Clause 4 - Arrangements for payments in respect of information
Social Security Fraud Bill [Lords]
11:00 am
Mrs Jacqui Lait (Beckenham, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 41, in page 8, line 2, leave out from `by' to end of line 21 and insert
`all persons who fall within subsection (2A)'.
The amendment is designed to ensure that any organisation that has to respond to inquiries under the Bill is recompensed. In the House of Lords regulatory impact assessment, the estimated cost to business was between £2.5 million and £7.6 million. Under the assessment from the Commons, the estimate was reduced to between £2.3 million and £7 million. Why? Irrespective of that reduction, a huge gap of £4.7 million remains in the estimate.
I have already referred to the £205,000 to £300,000 cost to Orange of upgrading only one system. The British Bankers Association estimates that the cost could reach £500,000 a year. The Secretary of State, however, believes that many costs will be marginal. He said on 5 March this year that
``the cost to a bank . . . in an entire year is estimated to be equal to just one hour's profit''—[Official Report, 5 March 2001; Vol. 364, c. 4.]
It is always easy to take a swipe at the banks. [Hon. Members: ``Hear, hear.''] It is also often popular, as we can hear from Labour Members. Not paying for this information is equivalent to a stealth tax on the banks. That brings the number of stealth taxes imposed by the Government—leaving aside the Finance Bill—to 46.
The credit reference agencies will be paid because they exist specifically to sell information. The Secretary of State can also make payments to telecommunications providers where they are asked to perform a unique processing service. Can the Minister give an assurance that Orange's fees would be met?
We have already discussed payments to the utility companies for the bulk information that they provide, and it seems sensible to us that the Government should be prepared to pay when they require such a service. It is easy to say that large institutions have the internal infrastructure to manage the processing and can therefore absorb the costs, but that approach, if taken across government, would mean that even the largest, most profitable and tightly managed company would eventually drown in Government demands and be deflected from its main purpose, which is to provide services to customers for which it is paid. The Government seem to be demanding a tailor-made service; therefore, they should pay, which the amendment would make them do.