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Corporation Tax Bill

My hon. Friend anticipates my next remark almost perfectly. I made the point on Second Reading that the tax law rewrite team is a very useful structure. It is a dedicated team consisting of HMRC staff and secondees. There is a steering group made up of Members of both Houses and accountants, lawyers and academics, and there is scrutiny by a Joint Committee, again made up of Members of both Houses, but it has a limited role, looking only at the drafting. What we propose, and as was advocated by my noble Friend Lord Howe in his report last summer, is that we do exactly as my hon. Friend the Member for Cities of London and Westminster (Mr. Field) suggests and move towards expanding the remit of the tax law rewrite process or, to use the analogy of the Law Commission, that we move towards a body that is consistently looking at ways we can simplify our tax system, that we see that as a long-term objective that is clearly to the benefit of the UK economy, and that we therefore do not spend our time producing reports and new laws that have value, but are not as valuable as they might be if we made a proper attempt at rewriting our tax law to make it much simpler. The administration of tax law and the complexity of tax law are important issues. The tax burden is enormously important, but the way our tax law works is proving to be a disadvantage to the UK. We could once be proud of our tax law, but I fear that that is not the case any more. In conclusion, we support the Bill. We note that it adds to the length of our tax code, but the attempt at greater clarity is to be valued. The Bill does not do all that it could do. We would benefit hugely from greater simplification of corporation tax. The Bill does not provide that, so it is of more limited use than it might be. I urge the Government once again to examine the process whereby tax law is made. A permanent body seeking to achieve greater simplification would be of enormous benefit to the UK.