Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [HL]

The Minister has tried very hard to help us. However, he is handicapped by the fact that neither he nor we have access to Schedule 1 to the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005 which I suspect delineates which areas would be general customs matters to be passed over. I am assuming that a general customs matter being taken out of Schedule 1 means that there are other powers left behind in the schedule for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs to continue to use. It is a great shame that the Bill is so truncated because those powers and responsibilities are not delineated in it. It is of fundamental importance what these officers will do and what powers they will have. It is extremely difficult to discuss the Bill without being quite clear what those are and being able to see the build-up in Part 1—it begins as a germ and becomes a virus—of how this is being done. I should be grateful to have from the Minister’s officials a list of what general customs matters are. As I say, I suspect that they come out of Schedule 1 to the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act, but if not, I should be glad to know that. Before the next stage of the Bill, we want to know what will be done in the name of the Secretary of State that was previously done in the name of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. Otherwise, this part of the Bill is too opaque for us to be able just to let it go through.