Finance (No. 2) Bill

My Lords, with your Lordships’ leave, I will speak briefly in the gap. I congratulate my noble friend the Minister on introducing the Bill today. As he said, the Bill is entirely technical and enabling in nature. It is also, I fear, somewhat dull. That may be one reason why not many of your Lordships have chosen to add your names to the speakers list. However, my noble friend did not mention one point. A substantial part of the Bill is intended to replace technical aspects of our law with European law. As my honourable friend Jacob Rees-Mogg pointed out in another place, Clauses 5, 6, 14, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23 are, in whole or in part, requirements of the European Union. Furthermore, related to what my noble friend Lord Newby said, the Explanatory Notes to the Bill provided by the Treasury offer in certain instances, as a reason for changing the law, merely the fact that it is necessary for United Kingdom law to conform to European law. It is disappointing that it seems irrelevant to consider in each case which has more merit. Other than that, I will not detain your Lordships; I just wanted to make that point, which my noble friend the Minister omitted to mention.