This is a House of Commons Select Committee report.
Select Committee on Statutory Instruments
Date Published: 3 February 2023
At its meeting on 1 February 2023 the Committee scrutinised a number of instruments in accordance with Standing Orders. It was agreed that the special attention of the House of Commons should be drawn to two of those considered. The instruments and the grounds for reporting are given below. The relevant departmental memorandum is published as an appendix to this report.
1.1The Committee draws the special attention of this House to these Regulations on the ground that they require elucidation in one respect.
1.2These Regulations, which are subject to the negative resolution procedure, make amendments to subordinate legislation previously made under the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018. S.I. 2022/1301 replaced an instrument of the same name numbered 2022/1286 which was withdrawn due to an error – the instrument incorrectly stated in the inoperative italic date information that it was laid before Parliament when it should only have been laid before the House of Commons. The Committee noticed that on a search for S.I. 2022/1286 there is now a gap on the National Archives website and asked HM Treasury to explain whether any steps have been taken to explain to users of that website why S.I. 2022/1286 is not published. In a memorandum printed at Appendix 1, the Department explains that it will notify users by asking the National Archives to re-issue S.I. 2022/1301 with an italic headnote explaining that it was published in place of S.I. 2022/1286. The Committee is grateful for this undertaking and the transparency of this approach. The Committee accordingly reports these Regulations for requiring elucidation, provided by the Department’s memorandum.
The Committee has considered the instruments set out in the Annex to this Report, none of which were required to be reported.
S.I. Number |
S.I. Title |
S.I. 2022/1407 |
Local Government Finance Act 1988 (Non-Domestic Rating Multipliers) (England) Order 2022 |
S.I. Number |
S.I. Title |
Draft |
International Fund for Agricultural Development (Twelfth Replenishment) Order 2023 |
S.I. Number |
S.I. Title |
S.I. 2022/1165* |
Insurance Contracts (Tax) (Change in Accounting Standards) Regulations 2022 |
S.I. 2023/19 |
Value Added Tax (Refund of Tax) Order 2023 |
S.I. 2023/38 |
International Tax Enforcement (Disclosable Arrangements) Regulations 2023 |
* The Committee asked for a memorandum on this instrument and a satisfactory response was received. The Memorandum is printed at Appendix 2.
1)The Committee has asked HM Treasury for a memorandum on the following point:
Explain whether any steps have been taken to explain to users of the National Archives website why S.I. 2022/1286 is not published.
2)HM Treasury understands from discussions with the National Archives that it is undesirable but not unusual for an instrument to have an S.I. number allocated to it that then needs to be discarded for process reasons and a new S.I. number allocated to that instrument. This appears to users as a jump in the numbering sequence where there is no published S.I. for a given number; there are typically 30–50 instances of this per year.
3)In this instance, S.I. 2022/1286 was removed from legislation.gov.uk once it had been established that the instrument should only have been laid before the House of Commons, not before both Houses. The Regulations were subsequently re-registered as S.I. 2022/1301.
4)HM Treasury will notify users by asking the National Archives to re-issue S.I. 2022/1301 with an italic headnote explaining that it was published in place of S.I. 2022/1286. HM Treasury is grateful to the Committee for bringing this point to its attention.
HM Treasury
24 January 2023
1)The Committee has asked HM Revenue and Customs for a memorandum on the following point:
Confirm whether the phrase “accounting profit or loss” in regulation 4(3) is intended to have the same meaning as in section 114 of the Finance Act 2012 (and if not, explain what the intended meaning is).
2)We confirm the phrase “accounting profit or loss” is intended to have the same meaning as in section 114 of the Finance Act 2012 (“FA 2012”).
3)Our view is that this intended meaning is clear from regulation 4(4)(a). Regulation 4(4)(a) requires that the method of apportionment adopted by the company be consistent with the method adopted for the purposes of section 115 of FA 2012. Section 115 sets out a method for allocating the “accounting profit or loss”, which is defined in section 114 of FA 2012, between the two businesses attributable to an insurance company by virtue of section 66 of FA 2012.
His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs
17 January 2023
Jessica Morden, in the Chair
Peter Grant
Gareth Johnson
Maggie Throup
Liz Twist
Draft Report (Eleventh Report), proposed by the Chair, brought up and read.
Ordered, That the draft Report be read a second time, paragraph by paragraph.
Paragraphs 1.1 to 1.2 read and agreed to.
Annex agreed to.
Papers were appended to the Report as Appendices 1 to 2.
Resolved, That the Report be the Eleventh Report of the Committee to the House.
Ordered, That the Chair make the Report to the House.
Adjourned to a day and time to be fixed by the Chair.