National Insurance Contributions Bill

This has been a long and broad debate, covering a number of areas. I want to touch on each of them in responding to the amendments. First, I need to remind the House of the context of the proposals that we are considering this afternoon. Both the right hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Mr. Forth) and the hon. Member for Christchurch (Mr. Chope) referred to the question of whether this action was just or right, and the hon. Member for Christchurch spoke about using the mechanism to raise higher national insurance. I remind the House that between 1998 and 2005, both the Conservatives and the present Government produced anti-avoidance legislation in Finance Bills to counter an abuse of tax and national insurance, particularly involving high-value bonuses. Individuals were seeking to disguise their bonuses in order not to declare them as salary, or employment remuneration. They tried to conceal the bonuses, or pretended that they had received the largesse for some other reason and that therefore it was not subject to the normal, straightforward rules of national insurance and tax.