Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Before we begin, I have a few preliminary announcements. While I am in the Chair, Members may, if they wish, remove their jackets. I imagine that Mr Howarth will extend the same courtesy, but that is for him to say, not for me. No refreshments other than water may be consumed in Committee meetings, so if Members are in need of coffee or anything like that, they will have to go outside. Please could all Members ensure that mobile phones, pagers and the like are switched off or on silent? It is infuriating both to the Chair and to other Members to have people constantly ringing. It would be appreciated if Members could use electronic devices for parliamentary purposes, not for doing sudoku or whatever.

The pile of boxes behind me is provided for Members to keep their papers in. During the process of the Bill, there will be an accumulation of papers—that I can promise you—and if you wish to leave them in the room, they will be locked in the cupboard behind me. So it is possible to leave papers here, obviously other than those that arrive in your personal boxes and post during the week, and collect them before the start of each sitting. During the lunch break, the room will be locked. Mr Howarth will take the Chair at 2 o’clock, but, in the interim, if you wish to leave papers or indeed anything else within reason on the desk—I would not advise you to leave very valuable things—they can be left safely in the room. The room will be locked between 1 pm and 2 pm, so do not feel that you have got to take everything with you.

As a rule, Mr Howarth and I do not intend to call starred amendments, which have not been tabled with adequate notice. The required notice in Public Bill Committees is three working days, so amendments need to be tabled by the rise of the House on Monday for consideration on Thursday and by the rise of the House on Thursday for consideration on the following Tuesday.

Not everyone is familiar with the Public Bill Committee, so we will have a very brief teaching—this is also for the benefit of long-standing Members and, indeed, the Chairman. I think I am right in saying that I am now the longest-serving member of the Panel of Chairs and even I find these processes confusing sometimes. The first rule is: if you are in any doubt, ask. Please do not feel that we sitting in this Chair are so fierce that you cannot stand up and say, “Please, I don’t understand that.” We may or may not be able to explain, but if we cannot, Mr Hamlyn, our superb Clerk, will be able to.

The process is this: we first consider the programme motion on the amendment paper and the debate on that is limited to half an hour. For those of you who are not aware, that is the motion that was agreed at a pre-hearing with a small group of the Committee under the chairmanship of Mr Howarth. The agreement was reached on both sides Committee by consent. That does not mean that you cannot talk about it, but you cannot do so for more than half an hour.

We then proceed to a motion to report any written evidence. That is because, in the course of the sittings of the Bill, written evidence will be received and we need the Committee’s consent to ensure that that is made available formally and becomes part of the record for the Committee. We then begin the line-by-line consideration of the Bill.

The selection list for today’s sitting, which is available and I hope all Members now have a copy, shows how the amendments selected for debate have been grouped together for debate. Amendments are normally grouped on the same issue or similar or related issues. Ladies and gentlemen, I would be grateful if you would pay particular attention to this, because this is the article of the most confusion and it is important that everyone understands the process.

You will find a group of amendments. Clause 1, which will be the first piece of the Bill debated, is debated as a clause. The motion will be that clause 1 stand part of the Bill, and that will be a broad-ranging debate, because there are no amendments tabled to clause 1.

Clause 2, in similar fashion, will be a general stand part debate, but in addition we are debating new clauses 1 and 3. The first point of confusion is that whether or not a Member, on either the Government or Opposition side, wishes to put those provisions to a Division, it will not happen then because Divisions take place in order throughout the course of the Bill. While new clauses 1 and 3 will be debated with clause 2, if they are voted on at all it will not be until much later in the proceedings, when we get to them on the amendment paper. That applies to any other amendments.

If a Member—often an Opposition Member—seeks to table and then move an amendment, it may become the lead amendment in a group. It will be grouped with amendments of a similar nature or subject matter. Only the lead amendment will be moved at that time. People have a tendency to stand up and say, “I wish to move this,” but they cannot. You must wait until we have reached it on the amendment paper, which may be the middle of next week or next month, depending upon how long the sittings take.

If you are in any doubt, please ask. Because there are a significant number of new Members on the Committee, Mr Howarth and I will endeavour to be as generous within the terms of proper procedure as we can, but once the tipping point is reached and the business moves on, it is not permissible to go back, so you need to keep your wits about you. It is normally assumed that Government amendments will become part of the Bill and that the Government will therefore always wish to move them. That is accepted by the Chair and understood by both Front Benches.

That’s it. Let me repeat: if you have any problems, misunderstandings or difficulties, please ask. If there is something you really do not understand but do not feel  inclined to stand up and ask about, nobble the Chair after the sitting, and we will be pleased to do our best to explain it to you. The object of the exercise is not to confuse but to assist. Like the Inland Revenue, we are here to help you.

