Office of Tax Simplification Debate

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Department: HM Treasury

Office of Tax Simplification

Emma Reynolds Excerpts
Tuesday 20th July 2010

(14 years, 3 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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David Gauke Portrait Mr Gauke
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That is right, and I would add our tax policy-making paper to that list. We want to provide greater certainty and stability in the tax system. It will encourage businesses to invest in the UK, and we are making good progress.

Emma Reynolds Portrait Emma Reynolds (Wolverhampton North East) (Lab)
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It is ironic that the new Government’s anti-quango approach seems to be translating into setting up more quangos. Apart from grabbing headlines, why cannot the functions of this new office be carried out within the Treasury and, therefore, be directly accountable to Parliament?

David Gauke Portrait Mr Gauke
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Some months ago my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister made a speech identifying those areas in which quangos would be an advantage, and one of those was the ability to provide independent advice in a technical area. This is one of those areas, and we believe that engaging with outside bodies and making use of outside expert advice will actually benefit the creation of good tax law and improve our tax system. This policy is not about grabbing headlines, but improving our tax system because that is what we want to do. We will leave the headline grabbing and the sudden announcements to our predecessors.