§ Mr. CormackTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he expects to publish his response to the Wood report.
§ Mr. Curry[holding answer 27 October 1993]: The Government have carefully considered the Wood report on the rating of plant and machinery, and industry's responses to it. The committee has produced a package of measures to update the law, to harmonise the rating systems, and to remove the substantial differences between the rules in the various parts of the United Kingdom.
We have decided that the major recommendations of the report should be implemented throughout Great Britain for the 1995 rating revaluation of all non-domestic property. The main change to the committee's propoals will be to apply these rating rules whatever the valuation technique used.
Implementation of the recommendations will involve replacing secondary legislation in England and Wales, and amending primary legislation in Scotland. The Government will consult interested people shortly on the way in which this will be done.