I beg to move,

That—

(1) the Committee shall (in addition to its first meeting at 11.30 am on Thursday 17 September) meet—

(a) at 2.00 pm on Thursday 17 September;

(b) at 9.25 am and 2.00 pm on Tuesday 13 October;

(c) at 11.30 am and 2.00 pm on Thursday 15 October;

(d) at 9.25 am and 2.00 pm on Tuesday 20 October;

(2) the proceedings shall be taken in the following order: Clauses 1 to 11; Schedule 1; Clauses 12 to 15; Clauses 18 to 23; Schedule 4; Clauses 24 and 25; Schedule 5; Clause 26; Schedule 6; Clauses 27 to 31; Clause 33; Schedule 7; Clause 32; Clauses 34 to 42; Clause 44; Clauses 46 and 47; Schedule 8; Clauses 48 to 50; new Clauses other than those relating to the subject matter of Clauses 16 and 17 and Schedules 2 and 3 or the subject matter of Clause 43 or the subject matter of Clause 45; new Schedules other than those relating to the subject matter of Clauses 16 and 17 and Schedules 2 and 3 or the subject matter of Clause 43 or the subject matter of Clause 45; remaining proceedings on the Bill.

(3) the proceedings shall (so far as not previously concluded) be brought to a conclusion at 5.00 pm on Tuesday 20 October.

It is a very great pleasure to see you in the Chair, Sir Roger. This is not the first time I have had the pleasure of serving under you in a Finance Bill Committee, and I know the Committee is in safe hands with both you and Mr Howarth.

I welcome all members of the Committee, and I am delighted we have such a large turnout for the beginning of our proceedings. I particularly welcome the Opposition Front-Bench team: the hon. Members for Feltham and Heston and for Worsley and Eccles South. I look forward to hearing their questions and inquiries. I do not know whether the Scottish National Party has the same Front-Bench arrangement, but I welcome all members of Opposition parties and, indeed, my own colleagues, in particular my hon. Friend the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, who will be sharing some of the burden over the weeks ahead.

I am pleased that agreement was reached at the Programming Sub-Committee, and I am grateful for the support of the usual channels. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Central Devon and the hon. Member for Scunthorpe for their work in reaching that agreement. I very much looking forward to serving under your chairmanship in the weeks ahead, Sir Roger.

I thank the Financial Secretary for his opening words and his welcome, which I echo. I thank you, Sir Roger, and your co-Chair Mr Howarth, who I understand will be in the Chair this afternoon. It is a pleasure to serve under two distinguished Chairmen. Although I had the pleasure of serving on a previous Finance Bill Committee as a Back Bencher, this is the first time I have served on one as a Front Bencher. I was recently appointed shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

I thank and pay tribute to my predecessor, my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham, Ladywood (Shabana Mahmood), and the other outgoing shadow Treasury  Ministers, my hon. Friends the Members for Wirral South (Alison McGovern) and for Newcastle upon Tyne North (Catherine McKinnell). I also pay tribute to the previous shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, my hon. Friend the Member for Nottingham East (Chris Leslie), who is a veteran of Finance Bills and has led much of our work this year. I also pay enormous tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Worsley and Eccles South before she leaves the Treasury team, and in advance of her excellent contributions today, for her stellar work.

I extend my thanks to the hon. Member for Central Devon and my hon. Friend the Member for Scunthorpe. I have had experience of their office, so I know that the usual channels work behind the scenes to ensure everything goes well during Bill proceedings.

I welcome those who are relatively new to the House. If this is their first Finance Bill Committee, I am sure it will be an experience they will remember. It will be a good foundation for much more that they do in the House.

I know from past experience that we have many hours in Committee ahead. I am sure I speak for all here when I say that we relish the opportunity to get further into this legislation and to change it for the better. I also know that the Financial Secretary will relish the opportunity to serve on his 11th Finance Bill Committee—or is it the 12th?

Something like that.

He is certainly a veteran. If there is a record for the Minister who has steered the most Finance Bills through Parliament, if he has not won it already, I am sure he is well on his way.

When I mentioned to a colleague that the Bill has only 50 clauses, they expressed concern that the Government are already running out of business, as they were in the months running up to the election. I recall that when I served on the Finance Bill Committee in 2012, that Bill had three volumes and 227 clauses. Indeed, last year’s Finance Bill had 295 clauses. This year, the Finance Bill has 50 clauses, and we are scheduled to have only eight sittings.

This is the third one in a year.

I know it is. Perhaps the Financial Secretary does not have the same concerns.

