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National Insurance Contributions Bill

It is always nice to start a discussion in Committee on a quasi-philosophical basis; I was interested to hear the noble Baroness talking about the morality of tax legislation. That is an element of discussion on this kind of legislation that has exercised much of your Lordships’ time. I feel that when one starts talking about morality and tax regulations, one enters a quagmire from which it is relatively difficult to emerge, much as I am in favour of everybody behaving decently. The distinction between ““expedient”” and ““reasonable”” is one without a difference. Equally, we should not be concerned on the noble Baroness’s concern about ““appears to the Treasury””. Who else but the Treasury will exercise the judgment on whether something appears either expedient or reasonable? I find her arguments interesting, but not wholly convincing.