Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The aggregates levy is a tax on the commercial exploitation of primary aggregates (sand, rock, gravel) in the UK. There is no specific relief for aggregates used in the construction of wind farms.
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: UK Financial Investments manages the Government's holdings in financial institutions at arm's length and on a commercial basis. In line with its role as a shareholder, UKFI requests only information necessary to achieve its objective as set in its Framework Document and Investment Mandate. The Government believe that these arrangements are vital to ensure that the taxpayer receives value for...
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Budget 2010 set out that: "At current market prices the cost of the financial sector interventions net of fees and other income would total £6 billion" (Financial Statement and Budget Report 2010, p213). Details of the derivation of this figure are given in the text on pages 213 and 214.
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: holding answer 30 March 2010 Under the Credit Guarantee Scheme, HM Treasury uses foreign exchange derivatives to hedge fee income received for debt issued in foreign currencies. HM Treasury does not incur explicit expenditure on these transactions; any fees charged for the use of these derivatives would be reflected in the level of the foreign exchange gain received. HM Treasury reports on...
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The Green Investment Bank (GIB) will specifically address the risk of an emerging gap in the provision of equity capital to large, complex infrastructure projects within the next few years. It is likely the initial focus of the GIB will be on offshore wind generation. However, it will also consider the case for investing in other infrastructure as appropriate as investment needs arise....
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: A reply has been sent to the hon. Member.
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: It is a pleasure to close the Second Reading debate on this year's Finance Bill. I thank all hon. Members who contributed, some of whom did so at great length and some of whom did so very briefly. The hon. Member for Truro and St. Austell (Matthew Taylor) gave a valedictory speech; I guess that explains why most of his remarks were not actually directed at the Bill, but they were interesting...
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: It is unfortunate that the hon. Gentleman was not here for, and unable to contribute to, the Second Reading debate. I will try to get the exact answer to his question, but the customs powers relate to the examination of goods imported in postal packets. Customs does not have powers to open or read correspondence. We are trying to tackle organised tobacco smuggling through the post-a point...
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: I can only repeat that we take tobacco smuggling very seriously, which is why an amendment is being made to clause 59. It is something that we wish to tackle. I shall try to get an answer to the hon. Gentleman's particular point, and if we do not get it by the end of the debate, I will undertake to write to him on the subject. I want to pick up a point that the hon. Member for Macclesfield...
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The national insurance increase will not come in until 2011. The whole point is that we will sustain the recovery, so we are not putting that measure in place now. We believe that it would damage industry, if it were to happen now.
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Of course I am not saying that unemployment does not matter in 2011. What I am saying is that if we took the Opposition's advice and started cutting things now and not supporting industry this year, we would see far higher unemployment. We believe that we have the balance and the timing right.
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: I do not agree with that. The car scrappage scheme had nothing to do with the public sector, and it has sustained industry. The measures that we have taken have helped to keep unemployment down across the board.
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Perhaps the hon. Gentleman will explain why we still have the sixth largest manufacturing industry in the world. We are supporting manufacturing industry; we need to support manufacturing industry. In particular, we need to support the green industries and the new industries that are coming through, which we want the UK to be at the forefront of.
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: That returns me to the point that this is deliberately a limited Finance Bill, because of the wash-up that we face. To those who claim that there has not been time to scrutinise the Bill, I say that it is deliberately limited, but around two thirds of the measures in it have been aired for comment and been consulted on formally and informally before their introduction here.
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: I am sure that our Back Benchers can speak for themselves on why they were not here. They have certainly been involved in the Budget process, and I am sure that they have confidence in those on the Treasury Bench to put the Finance Bill forward. The right hon. Gentleman spoke a lot about the Bill's complexity. On the measures used by the World Bank, the UK compares favourably with other...
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: I have had these exchanges with the hon. Gentleman before. We believe that we have set forth the right measures, and that we will be able to support the economy as it comes through to recovery and enables us to reach our target of halving the deficit over four years. I was talking about businesses, and the Finance Bill includes a number of measures to ensure that businesses continue to invest...
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: We recognise the difficulties faced by people in rural areas who are dependent on the car. I say to the hon. Gentleman that fuel duty is still lower in real terms now than it was in 1999, and it is just one part of the cost of fuel. It is because we are sensitive to the pressures that people face that we are staging the increase. I wish to move on to cider. Several hon. Members have made much...
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Certainly the letters that I have had from the beer industry, including small brewers, express the opinion that it is very unfair. Even with the 10 per cent. increase that we planned to introduce, the rate of duty on cider would still have been half that on beer. We were trying not to close the gap totally, but to bring the two closer together. The two largest companies produce more than 80...
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: I was going to explain to the hon. Gentleman in my wind-up that these are formulae to value the defined benefit, and I assure him that they are understood by the pensions industry-the people who will have to use them. The industry has been consulted on them extensively.
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Of course I have seen it.
