Finance Bill

This has been a wide-ranging and useful debate. I congratulate the hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr. Hammond) on speaking for exactly an hour, although my experience in the Finance Bill Committee tells me that he has managed the feat before. My congratulations also go to the hon. Member for Taunton (Mr. Browne), for not matching that record. In the interests of making progress, I shall not touch on all the topics that have been raised, my excuse being that some will be discussed in connection with later groups of amendments. New clauses 17 and 18 propose that the Treasury publish each year, not later than the PBR, a report containing information about the technical content of any tax changes, aside from rate changes, that it proposes to include in the following year's Finance Bill, as well as its proposals for the simplification of the UK's tax code. The Government use the PBR and the Budget to set out decisions on the tax system. We are committed to a fair and efficient tax system that supports business, individuals and sound public finances. We are also clear about the process: in the Finance Act 1998, we set it out in the code for fiscal stability that the PBR should be consultative in nature and include, so far as reasonably practicable, proposals for any significant changes in fiscal policy under consideration for introduction in the Budget. We made it clear that the PBR was not to be taken as an indication of all tax policy areas in which the Government might choose to act. The policy has been supported by the conclusions of a recent investigation by the Treasury Committee, and it was not opposed by Opposition parties when voted on during deliberations on the 1998 Act.