§ Mrs. RocheTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many pages of the Finance Bill were drafted otherwise than by parliamentary counsel; which were the outside agencies employed to draft sections of the Bill; how many pages were drafted by each agency; and how much was paid to each such agency for the pages drafted by it. [11946]
§ Mr. Jack[holding answer 29 January 1996]: The following sections of the Finance Bill were drafted by the private sector:
Pages Clauses 6 and 11, legislating two Customs and Excise extra-statutory concessions 1 Mrs. Margaret Leates, a draftsman in private practice Clauses 21 to 25 and Schedule 2, putting into UK law the second VAT directive 11½ Nabarro Nathanson Clause 146 and schedule 27, introducing new arrangements for the deduction of tax on foreign dividends by paying and collecting agents 14 Freshfields Clause 186 and schedule 35, legislating 11 Inland Revenue extra-statutory concessions 6 Members of Pump Court Tax Chambers Total 132½ 1Thirty-one of these pages are in schedules which are set in the Finance Bill with a smaller typeface than the clauses. The total payment to these draftsmen for work done up to the publication of the Bill is expected to be £130,000. This includes the cost of one page of legislation which Ministers decided, for policy reasons, not to include in this year's Bill.
The amount paid to each agency is a matter of commercial confidence.