Part of 11. 9. Debate: Stage 3 of the Land Transaction Tax and Anti-avoidance of Devolved Taxes (Wales) Bill – in the Senedd at 4:51 pm on 28 March 2017.
Mark Drakeford
Labour
4:51,
28 March 2017
Diolch, Llywydd. This is the first of a series of groups of technical Government amendments that will come before the Assembly this afternoon.
These all have a slightly different focus and have therefore been separated for ease of discussion, but what they have in common is that they are all minor and technical. In the main, they are necessary amendments to the Bill in order to improve the clarity of drafting. For example, all the amendments in this group address incorrect cross references in the Bill. The Majority of these have arisen as a result of the changes to the Bill made at Stage 2, and we now have the opportunity to ensure that these cross-references are correct. I ask Members to support them.
The term "majority" is used in two ways in Parliament. Firstly a Government cannot operate effectively unless it can command a majority in the House of Commons - a majority means winning more than 50% of the votes in a division. Should a Government fail to hold the confidence of the House, it has to hold a General Election. Secondly the term can also be used in an election, where it refers to the margin which the candidate with the most votes has over the candidate coming second. To win a seat a candidate need only have a majority of 1.
