Member

I would like to press the Minister on the specific changes to the EPL legislated for in the Bill. I understand that the headline rate of 78% was selected to match that in Norway, but I wonder whether the Government had considered going any further and looked, for example, at a headline rate of 80%. Was there a cost-benefit analysis? Some of the biggest oil and gas producers in the world may well be able to afford to pay a little more, and the additional tax revenue would be a big help for our public services—it could have helped avert the cut to the winter fuel payment. Will the Minister confirm that the Government intend to publish Treasury analysis on how much revenue could be raised from each 1p increase in the headline rate of the windfall tax?