National Insurance Contributions Bill

moved Amendment No. 10:"Page 5, line 11, after ““applies”” insert—" ““(a)   a Minister of the Crown must notify Parliament of his intention to lay such an instrument no later than the appropriate date; and (b)   ”” The noble Baroness said: In moving this amendment to Clause 1, I shall speak also to the similar amendment to Clause 2, Amendment No. 21. We return to the themes of retrospection and clarity. Clause 1(2) deals with the statutory instruments made under new Sections 4B and 4C. Where a statutory instrument is to have retrospective effect there is a time limit for laying it—normally 12 months from the time that the equivalent tax provision was passed. We are not challenging that, but there should be a further process of notifying Parliament that the Government intend to lay such a statutory instrument. This harks back to our earlier debate and the conditions for retrospection. It would require the Government to be clear at an early stage about their intentions as regards national insurance when they seek to pass the related income tax provisions. My amendment would ordinarily require the Government at some stage before the income tax provision is passed to tell Parliament that they intend to do the same thing for national insurance. At the moment, they have 12 months to lay the instrument and they could be completely silent during the whole of those 12 months about whether they will make the equivalent national insurance regulations. The appropriate date is different for provisions passed before this Bill becomes law but I do not think that this is of practical relevance now. Let us assume that the Government discover something that they legislate for in this year’s Finance Bill. Royal Assent is usually obtained around the third week of July. The Bill as drafted would allow the Government suddenly to lay an order by the third week of July 2007 to have an equivalent national insurance effect, even though they had revealed nothing of their intentions at an earlier stage. My amendment would require the Government to state their intentions alongside the passage of the income tax provision. If we do not do that, we introduce some uncertainty into the business world, which could easily be avoided. Without this provision, we might even encourage the Treasury or HMRC not to work in a joined-up way on how national insurance and tax provisions will be harmonised. I hope that, on that basis, the Minister will see this as a helpful amendment which is designed to bring greater clarity. I beg to move.