§ Mr. WorthingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will set out the policy considerations on which he based his recent decisions to amend provisions relating to the poll tax; and what consideration he gave to alternative amendments.
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonExperience of the operation of the community charge in Scotland has enabled us to identify improvements which will result in chargepayers being treated more equitably. We are therefore making a number of changes to the legislation. These include changes to the standard community charge arrangements, widening of the exemption for people who are severely mentally impaired and the introduction of a transitional relief scheme to assist people who have faced a significant increase in expenditure as a result of replacing domestic rates with the community charge.