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Business Rate Supplements Bill

I cannot quite remember how I framed the question. I am not sure whether I was expecting the answer "yes" or the answer "no", for the classicists among us. I will have to go back and read that. My concern was essentially about evasion, so if the answer is "yes" it might be a bad one. I note what the Minister says about Amendment 58. I am still not sure that Amendment 61A, on the refunds, has got to the point that the noble Lord, Lord Bates, and I seek. The answer was framed in terms of overpayment. It is a pretty technical point, even though it might seem to be an entirely common-sense one to the ratepayers. In my mind, the BRS is not the same sort of animal as national non-domestic rates for this purpose. It deals with a particular project, which may speed up, slow down, or change a bit and so on. I can therefore see that there could be circumstances where a refund would be appropriate for BRS, but which would be completely inappropriate—simply nowhere near to applying—for the NNDR. Again, it might be useful to discuss this after this stage. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 58 withdrawn. Clause 21 agreed.