---

Employment Bill [HL]

This is very important. As the Minister knows, the Revenue already has pretty extensive powers. I remember when with other colleagues I was taking the Child Support Act—dare I mention it?—through the House many years ago, and we tried to give similar powers to child support officers as the Revenue already had. It was pointed out that those powers were very excessive indeed, but historically that the Revenue and Customs had always had those powers. The noble Lord is trying to extend the powers that the Revenue has in terms of entering properties without magistrates’ consent, and all that. Would not existing powers that, for example, the Inland Revenue used to have, which were slightly less than those the Customs and Excise had, be more appropriate?