Finance Bill

The hon. Gentleman may be right that those points were not made during the passage of the 2004 Finance Bill. One would have thought that the Treasury would be looking to spot those particular pratfalls. The Opposition do point out failures. I referred earlier to the zero per cent. band for corporation tax for small businesses, which was highlighted as a possible concern by Opposition MPs. There are times when things are not spotted by Opposition parties, but the hon. Gentleman will know—he was heavily involved in opposition—that our resources, compared to what is available to the Government and Treasury, are somewhat limited. He had access to a hotel room off Park lane, but those were perhaps the best facilities that any Opposition party has had. Often, one is talking about small numbers of people, but the Treasury is a mighty machine. It has the crème de la crème of the civil service working on these matters, yet constantly it seems to fail to spot some of these matters. I would have thought that Ministers would be concerned about that. There is certainly an example here of the Treasury not spotting the way in which a tax change would affect behaviour. That is not necessarily a party point, but it is a concern. I would have thought that Ministers ought to acknowledge that and to be worried about it.