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Finance (No. 2) Bill

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in this debate. As this might be my last chance to contribute to the Bill, I should like to pause and thank everyone from PricewaterhouseCoopers and elsewhere who has provided me with advice on technical aspects of the Bill over the past few weeks. It is appropriate to use the word ““technical”” for clause 99 because, as the hon. Member for Wolverhampton, South-West (Rob Marris) intimated, it is a difficult provision. As he said, we discussed the clause in Committee, and he will recall that I asked questions about it when it was debated on 6 June—as, indeed, did he. Having had time to reflect on the debate in Committee, and having reread the relevant proceedings in Hansard, I am not entirely happy.