Welfare Reform Bill

My Lords, this has been departmental unfinished business for a number of years, as I know to my cost. In a previous incarnation I was part of a Select Committee that looked at this area in some detail. To an extent, it is not just unfinished business but there is credibility at stake in some respects. In the days of the Social Security Administration Act 1992, statutes of a social security nature were extensive and laid out in some detail. Most of the detail was contained in the primary sections of the primary legislation. Things have changed; the older I get, the more I can see the force of enabling legislation that can be fleshed out in statutory instruments and delegated legislation. The rationale in 1992 was that the department was entitled to six months’ respite, if I can put it that way, because the primary legislation contained all the necessary detail to foresee what would happen in the immediate aftermath of the primary statute. That has certainly changed in this legislation, if it had not done before. I absolutely support the Government’s perfectly understandable intention to set out the framework as it has in this enabling legislation and to back it up later with SIs and delegated secondary legislation. The whole way of developing social security statutes has changed, which everyone from the social security committee to the DWP committee and the quinquennial review under Professor Hazel Genn recognised, as did Andrew Smith. When he was Secretary for State in the last Parliament, Andrew Smith gave a clear commitment that he could see the force of how the system had changed, demonstrating a need to remove the protected six-month period to which the department was able to cleave. The last time that the Social Security Advisory Committee looked at this, in its 19th report, it suggested that it was making progress with the department in getting that principle accepted. It seemed that we were almost getting to the stage of saying, ““Don’t worry; let’s try it this time with this Bill on welfare reform, and in the next social security legislation that comes along we will get the amendment to the 1992 SSAA””. That Act needs to be changed to put right the situation. This amendment, which my noble friend moved so eloquently, makes a clear case, even at this late hour, that we should be making the change and giving the Government time to implement it as and when they feel it appropriate. That would seem the culmination of a series of iterative, evolving discussions with the department. This is the moment when we should take the chance, as it might not come again for some time, which would be a shame. If we do not take that opportunity, the Government are saying that they do not value the Social Security Advisory Committee’s contribution to the legislative process, because some people in the pressure-group community outside are beginning to wonder whether there has been a deliberate attack on the extent of the SSAC’s remit. This is one element of that discussion. The Government have to be careful that they do not undersell or diminish the role of the Social Security Advisory Committee. Amendment No. 87 would be an important signal that they understood. There are conditions in the SSAC’s 19th annual report to the effect that if, for example, we take the six-month rule out, we could start in Committee to point to some of the regulations and statutory instruments that could be the subject of scrutiny within the six-month period. This is an important moment this evening for the Government to explain clearly whether they are going to take this opportunity that the amendment clearly gives them. If they do not take it, there will be far-reaching consequences for the Social Security Advisory Committee and all the valuable work that it does. Briefly, on Amendment No. 88, again the credibility of the department is being tested. The guardian’s allowance and child benefit are benefits that are administered quite clearly under the Social Security Administration Act 1992, which is the pin Act of all eligibility for benefits as currently cast. The Tax Credits Act 2002 changed that. I believe that there were some misunderstandings after the 2002 legislation, because there were some very clear assurances that the consultation process with the Social Security Advisory Committee would not be downgraded in any way. Clearly it has been. As my noble friend argued eloquently on an earlier amendment, the new memorandum of understanding arrangements for the guardian’s allowance, child benefit and the tax credits, which we cannot technically talk about under the Long Title of this legislation, are simply not adequate for the purpose. They are, as my noble friend said, confidential to the department. The whole model of Social Security Advisory Committee processes has been established so that SSAC members may advise Parliament. They do so through the Secretary of State, but they advise Parliament, and for a memorandum of understanding merely to advise government through HM Revenue and Customs is wholly different. It is totally removed from the ability to ensure that when we deal with delegated legislation in the revising Chamber, we have the advantage in cold print of the views and expertise of the Social Security Advisory Committee secretariat. Moreover, the SSAC’s work is intrinsic to the statutory process. If the Minister tried to introduce secondary legislation without reference to the SSAC, there are circumstances in which delegated legislation, even if the SSAC said that it had nothing to say about it, would be flawed and subject to contest. It is, and always has been, an absolutely intrinsic part of the social security statutory process. The other thing about memorandums of understanding which I do not like is that they are entirely discretionary. They are at the behest of Ministers and cannot be required by anyone outside Revenue and Customs bureaucracy. Perhaps one of the most damaging things about memorandums of understanding is that they do not admit of external consultation. No one else can do as SSAC members do when they formally consult under the SSAC normal model for social security scrutiny. SSAC members can talk to the pressure-group community, academics and others. Indeed, they have a very good reputation for doing so. People know why they are being asked the questions that the SSAC asks them, and they know that the information is being put to good purpose for parliamentary scrutiny which, under the memorandum of understanding role suggested in relation to the guardian’s allowance, child benefit and the tax credits, the SSAC cannot currently do. Finally, assurances—I certainly took them to be assurances—were given in the aftermath of the Tax Credits Act 2002 that these things would eventually be put right. Assurances were given that the consultation would be at least equivalent to the SSAC social security model through the memorandum of understanding. I do not believe that that has happened. For all these reasons, the credibility of the department is at stake. I know that the Minister is too tough a cookie to be bullied by his Treasury colleagues, who say, ““Hands off tax credits. Customs and Revenue are not having anything to do with this namby-pamby consultation that DWP Ministers are saddled with. Get out of my face; I don’t want any of this round my neck””. I am sure that he is able—at least I hope that he is big enough—to stand up to that kind of pressure, because this is a serious issue. If this is the shape of things to come and Treasury Ministers move on to higher and better things, the social policy that we may see coming from the Government for the remainder of this Parliament will start taking on that hue, rather than going back to the tried and tested systems. I do not need to tell the Minister that the Social Security Advisory Committee is a cherished part of the consultation process in social security law, as it has been for years. If the Government do not send out the right signals in addressing these two amendments appropriately, there will be worries out there that that commitment is being eroded, if not being lost altogether.