Jeremy Browne (Taunton, Liberal Democrat)

I rise to speak to amendment 14, in clause 24, page 11, line 7, leave out ‘given’ and insert ‘received’.

The amendment has exactly the same purpose as that which we have just rejected. The clause says that an appeal must be given

“30 days after the date on which the notice of the decision was given”,

and the amendment seeks to change “given” to “received”. However, I think that we examined the issue during our previous discussion, so I do not know whether it is good form to carry on. I shall let the Economic Secretary say his bit and then I shall defer, unless he says something truly shocking. [Interruption.] I am happy—unless he feels it discourteous—not to move the amendment.

David Taylor (North West Leicestershire, Labour)

The amendment is not moved.

Ian Pearson (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Economic and Business), Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform; Dudley South, Labour)

I beg to move amendment 40, in clause 24, page 11, line 8, leave out ‘an appeal’ and insert

‘a tax appeal or a Northern Ireland appeal’.

David Taylor (North West Leicestershire, Labour)

With this it will be convenient to discuss Government amendment 41.

Ian Pearson (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Economic and Business), Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform; Dudley South, Labour)

These are the only two Government amendments to this Bill, unlike the Banking Bill, in which the hon. Member for Fareham and I have participated, which required extensive amendment. I congratulate my team on this Bill for the diligence and thoroughness with which they have prepared the original legislation.

The Government propose a minor amendment to subsection (2). Hon. Members will know that the subsection sets out the requirement for the content of the notice of appeal to be submitted by the appellant when an appeal is made under clause 23. The amendment would restrict those requirements so that they applied only to those saving gateway appeals that concerned tax matters, and to tax and non-tax saving gateway appeals in Northern Ireland. We intend that other saving gateway appeals should be covered by the separate provision on this point, and that was recently made in the tribunal procedure rules for the social entitlement chapter of the first-tier tribunal. There is little difference in substance between  the requirements set out in this Bill and those in the tribunal procedure rules. Both require that the notice of appeal be signed and the grounds for appeal be specified. However, the Government believe it neither necessary nor appropriate for the Bill to contain provision on that point when provision has already been made in the tribunal procedure rules. The rules can be amended in due course so that they apply to saving gateway appeals where appropriate. The amendment would remove any scope for confusion about which set of rules apply.