Climate Change

Does the hon. Gentleman accept that when the Government introduced the climate change levy in 2001, that was accompanied by a 0.3 percentage point cut in employers’ national insurance contributions, and that the introduction of the aggregates levy was accompanied by a 0.1 percentage point cut in employers’ NICs? It is absolutely unjustified to levy the charge that there was no offsetting in this area, and I hope that he will withdraw those remarks.