FINANCIAL ACTS OF THE ASSEMBLY (Hansard, 24 July 1998)

§ Mr. Moss
I beg to move amendment No. 28, page 24, line 38, at end insert 'or'.

§ The Chairman of Ways and Means (Sir Alan Haselhurst)
With this, it will be convenient to discuss the following amendments: No. 29, in page 24, line 39, leave out from 'Crown' to end of line 40 and insert— '(2A) Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act and any Order in Council made under the provisions of this Act, the Assembly shall neither impose nor vary taxes.' No. 30, in page 24, line 43, leave out from 'appropriated' to end of line 1 on page 25.

§ Mr. Moss
Clause 50 deals with the Assembly's financial powers. Tax-raising powers in general are defined as excepted matters and are to be found in paragraph 9 of schedule 2 to the Bill. They include taxes levied across the entire United Kingdom and any existing taxes in Northern Ireland. The list includes inheritance tax, stamp duty, general betting duty, pool betting duty, duty on gaming machine licences and duty on vehicle licences. From a reading of clause 50(1), which states: in pursuance of a recommendation which…is made by the Minister of Finance and Personnel; and…is signified to the Assembly by him or on his behalf', it would seem that the Assembly could pass a vote which imposes or increases a tax". That is in subsection (2)(d). In addition, under subsection (3), powers are given to the Assembly to impose or increase a tax, as long as there is cross-community support. It is not clear from the Bill, however, which tax or taxes that applies to—presumably, any taxes outside the list that I enumerated.
Those tax-raising powers seem to be new powers given to the Assembly, but the Minister may correct me. I found identical provisions in the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973, in terms of the definition of taxes under excepted matters. Where do tax-raising powers appear in the Belfast agreement? I could not find them. No doubt, this is one of the necessary additions to that agreement about which we spoke earlier.
Our amendments would remove the powers of the Assembly to raise taxes. Even if the power remains on the statute, it is vital that the taxes referred to in the Bill are clearly and unequivocally defined.

§ Mr. Öpik
The issue arose in regard to Wales. One of our biggest objections to the plans for the Welsh Assembly was it would not have tax-varying powers. I should be delighted if the Northern Ireland Assembly were given tax-varying powers, not least because, if there were cross-community support for varying a tax, that would imply that there was good reason to do so, but most of all because the most powerful indication of an 1406 autonomous decision-making Assembly is its ability to vary tax. That is one of the best aspects of the Scottish proposals, and one of the deficiencies in the Welsh ones.
I look forward to the Minister's comments. I cannot support the Conservative amendment on this occasion.

§ Mr. Paul Murphy
I have much sympathy with the point raised by the hon. Member for North-East Cambridgeshire (Mr. Moss) about the misleading nature of the clause. I understand that, for various technical and legal reasons, it would be difficult to amend the clause. However, it must be read in conjunction with schedule 2, which makes it clear that the clause does not refer to general tax-raising powers, about which the hon. Gentleman was troubled.
The hon. Member for Montgomeryshire (Mr. Öpik) spoke about tax-varying powers. Those were not part of the agreement and were not finalised. I have subsequently consulted parties in Northern Ireland, who are generally of the view that there should not be such powers.
The clause refers to the regional rate in Northern Ireland, which was set up by the Northern Ireland Constitution Act 1973 and which is used to discharge many functions in Northern Ireland that are normally discharged by local authorities in England and Wales. The Assembly will retain the right to raise the regional rate, but there are no plans in the Bill for a general tax-levying, tax-raising or tax-varying power. Consequently, I ask the hon. Member for North-East Cambridgeshire to withdraw the amendment.

§ Mr. Moss
Perhaps the Minister and his civil service draftsmen will look again at the wording of the Bill. It might be helpful to define the tax as the general rate. That would overcome the problem quite easily. On that basis, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.