National Insurance Contributions Bill

The hon. Gentleman has been here long enough to know that subsequent legislation is not as easy as it sounds when he says it quickly. If he were to ask his hon. Friends who are Ministers how easy it is for them to get the Bills that they want, to do the things that they want or to correct the things that they want to correct, he would get a pretty dusty response. There is always a debate, and it is a very important one, as to whether it is better to have a measure in a Bill, thus making it difficult to change by subsequent primary legislation, or whether, ironically, it is preferable to have it in regulations because although, under the current procedure, they cannot be amended, they can be returned to somewhat more easily. I make a half-concession to the hon. Gentleman in the sense that if something were to be done by regulations, and they were faulty, that could at least be picked up. In fact, I can assure him that the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments spends its entire life doing just that, if I may say so with all due modesty, very well indeed and with great competence and élan.