The impact of the EU referendum on day-to-day government and parliamentary activity means that the usual parliamentary process is running behind schedule particularly as the government had indicated that certain elements of the draft bill would be put out for further consultation on the drafting of the rules.

Industry insiders have indicated that there is a 50/50 chance that the Bill will be passed before the summer recess on 21 July, but are blaming the slow progress on a failure to prioritise the Bill in the normal parliamentary approval process, despite time for committee meetings over the referendum period as witnessed by the BHS hearings this week.

Currently the Bill is posted to go through the whole house between 27 and 28 June, for debate, and then on to committee stage from 30 June for two weeks with completion set for 14 July. Then it would need to go back to the Commons and Lords before finally being passed before the summer recess.

A Treasury spokesperson told Accountancy that ‘the Bill is in the hands of parliament’ and as a result it could not shed any light on the timetable for the next Finance Bill or confirm anything until parliament moves.

Technically, the Bill debates could be delayed until the autumn as the House of Commons agreed a carry-over motion for this Bill on 11 April 2016. This means that consideration of the Bill will resume in the 2016-17 session.

The Bill was given a formal First and Second Reading (no debate) on Thursday 19 May to reintroduce it in the 2016-17 session of parliament. The Bill will be restarted at the point it reached in the last session.

The normal process is to pass the Finance Bill in July. Last year, in the run-up to the election, the first Finance Act of the year was passed quickly following the removal of a number of contentious clauses due to the general election date. Even this speedy turn-around was avoidable under the current five-year parliamentary terms.

Follow the Finance Bill 2016 through parliament