---

Finance (No. 2) Bill

My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. During the Bill’s passage through the House, people have asked repeatedly, ““Why would anyone set up a trust? It must be a mechanism for tax avoidance.”” They have not appreciated that there are non-tax reasons for setting up a trust. Moreover, why are the Government suddenly so concerned about trusts? They have been in power for nine years and not done much about them, but trusts have suddenly become a major issue. That leaves me somewhat bewildered, and we have heard no explanation. I am a member of the Treasury Committee, which asked the Government how they had arrived at their estimate that the new rules on the tax treatment of certain trusts would affect only a minority of the 100,000 discretionary trusts. As yet, we have had no answer.