My Lords, a key focus of our discussions of Part 2 has been to reduce the time taken to reach the conclusion of the first review of the PIDR. In Committee, the Minister encouraged more discussion about how to do that, and on Report the Government accepted amendments that brought forward very substantially the first determination. We were very grateful for that and for their very constructive involvement.
There were, however, two remaining issues to do with the timing of the first review. The first was on the 90-day period from commencement that the Bill gives the Lord Chancellor before he must trigger the first review. The second was on the absolute discretion given to the Lord Chancellor to decide when commencement should take place.
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In her response to these points when they were raised on Report, the Minister said:
“The Government are … sympathetic to exploring ways to reduce the 90-day period within which the first review must begin, without making the period so short as to cause problems for the rest of the timetable”.
She went on to say that,
“we would be happy to discuss the detail of these amendments further … before Third Reading”.—[Official Report, 12/6/18; col. 1683.]
She also agreed to discuss the issue of commencement itself.
Amendment 6 is the result of those discussions. It would remove the Lord Chancellor’s absolute discretion over the date of commencement and substitutes that commencement of Part 2, the relevant part, will take place on the day on which the Act is passed. This means, as a consequence and in line with paragraph 1(2) of Schedule A1, that the first review must begin within 90 days of the Act being passed.
We understand the need to allow sufficient time for preparing the later stages of the first review but, ideally, we would have preferred a shorter period than 90 days. However, we noted the Minister’s commitment to start the review as soon as practical within this 90-day period, a commitment which I hope the noble and learned Lord, Lord Keen, will be able to repeat when he replies.
I should point out that Amendment 6 is identical to the Amendment 90 tabled on Report by the noble Earl, Lord Kinnoull. It was he who spotted the commencement problem and first proposed the solution, so any credit really belongs to him. I am also deeply obliged to the Ministers and the Bill team for their thorough, extensive and always courteous engagement. I beg to move.