My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord McNally, provokes a vision in my mind. I see him as a sort of parliamentary Caliban, proclaiming constantly: “Oh brave new world, that has such legislation in it”. I cannot say that he is altogether persuasive in the claims that he makes for this legislation, well motivated though it is, let alone the rest of his Government’s exciting and radical agenda.
In these amendments I look at two exciting and radical parts of the Bill. Amendment 35 addresses the provision in Clause 18 that empowers the Secretary of State to make an order that may,
“make different provision for different purposes, and … amend, repeal or revoke legislation”.
These are probing amendments only, but it would be helpful to know what the Minister envisages by, to quote the preceding subsection,
“consequential, supplementary or incidental provisions in relation to any provision of this Act”.
Can he exemplify the sort of thing that might be covered by the order-making power conferred by Clause 18(2)?
Amendment 36 relates to Clause 19, the substance of which goes even further in giving the Secretary of State power to,
“make other transitional, transitory or saving provision in connection with the coming into force of any provision of this Act”.
Such an order may,
“make different provision for different purposes”,
and so on, and,
“An order … is to be made by statutory instrument”.
Would that require the affirmative procedure or only the negative? The power is potentially so wide, as is the power in the previous clause, that it should require the affirmative procedure rather than merely the negative procedure. Will the noble Lord elucidate the position?
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