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Finance Bill

My hon. Friend is quite correct. I have the map that he produced in front of me and there are one or two pockets where, as he says, there are no petrol stations. Most of the area in the mainland that would be involved in the scheme is contiguous. The hon. Member for South-West Hertfordshire said that our scheme was rather sketchy, but my hon. Friend the Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross put forward a very detailed scheme in his paper. I shall not read out the whole paper—[Hon. Members: "Oh, go on!"] Despite that request, I shall concentrate on the part of the scheme mentioned in paragraph 3.2 of his paper, where he gave a summary of how the scheme would be implemented. First of all, filling stations in rural areas designated by the amendment will have to apply to be designated filling stations under subsection (3). When they do so, there will be a discussion with HMRC to establish an agreed trading margin based on VAT returns from previous years. The returns will contain both input and output tax, and so are a record of sales and costs. Designated filling stations would then contract to use the agreed margin on all fuel sales. They would be required to keep evidence to prove conformity, which could be audited easily as part of the normal VAT checks procedure. There is plenty of detail, and the scheme is not sketchy in the way that the hon. Member for South-West Hertfordshire suggested.