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National Insurance Contributions Bill

The Minister has reminded me of another matter—that the Treasury kept very quiet about the impact when the original package of changes was introduced in the 2007 Budget. In fact, it released that particular impact only when this Bill eventually came forward. So while I withdraw the remark about dishonesty, which may be too strong a word, I would use a word very close to that in not giving Parliament the full information about what the Treasury’s intentions were when they first came across this point. This is a stand-part debate in Grand Committee, so we go nowhere with it. The point that I want to leave on the record is that this is part of the Government not dealing properly with the issue of consensus. For us, this is an important issue. Clause 3 agreed to. Clauses 4 to 7 agreed to. Schedules 1 and 2 agreed to. Bill reported without amendment.