Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

As ever, my right hon. Friend makes a telling point. The advantage of the Standing Orders route, if I can put it in that way, is that it has within it the flexibility either to move the Bill through swiftly or, if the House is concerned, to take it through the various stages in our normal way, including a proper Committee stage and Report. I do not think that we have quite got there on the question of how to tackle Law Commission Bills. I would be only too happy to sit down with the Minister and other colleagues, if required, to consider how we might better approach it and build on what the Standing Orders already provide. My right hon. Friend the Member for East Yorkshire (Mr. Knight) tabled amendment (a) in his capacity as Chairman of the Procedure Committee. Removing the words, ““with or without changes””, would put Ministers in a position whereby they could not expand on what the Law Commission had suggested, which would be a good thing. If it reached the point where the Minister had had a bit of delay and it was necessary to make some change to what the Law Commission had recommended, I am sure that Sir Roger Toulson and his committee would be only too happy to be speedy about it and to turn it round, because I know how frustrated they are that they do not get their measures put through. None of these problems is insuperable, but pushing through controversial changes by order without proper protections is not the way forward for the House. The veto that the Minister mentioned currently exists in a very restrictive form. It does not mean that a Committee can look at a piece of legislation and say, ““No, that is not suitable for the order-making power.”” It says to the Committee, ““If you go through these very rigid steps which are set out in the second part of the veto, you will be able to block the measure.”” That is not good enough. If we believe in Select Committees and want to empower them, we should trust them. Without some serious concession on the veto and perhaps something in Standing Orders as well, I am not satisfied with new clause 21, but if it is passed by the House, I will support my right hon. Friend the Member for East Yorkshire and his Select Committee in their amendment (a).