Scotland Bill

Not at the moment. Before I get too distracted, let me return to the Bill. The whole point about this amendment and our seeking the devolution of fuel duty powers is that we are not doing this for its own sake. Everyone understands the difficulty, as we have raised it many times, so this is about action. If the UK Government will not act, it is perfectly reasonable for the powers to be devolved so that a Scottish Government can act. The two significant taxes dealt with in this first group are the aggregates levy and air passenger duty. In written evidence to the Scottish Affairs Committee, Professor Iain McLean said:"““I am not persuaded by the UK Government's reasons for rejecting Calman's other two tax devolution proposals, namely Aggregates Levy and Air Passenger Duty. As Scottish Ministers have correctly pointed out, the litigation which is given as a reason for rejecting the transfer of Aggregates Levy was already in progress when Calman reported. If Scotland is willing to take any revenue risk arising from that litigation, it should be allowed to.””""Likewise, the fact that the UK government intends to convert air passenger duty into a 'per plane' duty argues for, not against, devolving it. The principle of subsidiarity implies that the Scottish Government, not the UK Government, should decide how to tax flights originating at small Highland or island airports. Airports don't move. They are a very suitable devolved tax base.””" On aggregates duty, Professor McLean said:"““The shape of landfill tax is obviously complementary to that of (any successor to) Aggregates Levy.””" Landfill tax is being devolved, so the approach being taken here is rather illogical. It is also a key recommendation of the Scottish Parliament's Committee that aggregates tax is devolved. The final Calman commission report said:"““The Commission has recommended that a number of ““green taxes”” (Air Passenger Duty, Landfill Tax and the Aggregates Levy) be devolved. As well as helping to increase the financial accountability of the Scottish Parliament, control of these taxes ""will provide important policy levers in relation to environmental issues, allowing the Scottish Parliament and Government further options in determining policy.””" That makes perfect sense. Excluding two of the three taxes in that ““green taxes”” category not only makes a mockery of the Calman report, but, more importantly, decreases financial accountability and removes what Calman called ““important policy levers””.