National Insurance Contributions Bill

I gave notice that I intended to oppose the Question that Clauses 3 and 4 stand part of the Bill to probe what they contribute. The clauses were barely debated in another place and it is right that we tease out what they do. Clause 3 is headed:"““Class 1A contributions: power to make provision in consequence of retrospective tax legislation: Great Britain””," and Clause 4 is headed the same, save for the words ““Northern Ireland””. The clauses insert new sections into the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 and its Northern Ireland equivalent. The new sections do not list the purposes of the regulations, which is what, for example, new Section 4C(2) introduced by Clause 2 does. The only thing that we can find out from subsection (7) of the new section is that the regulations will not impose any increase in liability to class 1A contributions. The Explanatory Notes say at paragraph 52 that that is because class 1A in effect simply follows retrospective tax legislation, so no further legislation is required. That begs the question of what on earth the regulation-making powers in Clauses 3 and 4 are all about. The only example in the Explanatory Notes was the rather improbable one given in paragraph 48, where more than one employer provides the same benefit to the same employee and the retrospective liability has to be apportioned. Are any other practical issues likely to require two rather long clauses in the Bill? If the Minister cannot tell me, I ask him to reflect on whether the format of the new sections, which is entirely indirect and opaque and completely lacks specificity about what is to be done in the regulations, is the right way to legislate. I beg to move.