Finance Bill

I had resolved not to take any interventions during my brief speech, but sadly all those hon. Members who intervened so many times in my previous speech have lost interest in the Bill and I am left to speak to a less populated Chamber. I shall not detain the House for long. In Committee, my hon. Friends and I raised several concerns and tabled an amendment specifically about foreign nationals in low-paid employment, small businesses employing foreign nationals, and higher education institutions. We had some useful discussion of those topics and an appropriate de minimis level for this area of the legislation. I shall not revisit that discussion today. The purpose of the amendments that I have tabled, as the hon. Member for Fareham (Mr. Hoban) suggested, is to allow a longer period of time for those seeking to comply and thus to make it easier for them to do so. The drafting of schedule 7 runs to 55 pages or, I am told, 22,989 words. I have not counted them myself, so I cannot vouch for that statistic. It was supplied to me by the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group. The explanatory notes alone are 160 pages long and, given how many amendments the Government have tabled to it, this area of the legislation is clearly a work in progress, even at this late stage. I have tabled eight amendments, but only two are substantial. Amendment No. 94 would prevent part 1 of schedule 7 having effect until Royal Assent. The Institute of Chartered Accountants argues that taxpayers cannot be given guidance until Royal Assent, but the provisions in this part will apply before that happens. Taxpayers may therefore have acted in a way that, at the time, did not constitute a remittance, but will do so once the legislation is in force. The institute states:"““This uncertainty is likely to result in widespread confusion and non-compliance””." That is likely to damage the UK's investment reputation. Amendment No. 95 would prevent changes in part 2 of schedule 7 having effect before 6 April next year. Again, the institute, to which I am indebted for its insights into this aspect of the legislation, states:"““We are concerned that there is insufficient time to scrutinise legislation of this complexity and that, despite the best efforts of all involved, complex legislation passed with such haste could contain errors.””" That is a polite way of putting it. If I had written that, I would have put ““will”” instead of ““could””. Amendments Nos. 96 to 102 are consequential amendments that follow on from amendments Nos. 94 and 95. Let me conclude with a slightly broader point. A feature of this budgetary process and of the Finance Bill has been legislation undertaken in haste followed by long periods of revision in Committee and on the Floor of the House. I am thinking in particular about the 10p tax rate and the compensation mechanism, the changes to entrepreneurs relief in schedule 3 and the overhaul of HMRC powers. The best example of all is this schedule, which is still undergoing revisions and changes an hour after we were scheduled to have finished our debate on the legislation in totality. For that reason, amendments Nos. 94 and 95 seek to buy a bit more time and to give people who have an interest in such matters the opportunity to make the necessary adjustments.