Finance Bill - Report stage
Philip Dunne calls for publication of the distribution analysis of the effects of the tax changes that was given to Ministers making the policies announced in the 2007 Budget.
Mr. Philip Dunne (Ludlow) (Con): I am very grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for giving way to me, and my intervention will be brief. He is making a key point. His suggestion would help this Chamber to debate these matters, and if such an arrangement had been in place earlier, it would also have helped Ministers when they were making the original decision. The Treasury's permanent secretary told us that the full distribution analysis was available to Ministers when the decision was made in 2007. If so, why has it not been published subsequently, so that we could all see it?
John McFall: There was a lot of conflicting evidence. I well remember the director of the budgetary process coming before the Committee. He was asked how many losers there would be. Was the total 5.3 million? We asked him that question many times, and at last he responded by saying that that might be the ballpark figure. It was all conjecture, but we want certainty. The Government must bear that in mind in future.
