Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

I am most grateful to the hon. Gentleman. This is very early in the debate and in his ministerial career, but I urge him not to fall into the trap that his predecessor fell into when discussing the Bill, which is simply to assert that something will not happen or that he could not conceive of it happening or that it is not the Government’s intention for it to happen, rather than actually expressing in statutory form that it cannot happen. That is exactly the difficulty that the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent, Central (Mark Fisher) pointed out; although the Minister may be absolutely convinced that he has no intention of using the Bill for an inappropriate cause, a future Government may, and that is why so many Members are concerned about it.