Mr. Philip Kermode:

One of the most important things to add to what Professor Moloney has said is the need to define what it is thought a tax expenditure is and what the benchmark systems actually are. This helps not only in defining what the tax expenditure is, but also in having a transparent view of what a system is doing or trying to do. Many tax expenditures overcomplicate systems. Some such systems, indeed, may be justified in this regard, and I am thinking especially of climate issues and the need to push for decarbonisation. In that context, we can see cases where such an approach would be justified. As Dr. Roantree said earlier, though, with some issues, once they are put in place, they can be fiendishly difficult to remove. One of the ways of having easier removal is through having undertaken a fully justified tax expenditure analysis at the beginning and then linking this to reviews. For me, this is one of the important parts of the process.