Finance Bill

We have had yet another good debate on the challenges facing HMRC and the Government in tackling some of the systematic and very serious fraud perpetrated against our VAT system. I welcome the support that hon. Members in all parts of the House have given us in that regard. We have also had a useful debate, as we have done previously during the Bill’s passage, on some of the problems that are evident and that senior HMRC officials and I have recognised and are concerned about in relation to delays in VAT registration and repayments. I shall come in a moment to the provisions in new clause 4, which I do not think will help deal with those problems. Nevertheless, given the scale of the work that HMRC does and the intense impact and difficulties that can be caused for individual companies, it is appropriate that we debate these matters on the Floor of the House. The hon. Members for Ludlow (Mr. Dunne), for Rochford and Southend, East (James Duddridge) and for Braintree (Mr. Newmark) all mentioned particular constituency companies. If each of them separately would like to give me the names of those companies, I shall consider the cases. I shall check on the present position of the company raised by the hon. Member for Ludlow and ensure that he receives an update, and I shall do the same for the hon. Member for Rochford and Southend, East, whom I can reassure in passing that carousel fraud in the VAT system is a major concern, although our vigilance on other forms of VAT fraud continues. If the hon. Member for Braintree can let me have the name of the company—we have discussed it before and I have caused inquiries to be undertaken, as I undertook to do—for the purposes of taxpayer confidentiality and to ensure that I have the right company, I can, with that confirmation, get back to him on the current position.