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Finance Bill

I hear what the hon. Gentleman says. I am trying to make the fiscal case, and I hope he has not overstated his position, but I have made the point that bingo clubs are vital in many communities, particularly to women. In certain communities they provide an afternoon as well as a night-time economy. They are extraordinarily important. I was talking about employment levels and the importance of jobs in the communities concerned. We have seen 31 bingo halls close recently. I think that one closed very recently in Montrose, in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Angus (Mr. Weir). That was a loss, and it involved a loss of jobs. We have seen 4,000 jobs go from the sector in the last six years, and in many cases it was argued that that was a result of the double taxation. Goodness knows what would happen now, with this unfair taxation. We do not want any more jobs to go—certainly on that scale—in the middle of a recession. There are many, many arguments for ensuring that the tax regime is fair, and that bingo clubs stay open to provide social life, community cohesion and employment. I said at the outset that bingo was taxed unfairly in comparison with many forms of gaming, and that casino duty was applied on a sliding scale, rather like income tax. The first £1.9 million of revenue in a six-month period is taxed at 15 per cent., the next £1.2 million is taxed at 20 per cent., and so on through the bands—30, 40 and 50 per cent. I understand that even if bingo were taxed on that basis, all clubs would pay tax at 15 per cent. I am sure that if there were a super-club making huge amounts of money the levies would be high, but it strikes me that, given that all online betting and betting shop gaming is taxed at 15 per cent., given that even if bingo were taxed on the same basis as casino duty it would be taxed at 15 per cent., and given the social importance and importance to community cohesion and jobs of bingo halls in many of our constituencies, fairness alone should dictate that the duty should not be raised to 22 per cent. I hope that the Government will view that suggestion sympathetically, not least given the difficulties over what is happening to VAT, on which they seem to be basing their calculation of any benefit conferred on the industry by the tax increase. I am pleased that we have done away with the iniquity of double taxation. I hope that the Minister will now go a step further and, with the single tax, ensure fair taxation and fair play for bingo. Mr. Eric Illsley (Barnsley, Central) (Lab): It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Dundee, East (Stewart Hosie), who gave a very good account of the present state of bingo taxation. As he said, over the last few years attempts have been made to remove the iniquity of the double tax. He will probably recall that last year there were meetings between Members and the Prime Minister, the Chancellor and my hon. Friend the Exchequer Secretary with the aim of removing VAT on participation fees, which is where the double taxation occurred: bingo clubs were paying VAT on participation fees while also paying gross profits tax. Last year's campaign to reduce the burden on bingo clubs was unsuccessful, although, as the hon. Member for Dundee, East pointed out, a number of clubs were closing. In my constituency, one of the Gala bingo clubs closed towards the end of last year. We lost a valuable facility, which I will come on to in a moment. The campaign to change the double taxation started in 2003 with amendments to the Finance Bill of that year.