National Insurance Contributions Bill

moved Amendment No. 34:"Page 13, line 38, after ““information”” insert ““to the Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs””" The noble Baroness said: I will move Amendment No. 34 and speak also to Amendment No. 35, because they address the same issue. They amend new Section 132A of the Social Security Administration Act 1992, which is inserted by Clause 7. Amendment No. 35 adds,"““to the Commissioners for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs””," to new subsection (1), and Amendment No. 35 deletes ““or any other person”” from new subsection (6). In essence, both the amendments try to find out why the disclosure regime is not restricted to HMRC. I had always understood, perhaps incorrectly, that the disclosure regime for tax purposes applied to HMRC alone. I had also understood Clause 7 to mirror that regime for national insurance. Why is the regulation-making power of new subsection (1) not limited to disclosure to HMRC, and why does the legal privilege exemption in new subsection (6) refer to ““any other person””? If the Government believe that it is or could be appropriate to have disclosure made to anyone outside HMRC, I invite the Minister to be clear about the identity of those persons, or at least to state the nature or type of person who might be involved. I hope that he will see that, for today’s purposes, this is a probing amendment. I beg to move.