European Communities (Definition of Treaties) (Cooperation Agreement between the European Community and its Member States and the Swiss Confederation to Combat Fraud) Order 2006

My Lords, on these Benches we too welcome the order. I have four specific points to raise with the Minister. In terms of the fraud most likely to be caught by the order, he said that we are talking about the VAT-missing trader or carousel fraud, which has reached almost phenomenal levels. We are talking about extraordinary sums. There was a report in the press last week that the Government were considering amending the VAT accounting regime—at source, as it were—so that VAT would no longer be accountable on certain kinds of goods being imported. I wondered whether that was an idea that had any substance or whether it was just being floated by the journalist. When the order was debated in another place, the Paymaster-General explained that it covered only indirect taxation, because direct taxes were covered by bilateral agreements and the EU has no remit. She hoped that the UK would shortly sign a protocol with Switzerland on the taxation of savings and that this would cover much of the direct tax side where fraud might take place. Could the Minister indicate whether, when that protocol is signed, there will still be other areas of taxation—on the personal tax side, which might not technically be savings taxes—where there is no agreement with Switzerland? Is the protocol currently being negotiated one of a series or, hopefully, from the Government’s point of view, would it then give comprehensive coverage? In the other place, they debated whether the current discussions with the Swiss on direct taxation would give UK investigators greater access to Swiss banking information. I believe that the Paymaster-General said that it would, although Swiss banks still have rules about disclosure of information that are less forthcoming than elsewhere. I wondered whether the Government felt able to persuade the Swiss to be rather more forthcoming on the information that they are prepared to make available when fraud is being alleged. Finally, the noble Lord, Lord Howard, on the subject of signing off the EU accounts, made the point that no other public or private body would get away with it. The Minister might correct me, but at least one British government department has not had its accounts signed off for many years. If that is the case, I would be most grateful if he could confirm it.