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National Insurance Contributions Bill

I accept that they would arise wherever we did the roundings. But the affirmative resolution procedure is not an answer to that. It is already done in that way and changes to the limit are usually nodded through on a Thursday afternoon. There is nothing in the Bill that gives anything back in return for the Government grabbing huge amounts of tax-raising powers. I am not impressed by the arguments that the structure of the two systems is out of line. I concede that there could be circumstances when the amount would need to be raised by a higher or completely different amount that was not catered for by the indexation if the Government of the day chose to restructure the tax and national insurance systems. That is when I envisage a need for primary legislation and, for all the Minister’s talk about programming, I cannot see that a one-clause Bill would be difficult in that context. The Minister said that I had overegged the pudding by making it affirmative as well as in line with RPI. I completely accept that and give up Amendment No. 3. The Minister will not see Amendment No. 3 again. While I will read carefully what the Minister said about rounding, I have heard nothing this afternoon that suggests to me that, in broad terms, what I have proposed in the amendments is not workable and he has said nothing to make me believe that they are not necessary. While I will withdraw the amendments today—we are, of course, in Grand Committee and the Minister has not accepted them—I have to put him on notice that this is not the end of the matter. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. [Amendments Nos. 2 and 3 not moved.] [Amendment No. 4 had been withdrawn from the Marshalled List.] Clause 1 agreed to.