Finance (No. 3) Bill: Briefing for Lords Stages

The Finance (No. 3) Bill is a government bill intended to give lasting statutory effect to the tax measures announced in the 2018 budget.  It completed its stages in the House of Commons on 8 January 2019. The Bill was introduced in the House of Lords on 9 January 2019 and is due to have its second reading on 7 February 2019.

The bill falls within the category known formally as “bills of aids and supplies”, in which “aids” refers to taxation and “supplies” refers to government expenditure.  The House of Commons has a special role in such bills, known as “financial privilege”.  This means, in practice, that only the Commons can initiate such bills and Lords consideration is limited. In particular, the House of Lords may not amend such bills. While the Lords will have a debate at second reading, later stages will go through formally, without debate.

A number of amendments were made to the bill in the House of Commons. One of those agreed was intended to demonstrate the House’s opposition to a no-deal Brexit. The House of Lords Economic Affairs Finance Bill Sub-Committee has also considered two of the areas covered in this bill and in the previous Finance (No. 2) Act: namely, the Government’s proposals for Making Tax Digital and the development of HM Revenue and Customs’ powers to collect tax. It made a number of criticisms and recommendations in each area.