Second sitting of the Public Bill Committee’s debates on the Finance Bill 2023-24

The Public Bill Committee reconvened for the second sitting with Ian Paisley continuing as chair.

After brief mentions of the landfill tax aggregates levy and plastic packaging tax the committee turned to clauses 35 and 36.

The former is aimed at enabling HMRC to collect more accurate and timely data. Financial secretary to the Treasury Nigel Huddleston set the scene for the measure saying it was inspired largely by the pandemic: ‘The government’s economic response to the pandemic was only made possible through the powerful use of data to make big policy decisions and deliver government interventions. HMRC’s information about employers employees and the self-employed was key to delivering both the furlough scheme and its self-employed equivalent the self-employed income support scheme. The pandemic also highlighted gaps where a lack of data meant that the government could not provide support to specific groups.’...