Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

It is not for me to speculate on why and I am not sure that it is interesting now. Hon. Members, and there are plenty on both sides of the Chamber today, have been concerned about how the shift of power in politics has moved from Parliament to the Executive over recent years. Indeed, the former right hon. Member for Bexley and Old Sidcup, in his last speech on the Conservative Benches, said that it had been moving inexorably during the 50 years that he had been a Member of the House. Those of us in the group Parliament First, who are interested in such matters, recognise that the balance of power has shifted enormously. The Bill seemed to be the most dramatic and horrific example of that. Had it gone through unamended, it would have totally changed the balance and nature of our parliamentary system. Indeed, it would have neutered large parts of it. New clause 19 is important because it is the one hand against that trend. I congratulate the Minister on introducing it and ensuring that the Bill has some constraint. In the light of the generous number of interventions that he took, I hope that he will go back and think about some of them, and see that there are still weaknesses. I do not feel that he responded fully to the point that the right hon. and learned Member for Rushcliffe (Mr. Clarke) made on the climate change levy. He deflected it by saying, ““Ah, but legislation is covered by clause 5.”” However, it is only covered in one direction—to ““impose or increase taxation.”” The right hon. and learned Gentleman suggested the possibility that orders could reduce or delete taxation. The Bill, with the current wording, does nothing to stop an order being made. It would have to go to a Select Committee, but a Select Committee of a different House, with a different Chair and a different balance could well wave it through. It could be persuaded that a climate change levy was a thoroughly malign thing. That would not be good for Parliament. It would be extremely bad for the way in which we conduct our business. I suspect that the same is true of a future Government deleting the top rate of tax. That could happen and it could bypass the scrutiny of a Finance Bill. It is certainly true of the rather less important and frivolous example of fox hunting. I deplore the fact that the House has wasted 700 hours debating fox hunting. Anything more pointless and more to the shame of this House could hardly be imagined. Under this Bill, an order to delete all that legislation—if the order got through a Select Committee—would not need to go before the House; it could be a ministerial order. As a member of the middle way group who voted against the legislation, I would be happy and relaxed about that, but that is not the intention behind the Bill or the way in which we should conduct parliamentary business. I do not see anything in new clause 19(3), which defines the burdens, to prevent such things from happening. I know that the Minister intends that subsection (3) will preclude all those things, but that is not apparent from the wording. It would be very much simpler if the Bill were confined solely to regulation. Does the Minister want to intervene?