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Finance Bill

The hon. Gentleman raises an important matter. We have indeed reflected carefully on that point, as we do each year. He will perhaps be aware of our significant success in bearing down on tobacco smuggling over the past decade. That has significantly supported the revenue from tobacco taxation, and we are confident that the measures that we are enacting in the Bill will indeed have the scoring set out in the Red Book alongside them. Clauses 25 to 59 are an important part of the Bill and are part of a big package to tackle tax avoidance, non-compliance and offshore evasion. The package protects around £18 billion worth of yield and will raise a further £1.5 billion in total between now and 2013—over three financial years. The disclosure regime we introduced in 2004 has transformed the battle against avoidance and has protected over £12 billion of revenue since it was introduced six years ago. We have been consulting since the pre-Budget report, in which we set out proposals for strengthening the disclosure arrangements, and clause 57 is the result of that consultation and discussion. It does indeed strengthen and enhance the disclosure regime further still.