Sustainable Communities Bill

I congratulate the sponsors of the Bill and especially the promoter. The hon. Member for Ruislip-Northwood (Mr. Hurd) again spoke eloquently about his Bill. He has shown great skill and gone out of his way to be consensual. I shall comment on the hon. Member for the independent republic of Shipley (Philip Davies) shortly. I thank the hon. Member for Falmouth and Camborne (Julia Goldsworthy) and my hon. Friends who served on the Committee. The Committee was unusual for the hon. Members who served on it and for me as the Minister who responded on behalf of the Government. I sat on the Front Bench with my fantastically loyal Parliamentary Private Secretary, my hon. Friend the Member for West Ham (Lyn Brown), whom I also thank, and without a member of the Whips Office to look after me and keep me on the straight and narrow. I now welcome the presence of the Whips, who bring certainty and provide gentle reminders of when one is straying beyond Government policy. The experience was also unusual for another reason. I appreciate that it is not normal to mention civil servants and I hope that you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, will not mind my paying tribute to them. It is difficult for Government officials, who worked extraordinarily hard for me, my team and the Committee, to work outside Government policy. When dealing with a private Member’s Bill, one inevitably has to adapt policy to meet objectives sometimes by the hour during the course of deliberations. There has been no lack of willingness to help the Minister. Officials have gone through the proper procedures of Cabinet Government to get Government clearance and rightly abided by the advice of parliamentary counsel, which is independent. Ministers are obliged to act on the advice of parliamentary counsel. If that were not the case, we would politicise the law and make bad law. I am now delighted to report to the House that I have Government clearance and parliamentary counsel advice to support the Bill. It is the Government’s policy that it should reach the statute book. I give those assurances not only to hon. Members who served on the Committee, but to my hon. Friend the Member for Hendon (Mr. Dismore), who is not in his place, but who is promoting the next Bill that we will discuss. I wanted to stress to him that it is Government policy to support the measure that we are considering. I ask hon. Members not to accept new clause 6 but to adopt new clauses 1 and 2 instead. I can give the right hon. Member for West Dorset (Mr. Letwin) the assurance that he needs and has requested. Our advice is that we can achieve the intention of new clause 6 on function, money and a proper process following the spending report and other matters better through new clauses 1 and 2 than through new clause 6. The problem is not therefore one of principle.