National Insurance Contributions Bill

Amendment No. 36 seeks to ensure that all regulations made under the national insurance disclosure provisions in the Bill will be subject to the affirmative resolution procedure. That is unnecessary. If Clause 7 is adopted, Parliament will already have taken a decision to extend the income tax disclosure rules to national insurance. It is not apparent what the added value would be in having an affirmative resolution debate subsequently on that same point, in circumstances where the purpose of the change was to ensure that the national insurance disclosure rules continued to mirror the tax disclosure rules. The regulations themselves will normally be wholly technical in nature, applying the income tax disclosure rules with only such minor modifications and adaptations as necessary to make them fit with the national insurance system. The negative procedure is appropriate in such circumstances. However, I accept that the affirmative resolution procedure is appropriate for the power in subsection (4) of new Section 132A of the Social Security Administration Act 1992. That enables regulations to amend the definitions in subsection (3) in line with future changes in tax legislation. Although that power is tightly constrained, it is right in those circumstances for Parliament to decide on how that power is used, as the regulations made under it are capable of amending certain provisions in primary legislation. Finally, I mention to the Committee that the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee has considered the powers in the Bill and stated that the provisions are acceptable. I hope that that assists the noble Baroness.