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Income Tax

Perhaps I should start where we finished and welcome the hon. Member for Eastleigh (Chris Huhne) to this House and to the Liberal Democrat Front Bench. It is clear that he will bring to bear on our proceedings his experience in the European Parliament. You cautioned him, Madam Deputy Speaker, and he certainly did range rather more widely than the limited terms of the orders before us. I am sure that we will have a chance to deal with those issues in a future debate, and I look forward to doing so. I should say in passing to the hon. Member for Grantham and Stamford (Mr. Davies) that he has a point—up to a point. It is clear that the agreements relating to the four territories and the legislation to ratify them, which we are considering tonight, are a step towards dealing with the problem of systematic tax evasion. They are not the complete answer and they can be undermined and avoided, as is often the case with anti-avoidance and anti-evasion measures. I simply say that it was not clear precisely what the hon. Gentleman was arguing. He seemed to be either arguing in favour of a withholding tax or of a more heavy-duty measure to deal with the problem or he was offering a counsel of despair. That seemed to suggest that there was little that we could do or should try to do in response to these problems, which I simply do not accept."In response to the hon. Member for Cities of London and Westminster (Mr. Field), I appreciate his acknowledgement of the importance of these measures, particularly his acknowledgement of the rather unorthodox way in which we have brought them to the Floor of the House rather than to the Merits Committee upstairs. In doing so, we have put the UK in the best possible position to continue the leadership that we have displayed from the outset in getting the exchange of information agreements in place. They number nearly 250, and the four that we are ratifying this evening are important contributions. The House, in approving these orders tonight, will play a small but important part in ensuring that the exchange of information to implement the EU savings directive can come into effect, as intended, on 1 July this year."