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Finance Bill

The hon. Gentleman is right, and two separate costs are involved here. The first is the cost to the businesses, which are often marginal: for instance, although they have had a very good season this year, one of them may still not have made any money. However, the second cost is borne by the people who work as ski lift operators in the winter and who become forest and agricultural rangers in the summer. They are tiny in number, but essential to the sector, and I hope that the Minister will say something about them. The final group that I would like to mention comprises those involved in mountain rescue. Some 500 vehicles in Scotland are used for mountain rescue. Mountain rescue teams are concerned about vehicle excise duty on the vehicles that they, and their many volunteer members, use to get up the hill to commence a rescue. The example of mountain rescue opens up two interesting points. The mountain rescue commission for Scotland has told me that 4x4 vehicles used as ambulances are already fully exempt from VED, so there can be no argument that this cannot be done. I also understand that the Treasury has been in negotiations with the UK body representing the commission since late last summer, and that the discussions—I hope that the Minister can confirm this—may be about exempting all mountain rescue vehicles from VED. We have small numbers of people in fragile economies earning low agricultural-level wages. We are absolutely not arguing that price should not be used as an incentive for behavioural change—we believe on balance that it should. However, in terms of the implementation of this measure, the impact on some of the poorest-paid people in the most fragile economies and key sectors could be damaging. I very much look forward to hearing what the Minister has to say, Sir Nicholas—I hope that I spared your blushes earlier—and shall decide after that whether to press my amendment to the vote.