UK Parliament / Open data

Enterprise Bill [HL]

The noble Lord will be aware that the committee produced its report at the end of last week. When I found out about it, I felt it would be right to refer to it. Of course, we always take very seriously the excellent work of the Delegated Powers Committee. I am not in a position today to say where we are on that but I wanted to make sure that noble Lords were aware of it because it seems relevant to our discussions.

As I said, Amendments 4 and 5 would remove the ability of the Secretary of State to provide staff to the commissioner and would enable the commissioner to recruit his or her own staff. Again, I can see that it may appear attractive to do this but it is not necessary. The commissioner will be staffed by civil servants. They owe no political loyalty to the Secretary of State and are obliged to do their work impartially and objectively. Such staff will work to the commissioner and under his or her direction.

About this proceeding contribution

Reference

765 c111GC 

Session

2015-16

Chamber / Committee

House of Lords Grand Committee

Subjects

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