Finance Bill

I am grateful for that intervention. The hon. Gentleman and I have served on Finance Bill Committees before—he more often than me—and I think that it is fair to say that businesses that lose out as a consequence of tax changes tend to be the most vociferous in their lobbying of Committee members. The area under discussion was simplified by the Finance Act 2004, and it is unsurprising that there were relatively few contributions from industry as—I understand, because I was not a Member at the time—it generally welcomed the contents of the 2004 Act. That might explain why fewer submissions were made, but circumstances in which tax change measures favour industry are perhaps those in which the Treasury ought to be most alert and most alive to the potential impact.