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Finance Bill

The hon. Gentleman may be referring to the requirement on accounting officers to confirm that their businesses have appropriate systems in place for assessment of tax. No doubt we will have some debate on that in Committee. The great majority of people will think that it is appropriate that companies give that assurance as a measure to help address the problems of avoidance, which were mentioned in the debate and which have been of concern elsewhere. It is an appropriate measure to ensure that companies are paying the tax that is due. On the pension changes that were discussed in the debate, we will consult on the detail of how those will work. I can confirm that civil servants on sufficiently high salaries will be affected by those changes. We were asked in the debate whether we would acknowledge the position of those who make regular but less frequent pension contributions—less frequently than quarterly. I refer Members to my statement to the House on Budget day, in which I confirmed that we would examine that issue. The shadow Chief Secretary asked whether we would use plea bargaining with tax avoiders. The Bill sets out the criteria for exemption from HMRC publishing people's names in the event that they deliberately evade taxes, which is a full disclosure, either unprompted or prompted, within a time frame specified by HMRC. The hon. Gentleman was right—just last week we secured state aid approval for the venture capital trust scheme, but I caution him about looking at the prospect for relaxing some of the restrictions put in place in 2007. We will need to ensure that we continue to comply with state aid rules. Many businesses, especially in London, will have been extremely concerned about the hon. Gentleman's refusal to commit his party to support for the Crossrail scheme. There is very strong support among businesses and, I thought, across the House for the Crossrail project. His unwillingness to commit to that will have caused widespread concern. I wish to comment on some of the other contributions in the debate. The hon. Member for Taunton (Mr. Browne) made some observations about the Government's approach. He made some enjoyable observations about the Conservative party. I particularly enjoyed the bit where the hon. Member for Beverley and Holderness (Mr. Stuart) felt that he had to leap to his feet to defend his party leader from the criticisms that the hon. Gentleman was delivering. The hon. Member for Taunton did not have a great deal to say about the Bill, but I am sure he will do so in the debates next week and upstairs in Committee. My hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton, South-West (Rob Marris) made a characteristically thoughtful speech and I, for one, would welcome his presence on a seventh Finance Bill Committee. He is absolutely right to underline the need to plan for efficiency savings. We have announced that we will introduce £5 billion of efficiency savings from next year, and they will be very carefully planned, as opposed to the slash-and-burn approach that we have seen from the Opposition. It is absurd for the Conservatives to demand £5 billion in spending cuts this year without any attempt at all to identify where those savings would fall or what their effects would be. My hon. Friend was right to highlight the scale of the increase in borrowing in the next few years, and that those increases will be matched throughout the world in comparable countries. In fact, they will be matched not only in developed countries but in developing countries. He was right also to welcome the first-year allowances, which businesses have widely welcomed. The hon. Member for Dundee, East (Stewart Hosie) commented on the rise in unemployment, and I agree about the concern at the rise. That is why I am sure that he will welcome the job guarantee for young people, which was announced in the Budget. Indeed, perhaps he will agree with this recent comment:""Previous recessions have left tens of thousands unemployed for years, even decades, and stuck on dependency culture without the skills that they need to get a job. The devastating impact…is still being felt in many parts of the UK today. It is encouraging that action is being taken"—" in the Budget—""to target this"." That was Margaret Eaton, the Conservative chair of the Local Government Association, welcoming that measure in the Budget. My hon. Friend the Member for Edmonton (Mr. Love) also made an excellent speech, rightly drawing attention, through his visit with others to the Debt Management Office this morning, to the realities of the current market for Government debt.