Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

The argument is not left purely to the Government. The scrutiny Committees will have a view. It is not the Government who decide what is controversial. I do not think that it would be possible to find a satisfactory legislative definition of controversial, unlike reasonableness. The reasonableness test is well known in law. Judicial review is an opportunity for people to test the reasonableness of a Minister’s decision. I will give an example. A 1990s report on divorce and the current project on homicide are plainly unsuitable for implementation by order because people have strong feelings about the principles that they address. Therefore, it would not be appropriate to take them through the proposed system. Equally obviously, other reforms are uncontroversial, often technical ““lawyers’ law”” reforms; very important, but politically unexciting. Those are the ones that often struggle to find parliamentary time. Amendment No. 3 builds on one possible reason why a change may be necessary. Indeed, the longer the delay between publication of the Law Commission’s recommendations and the order being delivered, the more likely, as I said earlier, that the law will have to be changed. So it is important to be able to implement the recommendations with the changes necessary to reflect changes in the law. I will not go over the arguments again, because I explained in respect of earlier amendments the reasons why such an approach would be too restrictive. I hope that the House welcomes Government amendment No. 23, which relates to the limits, already contained in clause 6, on the criminal penalties that can be imposed by order. Currently, these restrictions do not apply to orders implementing Law Commission recommendations. The amendment will make orders implementing such recommendations subject to the same limits on maximum criminal penalties to which all other orders are subject. In Committee, the Government agreed to reflect on amendments that proposed deleting the exception relating to criminal penalties imposed by orders implementing Law Commission recommendations. That exception was created to allow orders implementing Law Commission recommendations, notwithstanding the level of penalties proposed. That caused some concern in Committee, even though it seemed likely that the exception would be little used. We have therefore given careful consideration to that concern during the Bill’s passage. The Government have always intended that the order-making power should work as an effective vehicle for delivering regulatory reform measures, while maintaining necessary protections and safeguards. I hope that Government amendment No. 23 reassures Members that the Bill’s order-making power will be used to implement only appropriate measures by order, and that, on that basis, they will be willing to accept it. Government amendment No. 27 relates to the limits already in clause 7 prohibiting the authorisation by order of forcible entry, search, seizure or the compelling of the giving of evidence. Currently, those restrictions do not apply to orders implementing Law Commission recommendations. The amendment will make orders implementing such recommendations subject to the general prohibition on authorising by order forcible entry, search, seizure or the compelling of the giving of evidence. We agreed in Committee to reflect on amendments that proposed deleting the exception for orders implementing Law Commission recommendations, and I hope that Government amendment No. 27 offers the same level of reassurance that the Bill’s order-making power will be used to implement only appropriate measures by order. Government amendments Nos. 33, 34, 40 and 59 are consequential drafting amendments, so I do not propose to discuss them in detail. Suffice it to say that Government amendment No. 33 is made necessary by the amendments to clauses 1 and 2, but it does not change the effect of clause 11(1)(d). Government amendment No. 34 is also made necessary by amendments to clauses 1 and 2, and does not change the effect of clause 11(2). Government amendment No. 40, also made necessary by amendments to clauses 1 and 2, does not change the effect of clause 12(4). Finally, Government amendment No. 59 replaces the now obsolete reference to ““section 1(4)”” with a reference to subsection (3) of new clause 21. On that basis, I commend the new clause and the amendments to the House.