Clause 47 - E-conveyancing
Finance Bill
2:30 pm
Mark Francois (Shadow Minister, Treasury; Rayleigh, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 92, in clause 47, page 39, line 11, after ''regulations'', insert
'laid in draft at least 90 days before such regulations would otherwise come into effect'.
We now move on to part 3, which deals with stamp taxes, and in particular stamp duty land tax. The two biggest headline matters in relation to stamp duty land tax, the increase in the basic threshold to £120,000 and the abolition of disadvantaged areas relief, were dealt with in the previous Finance Bill, which was passed during the pre-election wash-up period, so I shall resist the temptation to go over those matters again. Part 3 of this Bill deals with the remaining measures in relation to stamp duty land tax. However, some important proposals dealing with a very broadly drafted power of HMRC—not least in schedule 10—still have to be discussed.
Amendment No. 92 deals with the proposed regulations for e-conveyancing, on which I shall focus specifically as I address the amendments. In the clause stand part debate, I should like to raise some concerns, of which I have given the Minister private—albeit brief—notice, following a number of representations made to us indicating that the new electronic systems for recording and processing this type of information in relation to stamp duty land tax are not working well at present. I hope, Mr. Cook, that you see how I am trying to divide the two for the sake of clarity.
I turn to amendment No. 92. The stamp duty land tax regime, which replaced the well established stamp duty system, was introduced in late 2003. Clause 47 further amends the new stamp duty land tax regime to take account of the e-revolution by modifying the scheme to allow for the developing trend of e-conveyancing for property purchases. The Government have stated that they will produce regulations setting out in detail how this new system is designed to operate. Amendment No. 92 seeks to ensure that the regulations are available in draft format at least 90 days before they are due to come into force.
We tabled the amendment partly because the stamp duty land tax regime is generally agreed to be very much more complicated than the scheme that it replaced. Perfectly understandably, those who are likely to be affected want something of a lead-in period when they have had sight of the new regulations, so that they can adjust to the new arrangements before they go live. To be fair to the Government, they have acknowledged that problem. Recently, the Economic Secretary wrote to Committee members on this point. I quote from his letter of 16 June:
''It is likely that e-conveyancing and e-registration processes will involve a single set of information, including information relating to stamp duty land tax, being delivered in electronic form to a central core. Thus the regulations will, for example, need to provide that delivery of stamp duty land tax information to the central core counts as valid delivery of a stamp duty land tax return.''
The Minister provided some partial reassurance on the timings for the new regulations, which are the specific topic of the amendment. In that same letter, he wrote:
''The regulations will not be made until the processes for e-conveyancing and e-registration have been developed. This may not be for some time. There will be full consultation with conveyancing practitioners and others before the regulations are made.''
In terms of adjusting to the new system, that may be of some comfort to those working in this field, particularly as it states that they will be fully consulted before the regulations come into force. We acknowledge that. However, the letter states that that may not happen ''for some time''. To try to reduce uncertainty, will the Minister say anything further about the anticipated timings? When, roughly, does he expect the draft regulations to come out? How long in principle is the consultation exercise intended to last before the regulations go live? What is his target date for their coming fully into effect? Having asked the Economic Secretary those specific questions, I look forward to what I hope will be some clear answers.