That is to concede the point. If my noble friend is saying that the legal challenge might result in the Scottish Parliament not being able to have a higher or lower duty, should there have to be a uniform duty throughout the United Kingdom because of EU rules, that is not an argument for allowing the Scottish Parliament to have the revenue that arises from the aggregates levy. It is not just about setting the rate; it is also about having the revenue and broadening the tax base.
Perhaps the noble Lord is right. Who knows what the EU is capable of? The fact that we may end up with a uniform application, as in the case of alcohol duty, is not in itself a reason for not providing for this power in the Bill. If my noble friend's concern is that the nature or the application of the tax may vary as a result of the legal case, and if he says to me, ““Withdraw your amendment and I will come forward with a government amendment that provides for the aggregate levy but gives us the flexibility””, and my goodness, this Bill is bristling with examples, ““for the Treasury to provide for it in secondary legislation””, that would be a much more desirable position—I know my noble friend hates it when we go back to this—than the general power to invent new taxes that is being justified on the basis of the Government's inability, which I do not understand, to include in the Bill provisions that would allow for the aggregates levy and for air passenger duty. Can he help me with that?
Scotland Bill
Proceeding contribution from
Lord Forsyth of Drumlean
(Conservative)
in the House of Lords on Thursday, 15 March 2012.
It occurred during Committee of the Whole House (HL)
and
Debate on bills on Scotland Bill.
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736 c498 
Session
2010-12
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