Scotland Bill

Lord Skelmersdale Excerpts

Thursday 15th March 2012 Lords Chamber

54C: Clause 30, page 23, leave out lines 18 to 21

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Lord Skelmersdale)]

My Lords, I have to tell the Committee that if Amendment 54C is agreed to, I cannot call Amendment 54D.

[Lord Forsyth of Drumlean]

This amendment would delete the listing of elected Members as being caught by the Scottish tax, but it is not because I seek special privileges for elected Members or that I wish to prevent them having to pay what I believe will be the higher Scottish tax. Throughout our debates today, the Minister has been at great pains to point out that he wants to have a simple scheme, one that is easy to understand and under which everyone would be able to identify whether they were liable for Scottish tax. What I do not understand is why it is necessary to set out in the Bill that Members of Parliament for constituencies in Scotland, Members of the European Parliament for Scotland and Members of the Scottish Parliament are all Scottish taxpayers. Why can the criteria not be applied by them in the same way as everyone else? We will come on to this at a later point, but some of us who live in Scotland and are Members of this House are slightly puzzled and bewildered as to why Peers with a Scottish connection have been left out; I will come on to that in a later amendment.