Finance (No. 3) Bill

I do not think that that is true. It is perfectly normal and reasonable for the Treasury to work with industry and individual companies to look at the particular problems that they face. That is exactly what the previous Government did, and they introduced field allowances. There is no substance at all to the hon. Lady's claim. In fact, she would have more justification for complaint if we were not taking such action. As I have said, the recent very high sterling oil price has resulted in unexpectedly high profits for oil and gas companies, although at the same time it has resulted in financial pain for motorists and the wider economy. The Government therefore decided that it was appropriate to increase the rate of supplementary charge, to redress that imbalance. The fact that we have acted in that way does not mean that we do not appreciate the impact of taxation. However, we believe that investment in an exploration of the UK continental shelf will continue, driven by the record high oil price. The hon. Member for Bishop Auckland (Helen Goodman) asked about forecasting. Of course, there is a range of industry forecasts on future oil prices, but the Government use the OBR, which is entirely independent of us. The OBR forecasts an oil price for the forthcoming years of this Parliament in excess of $100 a barrel for every year of that period. That brings me to the work of Professor Kemp, briefly mentioned by hon. Members. We are aware of his analysis of the impact of the increase in the supplementary charge. That analysis makes it clear that when considering the impact on investment, the tax increases are far less important than either oil and gas prices or the hurdle rate for investment adopted by individual companies. In fact, Professor Kemp's analysis points to only a small impact on activity at the level of prices expected and using the level of screening hurdle most commonly employed by active investors. Of course, however, we need to ensure that on those marginal fields that are impacted, we work hard with the industry to ensure that investment can nevertheless take place.