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Finance (No. 2) Bill

I have only a few brief remarks. We dealt with the matter in some detail in Standing Committee. We are dealing with what is clearly a significant problem and real efforts have been made in various clauses to overcome it. The Government’s amendments are an exposition of that. Amendments Nos. 19 and 20 seek to overcome openings where there could continue to be fraud, and amendment No. 18 confers extra powers, so essentially we are talking about regulation and reporting requirements. The Paymaster General referred to why it was not possible to reveal the draft regulations in advance. If fraudsters are trying to get around the regulations, what difference does it make if they see them in draft form? Surely their desire to get around them will be exactly the same. [Interruption.] The Paymaster General is saying ““Time””, but presumably once they are on the statute book, the fraudsters will still have time to avoid the regulations.