Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

I beg to move, That the Bill be now read the Third time. Let me begin by thanking a number of colleagues and others in the House. First, I must thank my ministerial colleagues the Parliamentary Secretaries to the Cabinet Office. I am sorry that one of them did not have a chance to demonstrate his skilful mastery of his brief, but my hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton, South-East (Mr. McFadden) demonstrated effectively his ability to master a complicated brief in a very short time. I thank the Under-Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Lewisham, East (Bridget Prentice), for her expertise in dealing with the Law Commission aspect of the Bill. I also thankmy hon. Friend the Member for East Renfrewshire(Mr. Murphy), who is now Minister for Employment and Welfare Reform, but who did so much of the work that produced the Bill in the form in which it has been debated over the past two days. I am grateful for the constructive advice given by a number of key Committees and their Chairs during the last few months on how best to frame the order-making powers in part 1, and on the parliamentary procedures for scrutiny of draft orders. I am particularly grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Ellesmere Port and Neston (Andrew Miller), to the right hon. Member for East Yorkshire (Mr. Knight), and to my hon. Friends the Members for Cannock Chase (Dr. Wright) and for Hendon (Mr. Dismore). We have engaged in a lively and interesting debate over the past two days. Despite all the votes, I believe that there has been an advance that most Members throughout the House have recognised. We have sought to achieve a sensible balance between producing a Bill with the power to deliver better regulation—in which respect I confess we were ambitious—and ensuring that Parliament would play a full and constructive role in scrutinising proposals so that we could secure a better regulation agenda overall.