Speeches by Davies.

“At the moment, we think this is the best we can estimate. We are not doing this knowing full well that we will have to come back later in the year. It is always a possibility, though, so we can never rule it out. I guess that is what the process is for—things that you could not have predicted at this time of the year, …”

“Well, we are doing. This is not more staff to do the same work; this is more staff because, crucially, we are having to take on a higher workload. The question is: what are we doing to improve our productivity almost regardless of the volume of that work? That is where the investment I was talking about in our IT capab…”

“One of the areas we have not talked about yet is that we are insourcing a degree of the work that we have previously outsourced to the firms. That will mean a headcount increase for us, but lower costs than would otherwise have been the case. That is particularly the case for whole audits where there is not a high leve…”

“Yes. I might bring in my colleagues on this, but this is why we do relatively little of the in-house employment of specialists who are not auditors. The areas where we need this kind of advice are valuations, for example, and surveyor expertise. We also need actuarial advice from qualified actuaries, and we need financ…”

“We used a lot of benchmarking of turnover levels and pay levels compared with our competitors. A very relevant factor this year is that, as you can see from the timing of our estimate, we always have to estimate and agree the pay award earlier than the civil service. Last year our pay award to our staff was 3% and then…”

“No, it is our proposal. It is subject to approval by you and the Public Accounts Commission, but it is our recommendation, based on the benchmarking that I was describing.”

“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…”

“There are two large areas where we spend money on the audit firms. One is outsourcing whole audits, and that is the bit we are reducing over the next two or three years. That process, as I said, would deliver about £1.4 million-worth of savings, compared with what it would cost if we carried on using them.”

“Million. We are not that big. The other part where we have seen cost pressure is the specialist advice that we have to buy—what I was just describing was the valuation advice and financial instruments advice—and the audits we are doing right now require significant amounts of that specialist advice—for example, when we…”

“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…”

“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 …”

“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.”

“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…”

“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…”

“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.”

“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…”

“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…”

“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,…”

“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.”

“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…”