National Insurance Contributions Bill

I shall certainly endeavour to do so, Madam Deputy Speaker, and I am sorry if my previous response suggested a certain immodesty on my part. In considering what is reasonable, the Europeans tend to look at human rights and reflect on whether our proposals fit in with the ECHR. We shall deal with that in more detail when we debate the next group of amendments. There is a strong argument, which has almost been conceded by Ministers, that their proposals may not fully satisfy the ECHR. That is therefore the answer to the question that my right hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst asked about the European interpretation of ““reasonable””.