I am certainly keen to offer, on behalf of the Department and the Government, a clear undertaking that it is not the intention that that should happen, and that the provisions before the House do not create the opportunity for that to happen.
To return to the question asked by the right hon. Member for Leeds Central (Hilary Benn), proposed new section 14A, which relates to the investigation of fraud, will enable local authorities to investigate the eligibility of a person for a council tax reduction, which might require access to the individual’s records, in the same way as can currently be done for council tax benefit. That is separate to the provisions elsewhere relating to HMRC’s sharing of data with local authorities.
Proposed newparagraph 15B(7), of schedule 2 to the 1992 Act, sets out the procedure that Welsh Ministers must follow when making these regulations, which will be through a statutory instrument, subject to annulment procedures. Proposed new paragraph 15C(7) sets out the procedure that Scottish Ministers must follow when making regulations in respect of the data-sharing provisions, which will be through a Scottish statutory instrument, subject to the negative procedure. Without that legal gateway, HMRC would not be able to provide the information that billing authorities need for council tax purposes, such as calculating an entitlement to a reduction under a council tax reduction scheme, and if that were the case it would clearly increase the complexity for claimants and the administrative costs for billing authorities.
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Government amendments 42 to 50 and 56 to 60 would provide Welsh Ministers with the powers to place a duty on specified bodies in Wales to introduce council tax reduction schemes in Wales. Welsh Ministers have developed plans for locally delivered council tax reductions and asked for these amendments, which will enable them to prescribe, by regulations, for establishing in Wales council tax reduction schemes that are broadly similar to those that billing authorities in England will be required to introduce in accordance with the Bill. Those powers would provide Welsh Ministers with the scope to establish the remit for council tax reduction schemes in Wales that were appropriate for Wales.
Welsh Ministers have said that they intend to use the powers to introduce a single national scheme set out in regulations and include the reforms necessary to meet the 10% reduction in funding. They intend local authorities to be given an amount of local flexibility in the new scheme’s delivery, and deviation from the national scheme will be funded locally. Welsh Ministers have recently consulted on the policy’s detail, and they intend to set out their proposals on vulnerable groups, including pensioners, in due course.
Amendment 44, to section 13A of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, would provide Welsh Ministers with the power to require specified bodies in Wales to introduce council tax reduction schemes, and the proposed change details the scope of the regulations that Welsh Ministers would be able to make. Amendment 45 sets out the procedure that Welsh Ministers would have to follow when making regulations on the introduction of council tax reduction schemes.
The amendments include a series of provisions that I am very happy to bring to the House’s attention if Members would like me to do so, but it might be sensible if I proceed by saying simply that the amendments set out a range of requirements and rules that are intended entirely to ensure that the scheme can be applied as Welsh Ministers determine in the Welsh environment.
Amendments 51 and 54 are technical amendments to ensure that we can deliver our policy to protect pensioners, enabling regulations to provide for a default scheme that largely replicates current council tax benefit, and providing reassurance to local authorities that their schemes can incorporate certain features of current council tax benefit when they choose them to do so.
Taken together the amendments to schedule 4 would achieve that aim by ensuring that regulations prescribing requirements for schemes and regulations prescribing
the default scheme may incorporate provisions equivalent to those that are, or could be, provided for in the sections of existing legislation relating directly to council tax benefit.