COMMENCEMENT (Hansard, 10 March 1970)

§ Mr. Graham Page (Crosby)

I question whether the Clause should stand part of the Bill, and I ask whether it is right to bring the Bill into operation on the dates mentioned in the Clause.

The Clause sets out the dates on which the various parts of the Bill will come into operation. In subsection (1), for the purpose of tax it will apply for the year 1970–71, and for companies' accounting periods it will apply for those ending after 5th April, 1970. For capital gains tax it will apply for the year 1970–71, and then, in various other ways, such as the making of orders, the making of returns, the imposing of penalties, and the conferring of any powers or duties in relation to tax chargeable for more than one period, it comes into force on 6th April, 1970.

That is to say it will come into force next month, in a matter of a few weeks from now, and this will be just about the time when we shall be expecting the presentation to the House of the annual Finance Bill. It will be astonishing if the Finance Bill makes no amendments to tax law which is consolidated in this Bill. Thus, this Bill will be out of date almost immediately it becomes operative. That is unfortunate.

12.30 a.m.

Surely there could not be much difficulty in delaying the operation of this Bill for a time so that it might take account of the amendments which are almost bound to be made in some of its provisions by the Finance Bill. It would not make a great deal of difference if it became operative, for example, on the day after the Finance Bill received the Royal Assent, having embodied within 1298 it the amendments to the tax law introduced by the Finance Bill. This course would mean leaving the Report stage until July, say.

If this Clause is to stand part, I urge the right hon. and learned Gentleman to give a firm assurance concerning the introduction of what we have called "rolling consolidation". By that I mean that the Bill will be kept up to date in future. There are precedents for a statutory requirement that if an Act is amended it shall be reprinted as amended, and I see no reason why we should not adopt some such system in the case of this consolidation of the tax law.

I ask for an assurance of intention—I would prefer a firm undertaking—that if this Clause is to stand part, Amendments to the Measure in future will be made by repealing and re-enacting sections or whole subsections and that there should always be a requirement that the parts of the Measure so affected should be reprinted as amended.

The good work—on Second Reading I called it the magnificent achievement—of this consolidation Bill will be lost quickly if we do not adopt some system of rolling consolidation. The need has never presented itself so forcibly as on this Bill. When the Rent Acts were consolidated, there was a massive Act. We amend the Rent Act quite frequently, but not annually as we amend the tax law. Here, we can be 100 per cent. certain that there will be annual amendments and the consolidation Act will no longer be complete within almost a month or two of its being enacted. Rolling consolidation is adopted by many other legislatures, and it is time we adopted it here and did not waste the valuable time of our consolidation draftsmen by altering their good work almost immediately it has been enacted.

§ The Solicitor-General (Sir Arthur Irvine)

The operative date for the coming into effect of proposals such as those contained in this Bill can almost always give rise to criticism. There are objections to every imaginable date. We have given such consideration as we could to this matter, and I can only tell the hon. Member for Crosby (Mr. Graham Page) that we think that what is proposed in the Clause is the best course to adopt.

1299 The hon. Gentleman referred to rolling consolidation. I do not know whether rolling consolidation is the same as running consolidation, a term to which I am more accustomed. I imagine that they mean the same thing. I hope that he will accept from me what he indicated on Second Reading was acceptable to him—that I am rather inclined to be of his mind upon this matter. The prospect is that Finance Bills will increasingly become drafted with a view to assisting and facilitating the process of running or rolling consolidation. I do not think that I can be more explicit in any assurance or undertaking than that. I hope that the hon. Gentleman and the Committee will take it as meant.