National Insurance Contributions Bill

Hon. Members must draw their own conclusions. When the Paymaster General made her statement, if the Rees conventions had been complied with, consultation with the relevant parties would have been carried out immediately and the Bill would have included the appropriate draft clauses. However, the regulatory impact assessment tells us that no detailed consultation took place before the Bill was published, because the measure is directed at tax avoidance. If the Paymaster General is right in saying that everything was plain and apparent back in December 2004, what harm would there have been in working out the detailed legislative formula that was to flow from the proposition set out on 2 December 2004? As the Institute of Chartered Accountants has said:"““We do not think that anyone reading the Paymaster General’s 2 December 2004 statement could have expected the content of the Bill.””" ““Anyone”” includes not only dullards, but smart lawyers, accountants and others. I know that my hon. Friend the Member for Fareham (Mr. Hoban), who is on the Front Bench, is a distinguished accountant, and perhaps he will tell us later whether he knew exactly what would happen when he read the Paymaster General’s statement. If it was obvious, there could have been no harm in having detailed consultations with the profession, but that never happened. Amendment No. 19 would remove a grotesque Henry VIII provision that gives a power to change primary legislation by regulation and to do so, in certain circumstances, retrospectively. That is wholly unjustified, even in what the Minister described as the extreme circumstances that make the Bill necessary. I hope that she can explain why she thinks that this particular provision is necessary. This is a very serious issue. We are talking about an assault on fundamental freedoms that go back to the days of Magna Carta. The Minister will say, as always, that there is a precedent. The problem is that every time we take away one of those freedoms, or salami-slice it a little bit, we are gradually giving the state more power. The Government argue that the Bill has an element of proportionality. I should like to draw the House’s attention to what the explanatory notes say about article 8 of the European convention on human rights. Paragraph 84 states:"““Clause 7 enables, but does not require, provision to be made requiring disclosure””." Paragraph 85 states:"““The Government considers that any perceived interference with rights under Article 8 of the Convention created by these provisions is justified under paragraph 2 of that Article on the grounds that it is necessary in the interests of the economic well-being of the country.””" If the provision was in the interests of the economic well-being of the country because it would raise vast sums of money proportionate to the overall budget of the Exchequer, one could begin to see that it might comply with the article. Let us consider this in context. At its height, the provision will raise £96 million for the financial year 2004–05. Yet, earlier this month, the Government announced in the pre-Budget report that they propose to borrow £151 billion over the next five years. It is hard to see that raising £96 million—which equates to £3 or £4 per person in employment—through retrospective legislation can be justified on the basis of proportionality. Is that modest gain justified by the enormous assault on our civil liberties and human rights represented by this provision? I do not think so, and that is why I hope that the House will support the amendment.