§ 41. Mr. Buchanan-Smithasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what will be the cost to the North-East of Scotland in a fall year of the increase in road fuel duty announced on 20th July.
§ 42. Mr. Buchanan-Smithasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what will be the cost to Scotland in a full year of the increase in road fuel duty announced on 20th July.
§ Mr. MacDermotThe additional duty on road fuel in Scotland is estimated at about £5½, million a year. Estimates cannot be made for particular areas of Scotland.
§ Mr. Buchanan-SmithWould not the hon. Gentleman agree that this increase in duty bears particularly hard on the remoter areas of Britain, particularly on Scotland and, contrary to what his right hon. Friend the Prime Minister said in his statement last week, Scotland is by no means exempted from the effects of the Government's economic measures?
§ Mr. MacDermotNo. I would not accept that. There is no evidence that the fuel duty will bear more heavily on such areas, and the measures as a whole are designed to avoid imposing an undue burden upon development areas.