Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill (Twelfth sitting) Debate

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Department: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Liam Byrne

Main Page: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham Hodge Hill and Solihull North)

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Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill (Eleventh sitting)

Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill (Twelfth sitting)

Liam Byrne Excerpts

Future Day:
Wed 16th Nov 2022
Shark Fins Bill
Committee stage
Tuesday 15th November 2022

(2 years ago)

Public Bill Committees
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Read Full debate Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 View all Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 Debates Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts Amendment Paper: Public Bill Committee Amendments as at 15 November 2022 - (15 Nov 2022)
Kevin Hollinrake Portrait Kevin Hollinrake
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The right hon. Member for Barking went to a very tough school. She is not an easy person to please. Quite rightly, she is very demanding of more action in various areas; I support that, as she knows. HMRC is not directly answerable to BEIS. It reports to the Treasury, of course.

Liam Byrne Portrait Liam Byrne
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It is a law unto itself.

Kevin Hollinrake Portrait Kevin Hollinrake
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The right hon. Gentleman knows that very well. I agree about enforcement, but I question the right hon. Lady’s language a little bit. She implied that HMRC is useless in certain contexts. I have met Jim Harra and other people from HMRC and found them to be diligent, decent people seeking to do the right job. The vast majority of people in any agency—officials, or whoever—do not go to work to do a bad job, so I think the language she used is not helpful.

We do need to beef up enforcement in all sectors, whether we are talking about tax avoidance, evasion or economic crime, and I absolutely support that. We see time and again that the return on investment from the extra enforcement capability is more than worth while for the taxpayer. I appreciate the spirit of the right hon. Lady’s remarks but not some of the language around them. Certainly, enforcement in all areas is something we need to look at carefully.

Question put and agreed to.

Clause 118 accordingly ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Ordered, That further consideration be now adjourned. —(Scott Mann.)

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