Although some aspects of the Bill are to be welcomed, many others are worrying. The change to the climate change levy, for example, has been almost universally challenged. The increase in insurance premium tax, which will raise substantial amounts for the Government, will cause significant hikes in insurance premiums for millions of people across the UK, with possible adverse consequences for consumer behaviour that must be understood. Those issues were tackled, to some extent, in Committee of the whole House last week.

We need a Finance Bill that supports working people and does not penalise them, as the tax credit statutory instrument, which we discussed two days ago, does. We need a Finance Bill that supports business and provides long-term certainty, and which leads to investment now that will reap dividends in the future. A retrospective change to carbon taxes, for example, will not achieve that aim. That is the approach we will take in Committee.

Obviously it would not be proper to start proceedings without thanking the usual unsung heroes: not only the Treasury officials, whom I thank for their diligence, but the Clerks, Hansard and others who help keep our proceedings going smoothly.

I am sure I speak for all Members when I say that it is an honour and a privilege to serve on the Finance Bill Committee, and I am sure we will approach all the sessions in that spirit. Indeed, I hope we will scrutinise the Bill properly and methodically and do what we are all here to do, which is to serve the people of Britain.

It is pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger, and that of your co-Chair, Mr Howarth, when he joins us later. I associate myself with the remarks of the shadow Chief Secretary, my hon. Friend the Member for Feltham and Heston, and welcome the Clerks, the Hansard reporters and others who will assist us in the days ahead, although it will just be one day ahead for me.

I welcome the members of the Committee and in particular those who came into the House in May. On the Labour side, that is my hon. Friends the Members for Bradford South, for Halifax, for Dewsbury, for Torfaen and for Cambridge, and we will be joined by my hon. Friend the Member for Erith and Thamesmead. We should also mention the stalwart work of our Whip, my hon. Friend the Member for Scunthorpe.

As has been said, this is the first ever Bill Committee for those new Members, and I remember when I served on my first Finance Bill Committee back in summer 2006. I checked back, and the Financial Secretary was on that same Committee. We know now that he has served on 11 Finance Bill Committees, so he certainly wins the prize. I am afraid I do not. I assure the Committee and him that we will scrutinise the Bill thoroughly, as is our duty. Members should be grateful that the Bill is much shorter than the Finance Bill in 2006, which had 21 sittings.

As an opening comment, the Bill sadly does little to help families and individuals on low and middle incomes, and I think that is a pity. Millions of those families have heard that they will be hit by the tax credit cuts that were voted through by Government Members earlier this week. Those savage cuts will come to be seen as the hallmark of the summer Budget of 2015, which was also a tax-raising Budget, but I will come back to that point.

In Prime Minister’s questions yesterday, we heard about a working family who would be hit badly by the cuts, and there will be so many more, because 3 million families will lose more than £1,000 a year. In my constituency, more than 8,000 families with children receive tax credits, of whom 5,300 are working families. The Bill does not contain that measure on tax credits, but it comes from the same Budget, so I will keep those families in mind as we work through all the issues in the Bill.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger, along with my colleagues. I start by thanking everyone who has already been thanked,  thus making sure that I miss no one out. I am slightly surprised that I am making this speech, because I did not know that this was how proceedings would begin, but on behalf of my colleagues, I would like to say that we look forward to scrutinising the Bill in detail. We are particularly unhappy about a number of matters, and we share the views already expressed by the Labour spokespersons.

We also want, through new clauses, to raise some matters that are of particular concern to Scotland and the people of Scotland, who are severely disadvantaged on a number of fronts by measures within the Bill. I hope we will contribute constructively and speedily. I had a wonderful experience when I attended the Sub-Committee of this Bill Committee on Monday; the thing I thought was particularly impressive was that it lasted one minute. I am sure this Committee will take a little longer, but we will do our best to contribute constructively and efficiently.

Before I put the question, those who are long in the tooth in the House and those who are not have learned a lesson: most of the remarks just made were technically out of order—[ Laughter. ] However, within the half-hour available for this particular piece of the process, a Chairman is normally reasonably flexible.

I should have mentioned a couple of other things. I was asked by the Opposition Front Bench team what the form of address is. I am Sir Roger—for reasons I do not entirely understand—and George Howarth is Mr Howarth at the moment, although I am sure that will change in due course. In the English Parliament, in Committee as on the Floor of House, we refer to Members by constituency or by “my hon. Friend” or “the hon. Lady” or “the hon. Gentleman”, not by “you” or whatever. “You” is the Chair, and the Chair is non-partisan and does not take part in the proceedings. So if you say, “You have said that,” I shall leap to my feet and say, “No, I haven’t,” even though we all know what was meant. We will try not to be too heavy on that at the start, however.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That, subject to the discretion of the Chair, any written evidence received by the Committee shall be reported to the House for publication.—(Mr Gauke.)