HC Deb 28 June 1939 vol 349 cc495-7

6.55 p.m.

Sir Percy Harris

I beg to move, in page 17, line 29, after "solicitor," to insert "or professional accountant."

It is common knowledge that a great deal of this work is done by professional accountants. It has been pointed out to me that as this privilege is given to solicitors, it is not unreasonable to give it to accountants who render such excellent services both to the Revenue authorities and to persons liable to be taxed. I do not want to press the point too much, but if the learned Solicitor-General can give me a sympathetic reply, it will be very much appreciated by the accountants concerned.

6.56 p.m.

The Solicitor-General

If a negative reply can be sympathetic, then the hon. Baronet will not be disappointed. The trouble is that we are dealing here with an area where we are trying to prevent tax evasion by the transfer of assets abroad, and the Clause is really purely declaratory of the existing law. It suggests that certain particulars must be furnished by persons or by their agents in relation to these transactions so that the transactions may be identified. Subsection (2) to which the Amendment of the hon. Gentleman applies preserves for solicitors the privilege that they enjoy at present. The only information that the Commissioners may request from solicitors will be information as to names and addresses and nothing else. They are not required to disclose documents or the instructions that they have received. This is a privilege which the profession of solicitors enjoys under the existing law by reason of a long history of case law. The accountants enjoy no such privilege under the law.

The hon. Baronet is asking for a privilege for accountants which no other agent would be permitted to have, and which solicitors only enjoy by reason of the existing law. Privilege is a valuable thing to conserve, but it is a very dangerous thing to extend. Privilege by its very nature means the obstruction of the truth. It is a barrier between the investigation of the truth and the actual arrival at the facts. It is not easy to justify in an area where you are dealing with deliberate evasion, and were it not for the fact that the privilege exists enabling a person to go to his solicitor for advice, and while it might be difficult to justify it, I should find it impossible to stand here and justify its extension to one particular kind of agent, who, in many cases, is the very man from whom you want to find out what he knows about the Luxembourg Company or the Palestine Company or the company with which you may be concerned, especially when I remember standing at this very Box and saying that this privilege was not intended in the case of doctors dealing with patients or clergymen dealing with parishioners. I am sure that the hon. Baronet will not wish to press his Amendment.

Sir P, Harris

In view of that general explanation, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the Amendment.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

7.0 p.m.

The Solicitor-General

I beg to move, in page 17, line 29, after "not," to insert: be deemed for the purposes of paragraph (c) thereof to have taken part in a transaction by reason only that he has given professional advice to a client in connection with that transaction, and shall not. These words are moved in order to clear up a point which has been raised by the Law Society as to whether even with Subsection (2) we are not infringing a privilege which they at present enjoy. The whole point is that they are afraid that the solicitor who has merely given advice to a client on a matter within Section 18 and has done nothing else would be called on to disclose the matters with which the Clause deals. It was clearly never intended that the Commissioners' powers should extend to a case of that kind, and the words I propose to insert are to ensure that a solicitor who does no more than that is not to be regarded as having taken part in the Section 18 transaction at all.

Amendment agreed to.

The Solicitor-General

I beg to move, in page 17, line 35, after "done," to insert "by the solicitor."

This is a drafting Amendment.

Amendment agreed to. Further Amendments made:

In page 18, line 4, after "done" insert "by the solicitor."

In line 8, after "done" insert "by the solicitor." —[The Solicitor-General.]

Clause, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Bill.