Finance Bill

I do not know how much more clearly I can say it to my right hon. Friend: that is exactly what we are working to do. I have answered the questions. Will they be concrete proposals? Yes. Will they be implementable and bring assistance as soon as possible? Yes. I shall deal quickly with various Opposition new clauses and amendments that would require reports. A similar amendment was tabled in Committee of the whole House. I shall then turn to the detail of the amendments tabled by my hon. Friends the Members for North-West Leicestershire and for Birmingham, Selly Oak (Lynne Jones), and explain why I hope they will not press them. The result of new clause 4 would be that Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs would have no legal power to collect any tax on the first £2,320 of taxable income. That would impose a huge burden, and it would cost all taxpayers £6.7 billion to finance the change. As we are now more than three months into this tax year, HMRC would have to repay the tax deducted and then ask employers to collect it again after Royal Assent, on the basis of clause 3 of the Bill. I hope that the hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr. Hammond) will accept this point in the spirit in which I make it: we have already produced a detailed memorandum for the Treasury Committee's inquiry into Budget measures and low-income households. It outlined the impact that the announcement of 13 May would have. At the time of that announcement, it was made clear that we would set out plans for future years in the 2008 pre-Budget report in the autumn. At that stage, the Chancellor will report back to the House. I see absolutely no merit in requiring him to report back again in January. However, the hon. Gentleman has already indicated that he intends to press new clause 4 to a Division, so I obviously cannot persuade him from his view.