Former Scottish National Party MP for East Lothian
What assessment he has made of the potential effect of provisions of the great repeal Bill on Wales’s devolved competences.
Accepting the Minister’s request to be positive, may I ask him whether he agrees that the best way forward for Welsh and Scottish farmers is for the responsibility for financial subsidy arrangements to be transferred to the Welsh and Scottish Assemblies post-Brexit?
With your indulgence, Sir David, I thought that this might be an appropriate moment to pay tribute to the outgoing right hon. Member for Chichester (Mr Tyrie), the Chair of the Treasury Committee, which has paid a lot of attention to making tax digital. There could be no more fitting tribute to the right hon. Gentleman leaving this House than the Government withdrawing the making tax digital...
I have two points. First, I reiterate to the Minister, who artfully shifted to saying that there was a 2% rise in the tax, that there is a two percentage point rise. It is a 20% rise in the tax. I asked the Minister how she justified that massive, excessive increase relative to inflation. She did not reply—I suspect because, as a Conservative tax cutter, she is embarrassed. I have a...
Essentially, this is one of the taxes that the Government are keeping in. It is the third insurance premium tax rise in 18 months. Will the Minister justify why the Government are proposing this third increase, which actually increases the rate by 20%—well above the rate of inflation?
It will be someday.
May I, too, thank the new hon. Member for Copeland (Trudy Harrison) for such a passionate and entertaining speech? It is good to have a representative of the land of Beatrix Potter here in this Chamber. I listened to her last points about the deficit and her encomium that this Government are bringing it down. I will be slightly wicked in saying that I am sure she knows that the Office for...
Does this Bill not raise taxes on insurance, and on this, that and the other thing? Is the hon. Lady in favour of the Bill or not?
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to encourage innovation in the defence industry.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans she has to issue new guidance to local authority air quality monitoring units after the UK exits the EU.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the timetable is for the Boeing P-8 Poseidon aircraft to be brought into operational service.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what lessons his Department learned from the Nimrod MRA4 and Chinook HC Mk3 procurement processes; and what procurement projects his Department uses as benchmarks for effectiveness.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of establishing an Independent Aviation Noise Authority.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the implications are for UK membership of the European Atomic Energy Community of the UK's decision to leave the EU.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether it is his policy that the UK will remain part of the European Community Urgent Radiological Information Exchange after the UK leaves the EU.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has made an estimate of the effect of the change in the value of sterling since the UK decided to leave the EU on the lifetime cost of Trident replacement.
