National Insurance Contributions Bill

I enthusiastically support amendment No.5. With no collusion, my right hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst and I filed amendments in exactly the same terms. That must show something, although I am not quite sure what. I hope the House will take the view that it shows that we are working on the right lines. Amendment No. 5 is important as it removes one of the worst and most oppressive elements of the Bill, which offends against all the principles of natural justice. I am not convinced about amendments Nos. 6 and 20. I shall devote most of my remarks to the support of amendment No. 16, which proposes leaving out the words ““2nd December 2004”” and inserting instead ““11th October 2005””; in other words it substitutes the date when the Paymaster General made her written statement to the House for the date when the Bill was published and thus available for inspection of its contents. Although ideally, retrospection should not take effect before the date of a Bill’s enactment, it is a well-established convention for Finance Bills that retrospection can apply from the date when the Bill was published.