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Finance Bill

The amendment invites us to change clause 11. The substance of the argument, as we heard in that interesting opening, is that the increases in duty proposed by the Government are too high and could damage jobs and the industry. An alternative mechanism is proposed for further review so that there would be no further increases in the duty rates unless and until we had taken proper advice about their impact on jobs. That has a lot to recommend it, and I look forward to hearing what my party's Front Benchers think about it. When the Minister responds, it would be helpful if she explained a little more about the workings of the increases and the escalator in clause 11 so that we can judge what account, if any, the Government have taken of the impact of these high and rising duty rates on the business and why she might think that another proposal is not necessary. In the explanatory notes to the Bill, we are told that clause 11 increases the duty by a nominal 2 per cent. However, if we look at what the clause actually says, we see that, for example, the standard rate of duty on beer is to rise from £14.96 to £16.47—a rise of a little over 10 per cent.