§ 10.6 a.m.
§ The Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour (Mr. Roy Hattersley)With permission, Mr. Speaker, I should like to make a statement.
As the House knows, payments of refunds and premiums are made under the Selective Employment Payments Act to employers whose establishments satisfy the conditions laid down in the Act. Appropriate Ministers are required to register such establishments on the application of the employer.
Section 7(2) of the Act provides that such establishments shall be deemed to have been registered either from the date when the application was received by the Minister concerned or from any earlier date which the Minister regards as reasonable. Refunds and premiums are payable to the establishment from that date onwards.
When the Selective Employment Payments Bill was before the House last summer, my right hon. Friend made it clear that he would take advantage of these powers to register as from 5th September 1966—the day when the tax first became payable—all applications which satisfied the conditions and which were received by him before the end of December 1966.
Early last autumn the Government took space in national newspapers to notify employers how they could obtain application forms and guidance on filling them in. Employers were invited to make their applications from the beginning of October onwards. Many employers applied for registration in good time, but some were slower to do so, and despite further publicity in Decem- 1448 ber, it was clear that at the end of the year there were still a considerable number of applications to come. My right hon. Friend therefore decided to continue to exercise his power under the Act to backdate all qualified applications to 5th September, 1966. He has continued to do so up to the present time; a small number of late applications are still coming in.
My right hon. Friend has also been advised by the Secretary of State for Scotland and the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, who share with him the responsibility for dealing with registrations under the Act, that they believe there are still a number of employers engaged in agriculture, horticulture or forestry who are eligible for refunds but have not registered.
While we cannot go on indefinitely granting full back-dating to belated applications, we are anxious to provide employers with a reasonable time in which to apply for registration. My right hon. Friend and his colleagues accordingly propose that the concession allowing full backdating to employers making late applications should be extended up to 4th September, 1967, and should then come to an end.
Employers will, therefore, have had 12 months in which to make their application for registration under the Act. Any applications received up to and including 4th September next in respect of an establishment which satisfies the requirements of Sections 1 and 2 of the Act, and has done so since 5th September 1966, will be accepted and the establishment registered as from 5th September, 1966. In the case of any applications received after 4th September this year, the establishment will be registered as from the date on which the application is received.
§ Mr. RidleyThat was a long and not particularly satisfactory statement. Is the hon. Gentleman aware that there could be many employers who thought that they would be entitled to an annual refund or premium and who, therefore, would not apply until after one year is up? Has he considered this possibility? Since there will doubtless not be a moratorium on those who have not paid their tax after one year, why should there 1449 not be a continuing liability on the Government to pay the refund for much longer than one year?
§ Mr. HattersleyI accept that I made a rather long statement, and I apologise for that. However, its length was due to fie complexity of this matter and my obligation to put all the facts before the House.
The necessity to place a stop date on the time when applications for refund are to be made is due, as the hon. Gentleman will appreciate, to the fact that this tax has some specific functions and objects in addition to the collection of revenue. Those functions can be served only if employers take the benefits of the tax within a reasonable period.