Speeches by Davies.

“Yes. The intake last September was our largest ever—just over a hundred graduates and school leavers—and we are looking for a similar volume in this intake. Clearly, we have to make sure that we keep our quality standards very high in that recruitment process. We are doing very well at the moment, at a time when the fi…”

“Some things are very measurable and important, such as timely, completed audits of Government accounts and good-quality results from our regulator. Our audits, as you know, are inspected by the same regulator as for the big firms, so there are measurable things to show whether we are doing our job well. In some ways, h…”

“Yes, there will. Of course, there will be big debates about attribution: “This may have improved, but was it anything to do with the NAO?” That is a perfectly fair question, but without the data you cannot even start to have that discussion.”

“I completely agree with the point that my hon. Friend is making, which has also been made to me by several local businesses in my constituency. This is a double whammy. We have a tax increase that will increase the cost of doing business and affect the profitability of businesses and, in some cases, their survival; in …”

“I welcome the opportunity to contribute on behalf of His Majesty’s Opposition. As the Minister said, the first statutory instrument sets rates, limits and thresholds for national insurance contributions for the 2025-26 tax year. It covers the rate of class 2 NICs, the small profits threshold, the rate of voluntary clas…”

“It is, as always, a great pleasure to see you in the Chair, Ms Vaz. As the Minister set out, clauses 58 to 60 make amendments to requirements for inheritance tax exemptions involving employee benefit trusts. Clause 58 provides that restrictions on shareholders and connected persons benefiting from employee benefit trus…”

“As the Minister said, clause 61 brings land managed under an environmental agreement—be that with the UK Government, devolved Governments, public bodies, local authorities or approved responsible bodies—within the scope of agricultural property relief. I am afraid we have here Labour taking with one hand and providing …”

“The Minister may think that this is a minor issue—and he will be pleased to know that I agree with him. [Laughter.] I am just waking everybody up. The requirement is redundant and we will not oppose the clause.”

“My hon. Friend the Member for North West Norfolk will speak to this clause, Ms Vaz.”

“As the Minister said, the clause amends the main rates of the climate change levy from April 2026, in line with RPI, for electricity, gas and other taxable commodities, while continuing to freeze the rate for LPG. We will not oppose the measures in the clause. I was pleased to see the Government confirm their plans to …”

“As the Minister said, the clause uprates the aggregates levy in line with inflation. These provisions in this Finance Bill are pretty much identical to those that we put forward in the Finance Act 2024. It is therefore right that we do not oppose them. Question put and agreed to. Clause 76 accordingly ordered to stand …”

“As the Minister said, clause 77 uprates the plastic packaging tax in line with inflation. The provisions in this Finance Bill are pretty much identical to those that we put forward in the Finance Act 2024, and we will not be opposing them; but on this particular tax measure, I seem to remember the now Exchequer Secreta…”

“The clauses tackle tax avoidance in limited liability partnerships and their participants, as the Minister pointed out. Tax avoidance is something that we took very seriously when in government, and made some great progress on, so we will not oppose this latest measure.”

“The clause provides the Treasury with the powers to make regulations for the OECD cryptoasset reporting framework which, as the Minister pointed out, we signed up for when in government. I have one question, which has come up quite a lot in the industry and perhaps even in the Minister’s previous role outside politics,…”

“Let me just gather my speech. [Laughter.] Clause 84 makes some of the more technical and minor amendments to various pieces of legislation, so in the interests of good housekeeping if nothing else, His Majesty’s Official Opposition has no point to raise on the matter. Question put and agreed to. Clause 84 accordingly o…”

“Thanks to clause 85, I do not think anything remains to be interpreted, so I will sit down. Question put and agreed to. Clause 85 accordingly ordered to stand part of the Bill. Clause 86 Short title Question proposed, That the clause stand part of the Bill.”

“It will be no surprise that we have nothing to add, but as this is the last time I will speak, let me take this opportunity, before you get too emotional, Ms Vaz, to thank you and Mr Mundell, the Clerks, all the officials who have supported the Ministers and, in particular, on my behalf and that of my office, the Chart…”

“Clause 75 amends the landfill tax rates to increase them in line with RPI, adjusted to account for high inflation between 2022 and 2024. As the Minister knows, when in government, we uprated landfill tax in line with RPI in the 2023 and 2024 Finance Acts. We also reduced the landfill tax gap from £275 million in 2017-1…”

“Does the Labour Member who is about to intervene on me support holiday lets?”

“I was pointing out the discrepancy in how, as we covered earlier, the Government are unfreezing income tax—apparently, although they are not legislating for it—but keeping the freeze on inheritance tax, which I pointed out that we did, not least for public finance reasons. Not only that, but the freeze has also been us…”