Lord Bridges opened the debate and questioned whether more powers for HMRC were ‘fair and proportionate’, stressing that ‘the power must have a clear policy objective, and be targeted and appropriate’.

There was also criticism of new measures to tackle promoters with the Lords ‘not convinced of the effectiveness of these measures’, adding that the current HMRC policy of highlighting schemes via HMRC spotlights was not enough to ensure that taxpayers were aware of the risks of signing up to dubious schemes which frequently broke tax rules.

Finance Bill 2021 will give HMRC new powers to request information from banks and financial institutions about individual taxpayer’s financial arrangements and bank accounts raised concerns, particularly as a number of safeguards had been removed. However, it was accepted that banks can appeal any information requests.