Finance Bill

The hon. Member for Braintree (Mr. Newmark) said that he was ““not advocating complacency as a solution””. A couple of very good points that he made at the end of his speech concerned vulnerable workers, whether migrant workers or otherwise. Another part of the economy in which we have had a problem for a long time is the construction industry. I think that action is overdue. The hon. Member for Braintree is too young to remember ““the lump”” on building sites, but it was operating when I was a teenager, and there is now an updated version of it among construction workers. Not only can it rip off the Treasury and therefore other taxpayers; it can rip off the individual building worker. Worse than that—because of the grey area in which the individual worker finds himself—it can have implications for safety. Some safety legislation covers only employees, as opposed to workers. I therefore suggest to the hon. Gentleman that the amendments that he supports are, in fact, an expression of complacency about a problem that we face in terms of tax revenue and in terms of individual safety.