National Insurance Contributions Bill

My hon. Friend makes a fair point. The judgment that we must make is between the overall statutory framework in which the commissioners operate on the one hand and their more detailed management and day-to-day responsibilities on the other. What I want to go on to suggest in support of the amendment is that we can be perhaps somewhat more optimistic that, in the detailed implementation of the Bill, we should expect the commissioners to be able to exercise that rather more detached position that I suggested just a moment ago in that they may do anything that they think"““necessary or expedient in connection with the exercise of their functions.””"