It's a pleasure to speak in this debate and I'm delighted to note the report of the Welsh Affairs Committee. I read it at the time it came out. I thought it was a good report. It’s relatively short; I wouldn’t describe it as a comprehensive report. My assessment was a bit different than the Minister’s in that I didn't read its focus as being especially on the constitutional side or looking at this in a sort of neutral ‘Should it be devolved?’ as opposed to a ‘What would the impact be if—?’ type of way. The substance of it, at least in terms of change of positioning at that Westminster level on a cross-party basis, seemed to relate to the evidence about Bristol Airport. And I think they concluded pretty firmly that even if we were to abolish or substantially reduce APD if devolved, the effect on Bristol Airport would be pretty small, and, frankly, not a sufficient basis for determining whether this tax should not be devolved here when it is devolved to Scotland and Northern Ireland.

In terms of points 2 and 3 and the references to the cross-party consensus, and pushing this forward with point 4, my group have discussed this and reflected on it. I was very grateful to the Minister, actually, yesterday, for answering my questions in a telephone call and setting out a bit more about the position of the Welsh Government, and for her frankness in that, which I appreciated. I think there has been a shift in emphasis from the impact of cutting or getting rid of the tax to one of varying it, but I understand the Minister’s perspective, as she’s expressed just now, that she would like Westminster to look at each tax and an argument for devolution on the merits of devolution, as opposed to the specific merits of a proposed policy, given it would be being devolved for us to decide here what that policy should be.

Nonetheless, I do think that it is easier to assess the merits of a policy where there is a firm intention as to what direction it should be. My understanding still is that the Welsh Government would be looking to reduce if not abolish it and the potential benefit to Cardiff Airport would be something that we should properly consider in that. And of course Welsh Government owns Cardiff Airport, so if it were to become a more popular airport and a better business proposition, some of the benefit of that would go to the taxpayer, either from increased dividends or lower net cash going into it going forward, or indeed from selling a minority stake if the Government were ever to do that. So that's something that weighs with us. 

I was less convinced by the arguments Nick Ramsay put forward about this being a matter of parity with Scotland and therefore we should do it. Scotland has significantly greater powers in many areas than we do here. I wouldn't argue for parity on one of those, and I wasn't aware that he did either, at least not across the board. Scotland has the power to vary the rates and not just the rates but the thresholds of income tax. People in Scotland are paying significantly more tax towards the upper middle and higher end of the income distribution because the threshold has not been raised as it has in England and indeed Wales for the 40p rate. Yes, I'll take an intervention.