Clause 20
Finance (No. 2) Bill
3:30 pm
Dawn Primarolo (Paymaster General, HM Treasury; Bristol South, Labour)
The purpose of the clause is to put beyond doubt HMRC officers’ power when inspecting goods for VAT purposes, to evidence that inspection by applying a date stamp to the goods or their packaging, and to scan barcode information into a database. What the amendment would do—first and foremost and absolutely uniquely—is defeat the main purpose of the clause, which is that if it is the same goods circulating, and they are stamped and we have the barcode, that information will be provided. If the amendment prevents us from doing that, we have no power. The amendment therefore strikes at the very heart of how we are trying to deal with those issues in the clause. I hope that the hon. Member for Falmouth and Camborne will understand that we are talking about recording barcodes or information about the goods in a way that is acceptable to business, so that if the same goods come round again, we know it.