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Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

I appreciate that the noble Lord’s amendment is a probing one. Although I would normally tend to favour any mechanism that was designed for the reduction of tax I agree with him that it would be appropriate that, just as the Bill prevents any increases in tax, it should not allow for any decreases through this mechanism, and that the appropriate mechanism would be a Finance Bill. In what I think was his first outing as the new Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Cabinet Office, Mr Pat McFadden seemed to indicate that that was what should happen. I should be very grateful for confirmation of that from the Minister. When Pat McFadden responded in the House of Commons, he said: "““It is not possible to use the powers to create a new tax, but it will be possible to reduce a tax if it meets the procedures and ""safeguards. In practice, however, tax reform would be dealt with in either a Finance Bill or a tax law rewrite project””.—[Official Report, Commons, 15/5/06; col. 720.]" If that is the case, why does it not say that in the Bill? That would seem a more appropriate way in which to deal with these matters.