four separate war zones. The issue of art looted from war zones and their periphery is therefore unfortunately familiar. I look back on my time in Sarajevo in the early 1990s and well remember the destruction of the fabulous old Ottoman library, and the looting of many priceless Islamic texts. We also saw the appearance of several valuable Serbian Orthodox icons, which had obviously been looted from Serbian churches, in the antique shops of the Muslim quarter of the city. Plunder and looting are as old as war itself, and it is right that we should do everything in our power to prevent it and, if we cannot, to restore objects to their rightful place when possible.

I am delighted to say that the Bill has my strong personal support and that of my party. However, I also strongly support the principle that cultural property residing in our national collections should be held by trustees at arm's length and for the public benefit, rather than being subject to the particular political whims of the day. Any alteration to that principle should be enacted only by Parliament in exceptional circumstances. In my view, the holocaust is such a circumstance.

Several issues would benefit from further exploration during the subsequent phases of this Bill. First, on the question of the time periods and the sunset clause in the Bill, is a fixed period of 10 years the most appropriate means of measurement, as opposed to a rolling period? The latter would allow a reasonable period after the inclusion of an object on the appropriate statutory list, whereas an absolute, fixed period could leave a claimant disadvantaged if, for example, an object appeared on the list toward the end of that fixed period.

It is also worth noting that in the nine years since the Secretary of State set up the Spoliation Advisory Panel, it has reported on only eight cases. Inevitably, as the time since the end of the second world war lengthens, it is unlikely that the number of applicants bringing cases to the panel will increase. The reasonable expectation must be that the numbers will decline. Museums—a number have contacted me in the past couple of days—have carried out considerable research into the Nazi-era provenance of their collections, which has been published online with the involvement of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. In many cases, museums feel that they have exhausted the reasonable efforts that can be expected of them within the confines of their budgets to establish the 1933 to 1945 provenance of their collections. For many museums, documentation to establish the ownership of objects whose provenance has not already been traced to that period simply no longer exists.

Secondly, the various Acts under which the boards of trustees of the national museums have been established range over a considerable period and give different powers to the boards of different museums. Clearly, further detailed examination of the interaction of each board's powers is necessary, which hopefully could happen in Committee.

Thirdly, as the hon. Member for Hendon set out in his speech and in the short title of the Bill, the measure applies only to the holocaust. Sadly, there were many atrocities before that time as there have been subsequently—in Bosnia, as I said, there was clearly considerable looting of works of art. Sad though each of those atrocities is, they should be dealt with individually, case by case. The Museums Association's code of ethics, which was updated two years ago, already covers claims on objects in other periods and sets out the agreed ethical codes and standards that allow museums to return items from their collections. The MLAC ensured that its accreditation scheme incorporates that code.

Fourthly, although the existing panel can offer swift, independent and transparent assessment of claims in a way that is cost-effective for all parties, its claims are, correctly, advisory only. The Bill should not undermine the arm's-length principle on which national museums and galleries are governed. Our national collections are vested in the boards of trustees of the various museums and galleries, and the decision whether to de-accession from those collections must reside with those trustees.

Finally, and in some ways least importantly, three small tax implications need to be considered. First, the Bill will need to decide the appropriate level of capital gains tax payable if an object is sold after being returned to its original owner. Furthermore, careful thought needs to be given as to whether any ex gratia payment is free of tax. Secondly, on inheritance tax, it would be harsh indeed if an object returned to a claimant subsequently had to be sold to pay death duties. Some form of exemption may be appropriate. Thirdly, donors to museums do not always know that their objects were stolen during the holocaust. In such cases, which need careful investigation, there should not be a tax penalty—in effect—for doing the right thing.

I should like to conclude by saying three things. First, to go back to where I began, I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on securing his place in the ballot and on introducing the Bill. Secondly, my party and I look forward to the Public Bill Committee, when we can examine in greater detail a number of the issues that we have outlined today. However, thirdly and most importantly, the Bill, particularly in view of the circumstances pertaining to the holocaust, ought to enjoy our full support.