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Finance Bill

Of course I will, Mrs. Heal. It has been a wide-ranging debate to date. Let me return to the question of the air passenger duty and the proposals of the hon. Member for Christchurch (Mr. Chope). To be clear, air passenger duty is a tax on airlines, payable by airlines. It is charged per passenger at the point of departure from UK airports, so it is a departures tax. It is not a ticket tax, not a booking tax, not a purchase tax. Again, the tax point is the point of departure by the passenger from the UK airport, not the point of purchase of the flight ticket. That is just as it was in 1994 when the APD was introduced by the previous Government and it is just as it has been for every change since.