Finance Bill

I am tempted to reply that when we get a workable solution, rather than three unworkable proposals, we will respond with our own; my answer, however, is that I will come to that precise point in a moment, and explain why we might have been able to support the new clause had it been formed in a slightly different way. A Bill is amendable, but regulations are not. Under the new clause, before the next Finance Bill completes its passage—we must presume that it will not have done so by 1 May—Ministers would introduce the scheme by unamendable regulation. That cannot possibly right. Were it right to propose such a scheme, surely Members would want to be able to amend the proposal. However, we have not had any proposal that is capable of being amended, only a vague outline proposal. We would have been pretty sceptical had the Liberals tabled an amendment calling for a report on the swipe-card scheme, but we would have said that the Treasury should publish an assessment. I am not sure why the hon. Member for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey did not table an amendment calling for a report, because plenty of amendments do. Perhaps he felt that there were already a lot of those. Whatever his reason, he has essentially proposed an outline scheme, which the Minister would be required to rush through before the next Finance Bill is complete and which the House could not amend. On that basis, no one should support it in the Lobby.