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Finance Bill

I entirely understand my hon. Friend’s lamentation that on the whole one certainly does not look for additional items to be included in Government legislation; on the whole one searches for measures that can be deleted from it. However, I hope that my hon. Friend agrees that, whatever the complexity of Government proposals, that is no excuse for unintelligibility. As a parliamentary point, let me say that when the Government decide that a change is needed, it is important that wherever possible that should be stated in clear terms in the Bill in question. Is my hon. Friend concerned that the order-making power in schedule 18 allows for regulations the content and detail of which we in this House might not see until some time after we have voted for the legislation? That will not do, it is not satisfactory, it happens under Governments of both colours and it ought to be changed.