Clause 32
Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill [Lords]
9:00 am
Phil Woolas (Minister of State (the North West), Home Office; Oldham East and Saddleworth, Labour)
Good morning, Miss Begg. I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his kind words; I shall take them as a compliment, even if they were not intended as such. The answer to his questions is the all-powerful Treasury, and I will explain why. Clause 32 deals with the payment of revenue to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs commissioners, and sets out provisions on the accounting of revenue collected by our officials in the UK Border Agency. That revenue includes duties and taxes that may be paid on goods by passengers who go through the red channel at an airport, a ferry terminal and so on. The second issue is the post. A significant amount of excise and duties work is carried out on goods that come through the post, most of which are legal, although some are not.
The clause requires the director of border revenue—the chief executive of UKBA—and the Secretary of State to pay any money by way of revenue, or security for revenue, to HMRC in accordance with Treasury directions. In other words, it is the Treasury’s money, not mine—I just collect it. The intention is that moneys will be paid directly into HMRC bank accounts, as now, so we are the agent passing the money on. The hon. Gentleman was quite right to pick out subsections (4) and (5).
The clause also provides for HMRC to make funds available to ukba if we need to pay any money back. A ship or a container may drop some of its goods in the UK and then move on. We may charge duty on all of it, but the company will then point out what the manifest shows. There are occasions when we need to pay money back, so the provision authorises HMRC to give us money to do so. It is anticipated that the repayments will be made directly by HMRC, but there might be occasions where it needs to come through us.
Revenue is defined in the clause as including all duties and taxes. It also includes penalties. Your constituents, Miss Begg, might have had their cars impounded at Dover or at other ferry ports, but they are clearly very honest. Some of mine might have come a cropper in that regard and paid penalties. The clause covers those amounts and also the proceeds of forfeiture. If someone has brought something into the country on which they have not paid duty and there is forfeiture, there is revenue from that. The clause is designed to oil the wheels. The reason, to answer the hon. Gentleman directly, is that the Treasury holds the purse strings.