My Lords, I have been told that, thanks to the intriguing procedure we have in this House, I am not entitled to give a full 10-minute speech, which no doubt noble Lords will greet with a great sense of relief at not having to sit through 10 minutes of me wittering on. I would just ask noble Lords to indulge me for a few moments.
I thank my noble friend the Minister for what he has just said, but ask him to write to me on the points I raised and the specific questions I asked, in particular as regards Clause 129, which I see as an enormous—I would use the words “power grab”. In my view, it is certainly an unwarranted clause, given that we have not even had the consultation which this policy clearly demands. We do not know the costs or the impact. I would therefore very much like to hear more from him on that.
I was relieved to hear that action will be taken on umbrella companies. That is clearly needed, although there is a crying need for action on the mini umbrella companies. We absolutely need to focus on that, and I am sure that our committee will do so.
I was also grateful that the Minister mentioned that the Government are still committed to their manifesto commitment at least to look at the measures in the Taylor review. This is long overdue, as my noble friend Lord Forsyth, the noble Baroness, Lady Kramer, and the noble Lord, Lord Butler, said. It is absolutely critical. We need to address the impact which the digital revolution is having on our tax and employment systems. Until we do that, I fear that all the other tinkering that we do will be nothing but sticking plasters. We absolutely need a radical review, and this cannot happen soon enough.
As I said on the gracious Speech, it is greatly disappointing that this Government have not so far used the opportunity presented by having a majority of over 80 to start thinking in these ways and looking at taking some decisions that may be unpopular and tough but are needed.
I thank the members of the committee for their speeches and their very kind words about me. As noble Lords will no doubt have recognised and acknowledged in their speeches, it is their contribution that makes our committee pack its punch. In my opening speech I failed to mention my thanks to the Financial Secretary, Jesse Norman, and HMRC for co-operating with our committee’s inquiry. Clearly, we did not agree—it says so in the report—but as the noble Lord, Lord Butler, rightly said, we got to a score draw. I think that shows that I and we could do more next time, but at least that is better than nothing. As the noble Lord, Lord Butler, said, it is a pity that the Government seem to agree more with the principles and the theory that we came up with than the practical next steps that we would like them to take. Better luck next time.
This has been a short debate, but it has been a double espresso sort of a debate; I feel we have packed an enormous punch into it and covered a wide range of issues. We have had very good contributions on the digital revolution, the enormous debt crisis I fear we are facing, climate change—the pressing issue of our time alongside the digital revolution—and inequality. I found the contributions challenging, and they have all been very interesting.