My Lords, I declare my interests, notably as chair of the UK-ASEAN Business Council, and a Crown Agent. I congratulate the Minister and my noble friend Lord Younger on getting this important Bill to this stage after such an extended passage. I endorse the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Curry of Kirkharle, about the support provided by the Ministers and their professional and helpful team.
Britain has a great trading history and we must enter the new era with confidence, backed by our strengthened Department for International Trade and the new Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. I spell them out for good reason: there is potential in goods, services and digital.
My noble friend will recall that there were some uncertainties on Report, and that in summing up and withdrawing his amendment, the noble Lord, Lord Stevenson of Balmacara, said that he or I might come back at Third Reading. This seems the right place to ask my questions, since the operation of powers in the devolved nations was under discussion. That has been clarified in these government amendments, to which I do not object, despite the earlier reservations I had expressed. I have given advance notice in the hope that the Minister can reassure me.
The clauses on trade information enable HMRC to collect information about UK exporters. It has been made clear all along that compliance with the request would be entirely voluntary. On Report, my noble friend the Minister said that the practical implementation of this would be a “tick box” on the tax returns—presumably, both corporate and personal. However, he gave no indication of the sorts of questions that would be asked; can he kindly do so today? I appreciate that this will be in regulations in accordance with what was Clause 7(4), but we need an idea of what information will be sought. For example, will it be the name of the trader, and which country or countries they exported to in the tax year in question? Will they need to provide a breakdown of customs headings?
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In our wish to have well-informed trade policy we must not forget the Prime Minister’s new-found instructions to reduce red tape. I agree with my noble
friend Lady McIntosh of Pickering and the noble Lord, Lord Grantchester, about the usefulness of impact assessments, and I thank my noble friend the Minister for the impact assessment that was produced for this Bill. Will an impact assessment be prepared on the regulations on data gathering and so on, and will that be cleared by the Regulatory Policy Committee? I fear that any reply that is more complicated than “yes”, when multiplied by the number of those involved in trade and filling in tax forms—which will obviously include exports to the EU under the new regime—is bound to have net compliance costs of more than £5 million.
On the same theme, perhaps the Minister could kindly confirm that the Henry VIII power that was in Clause 7(4), and is now a little later in the Bill, will be used only to put these voluntary questions on the tax return, as he said last time. If, for example, it is going to be used for other reasons, will new primary legislation be sought? As I said before, it seems to be a wide power. Assuming, as I hope and expect, that the Minister is able to reassure, can he give some indication of what sort of information public authorities will glean from tax forms? For example, I would be a little concerned about tiers of information on profitability being made public.
Finally, I come back to the linked issue of confidentiality of disclosure and the risks of that—whether in London, Edinburgh or elsewhere—in relation to the new export information that will be sought, and the information on imports, border security and transport flow, referred to in the following clause. Such information can be disclosed only with the agreement of HMRC, under the terms of the Bill. I very much took the Minister’s point last time that the devolved Governments take their responsibilities seriously, and I hope that experience justifies the Minister’s confidence on that. However, once information has been provided to any of our public authorities, can not a decision by Ministers, or a freedom of information request, reveal which companies or sole traders are exporting or importing, or give details of where and what, from which others can draw conclusions? I hope not, as this would be damaging to UK competitiveness, and could be used by foreign interests to gain an advantage at this critical time for UK plc. The Data Protection Act is useful but any further reassurance the Minister can give to our businesses and sole traders would be much appreciated.