Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

The hon. Member for Cannock Chase gave some candid views on how the House works in reality. We should be careful about too much candour, but I have not the slightest doubt that Governments of all complexions use the process to which my hon. Friend refers if a Select Committee looks like it will be too difficult. There is, of course, a political process behind that, which we all realise has to be borne in mind. I reiterate my belief that if a substantial body of opinion in the House wishes to insist on the full procedure, it should have the opportunity of doing so. I apologise to my hon. Friend the Member for Huntingdon for putting him in a slight difficulty, but I have no way of getting out of this because I shared a platform with the hon. Member for Cambridge (David Howarth) from which we advocated such an idea. In the end, that is the only satisfactory reassurance we can have. The Liberals have been quite generous in putting the limits they propose beyond their reach as a single party. I am not sure why one of the three major parties of the House should be prevented from having a full parliamentary procedure if it so wishes, but I agree with my Front-Bench colleagues that that would involve much wider considerations, including the whole question of who determines what we debate on the Floor of the House and how we do it. That needs to be addressed. I continue to hold the view that the one thing that will be completely beyond the control of the Government is stopping 10 per cent. of the Members of the House indicating, in some formal fashion, that they believe that the full process should go ahead. If we can get 10 per cent. to insist on that, it means that there is some interest, with which I probably profoundly disagree, that is entitled to have the full parliamentary process before the legislative machinery is changed. My hon. Friends are worried about precedent. One of the most common arguments used by the civil service and others against deregulation is the precedent that might be created if we reopen something. Precedent has to be approached with caution. Let me make it clear: I do not think that the proposal establishes any precedent for allowing a minority to block legislation that has gone through the legislative process. It sticks in our craw when we have lost a measure by one vote, but one vote is sufficient in this place for the majority to overrule the minority. However, we must go through a process before that conclusion can be reached. I do not see precedent being created because of the unique nature of the Bill. We are talking about altering primary legislation by a process that cuts out all the ordinary legislative process precisely because of the need for speed and to avoid delay, and because we are so keen on deregulation.