Draft Income Tax (Construction Industry Scheme) (Amendment of Schedule 11 to the Finance Act 2004) Order 2016

Roger Mullin Excerpts

Tuesday 8th March 2016 General Committees

[Roger Mullin (Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath) (SNP)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Dorries. I will be very brief. I have just three points to put to the Minister. First, unusually, we have received no complaints from any quarter about—

[The Chair]

Order. May I make the point that it is normal practice to catch the Chair’s attention to speak before the Minister responds? In future, Mr Mullin, when you attend debates, you can speak after the Opposition Front Bencher, but please try to let the Chair know that you want to speak before the Minister makes his or her closing remarks. This means that the Minister may have to come back again, which prolongs the debate.

[Roger Mullin]

My apologies, Ms Dorries.

On the basis that there have been no complaints, and that, as the hon. Member for Wolverhampton South West pointed out, the unions are also satisfied, there is no good reason to oppose the order.

My second point is that I think the restriction of the three tests makes absolute sense and simplifies matters for businesses. My third point, which is not intended as a serious criticism, is that having run a number of small businesses in the past, I think that the opportunity could usefully have been taken to reduce the threshold to the same level as the VAT threshold and thus simplify matters even further. However, we will not oppose the measure.

Question put and agreed to.