Snp Amendments To The Finance Bill

EDM number 1227 in 2002-03, proposed by Alex Salmond on 15/05/2003.

That this House notes that on this year's Finance Bill the Government's guillotine motion on debate ensured that only limited time was available for the SNP's amendment on ending tax discrimination against whisky and that no time was available to consider the SNP's amendment on providing assistance for exploration and appraisal drilling in the North Sea; expresses disappointment that only one Scottish Labour backbencher briefly attended the whisky debate and that the Secretary of State for Scotland and the Chancellor of the Exchequer made no time to attend despite the crucial nature of these industries to Scotland and the many billions of pounds they send to the Treasury; notes that despite the cross-party consensus of the All-Party Whisky Group that there should be a cut in duty, 39 Scottish Labour honourable Members voted against the amendment which would have provided such a modest cut, and none voted for it; and believes that this incident provides a further example of why these vital matters should be determined by the Scottish Parliament.

This motion has been signed by a total of 5 MPs.