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Finance (No. 2) Bill

I agree. My hon. Friend makes the point and the House has heard it: there is that unholy link between evasion and cost. There is a willingness to deal with a product that inflicts costs on society, but not a willingness to pay the associated dues. The Finance Bill is complex, and deals with what might be considered arcane issues. Clause 17 deals with value added tax on buildings and land. Such small measures are precisely the sort of provisions set out in what has been criticised as an over-lengthy Bill—but they are measures to which the Chancellor should be directing his attention. I understand that clause 17, in a small way, rests in the category of business-friendly deregulation. It defines the law governing VAT on certain land transactions, making a complex area more business-friendly and more easily understood. I understand that the business community has gone out of its way to welcome the clause; I too welcome it. I do not agree that this is an over-lengthy Bill. It is clear to me that there are many measures within it worthy of mention; I will not detain the House by detailing them all, but I shall pick out three or four, and I am sure that other hon. Members could pick out other provisions at their leisure. For example, clause 19 is an anti-VAT fraud measure. Missing trader intra-community fraud is, I understand, a significant VAT avoidance fraud. It is highly sophisticated, and a well-organised criminal attack on VAT. The clause seeks to remove that criminal activity. I welcome that, and support the provision. Clause 25 comes under my heading of business-friendly deregulation. It simplifies corporation tax for small businesses without, as I understand it, placing any additional burden on small businesses to access that element of deregulation. Clause 28 is also a business-friendly tax measure. It is designed to reduce tax on research and development costs. It will reduce the tax element on R and D in a particular industry that has significance in the area that I represent—the pharmaceutical industry, which is one of our major manufacturing industries. It remains in the UK because of the climate that my right hon. Friend the Paymaster General and others have gone out of their way to create and facilitate. The clause is an additional small measure that helps a business-friendly climate for the pharmaceutical industry to continue. There is clearly a benefit for our constituents. They may not understand what large companies do or even know their identity, but such companies have a beneficial effect for every constituent who is represented in this place. I am talking about new cancer drugs coming on stream. Some such drugs are being developed in Liverpool, just across the water from my constituency. A number of my constituents work in the pharmaceutical industry, and they do a very good job in producing those new products. Moving on to clause 28 I ask, rhetorically, why such a provision has not been presented to the House before. It is about tax relief for costs incurred by pharmaceutical companies in recruiting volunteers for trials. That seems to be an eminently suitable measure, which will encourage research and development. Chapter 3, which consists of clauses 31 to 53, deals, as other hon. Members have said, with film financing. The Opposition have a different view about how the provisions will work and why they have been included, but they rewrite the relevant taxation so that it is business-friendly for the film industry. I certainly support the Chancellor’s aim of encouraging a vibrant British film industry; as small-scale independent companies that air their films on Channel 4 will benefit, as will large- budget films. Clause 62 is a social measure that falls within the four parameters that I set at the beginning of my speech.