Speeches by Hinds.

“That is one of a number of worries I have about this proposal; I am grateful to the hon. Member for putting it in such a rational and straightforward way. I was coming on to say that international inbound tourism scores even more highly because, counterintuitively, tourism into this country is an export. In classical K…”

“I do agree; the hon. Member makes some very good points about national insurance contributions, which I will go on to talk about further. He also makes some very good points about looking at the set of taxes as a whole—we cannot just look at a bed tax or a tourism tax without thinking about all the other taxes. However…”

“I do not know if the hon. Gentleman heard the earlier intervention by the hon. Member for Torbay (Steve Darling), who made the point—quite rightly—that we cannot look at a single tax in isolation. I will come on to discuss that point, and I will invite the hon. Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Danny Beales) to lo…”

“The hon. Gentleman is a wise man, and he anticipates a point I will come to very shortly. Under the previous Government, candidly, there were increases to air passenger duty, rises in visa charges, the introduction of the electronic travel authorisation at a price of £10, and of course the loss of VAT-free shopping for…”

“The hon. Gentleman knows the answer!”

“That was my next sentence!”

“If I am an events organiser, do I have one person in your organisation who I go through and then that person does all the—”

“Beyond VisitScotland, is there anything else in the set-up that simplifies that process of all these different public sector bodies that I need to work with?”

“Can I ask about the visitor levy? This is quite a big change coming to the Scottish travel and tourism sector this year, right?”

“I am not quite done, but I totally understand that. I think that the Edinburgh rate is 5%, Glasgow will be 5%, Stirling 3% and Aberdeen 7%. Without having to know the details of how all that works, let’s assume that gets passed on entirely in rate. It may not be 100%, but let’s assume it is. Would you expect that to ha…”

“Do they have a choice? It is just a bed tax, right? Any overnighting visitor I think would—”

“Particularly relevant to your part of the thing, first of all is the revenue ringfenced? You are in the business of bringing great events to Scotland that generate economic activity and joy, but they require marketing and they require organisation, they require facilities and so on. Do you have a guarantee that the rev…”

“I do have one more question. Is there a particular focus, or does it come under you to bid for business events, the big conventions, fairs and so on?”

“From July, in Edinburgh, Glasgow?”

“Totally understanding and respecting that this is not your specialist area, I think VisitScotland leads the visitor levy expert group, is that right?”

“Whether it is large events or smaller events, one theme that we have heard in this inquiry is the difficulty, the frustration, or the admin cost of having to deal with multiple branches of the public sector, local authorities, policing, transport, and so on. It was suggested that you have overcome that with the proverb…”

“If I am an events organiser, do I have one person in your organisation who I go through and then that person does all the—”

“Beyond VisitScotland, is there anything else in the set-up that simplifies that process of all these different public sector bodies that I need to work with?”

“Whether it is large events or smaller events, one theme that we have heard in this inquiry is the difficulty, the frustration, or the admin cost of having to deal with multiple branches of the public sector, local authorities, policing, transport, and so on. It was suggested that you have overcome that with the proverb…”

“Can I ask about the visitor levy? This is quite a big change coming to the Scottish travel and tourism sector this year, right?”