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Finance (No. 2) Bill

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker. Sections 29 and 30 of the Energy Act 2004 were intended to prevent BNFL site licensee companies from incurring corporation tax charges as a consequence of accounting entries made to reflect the assumption of financial responsibilities for the decommissioning and cleaning up of certain civil nuclear sites by the NDA. As I said in Committee, the House agreed the provision to prevent a large amount of Government money moving in circles. To be precise, it was intended to make sure that in transfers from public bodies, one public body does not have a tax-deductible loss, while the other public body receiving the assets has a gain that is also not taxable. In Committee, my hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton, South-West (Rob Marris) mentioned discussions on state aid issues subsequent to the 2004 Act. There was a mismatch between what was agreed by this House in the 2004 Act and subsequent clarifications on state aid. What is proposed now—it was included in the state aid notification in respect of the NDA—is not considered as state aid, because the effect of the exemption is tax neutral with respect to the Government, which is why I have mentioned the circular effect between publicly owned bodies. The provision allows accounting entries without the problem of money coming in with one hand and going out with the other. My hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton, South-West has asked about the cost of decommissioning on the historic provisions of nuclear civil sites. That has nothing to do with the future, should there be one, because the matter is completely outside the arrangements. Clauses 99 and 100 were included in the Finance Bill because it was the next available parliamentary vehicle to correct the provisions in the 2004 Act, and I assure my hon. Friend that the clauses were not about preparing for a transfer to the private sector.