I thank the noble and learned Lords for their support for our amendments to Clause 5 and the removal of the Henry VIII operation within the Bill. I shall do my best to continue in the way I have started in this House.
I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, for her Amendments 21 and 23. The Government recognise that appropriate levels of scrutiny are the hallmark of an effective and responsible parliamentary system and that the processes by which we draft, consider and test legislation must be robust. It is necessary that we look
at the nature of the subordinate legislation in the Bill and balance the need for scrutiny against the appropriate use of parliamentary time.
The draft affirmative resolution offers a greater level of parliamentary scrutiny and may be appropriate for particularly significant or sensitive regulations. For example, that is why the Government have agreed that that is appropriate when amending the list of authorised persons able to process data for the purposes of reciprocal healthcare. It is important to understand that, where the UK negotiates a new comprehensive international healthcare agreement, most of the important elements setting out its terms would be included in the agreement itself rather than in the regulations, made under the Bill, that implement it. The regulations giving effect to such an agreement would be much more likely to focus on the procedural, administrative or technical details, such as the types of documents or forms to be used to administer reciprocal healthcare arrangements. Evidence tabled during the course of the Bill’s passage from the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and the British Medical Association demonstrates that the administration for current arrangements works well. The regulations made under this Bill would be likely to simply provide for the effective and efficient administration of these arrangements.
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We anticipate that, were we to accept this amendment, in future Parliament would likely find itself debating technical updates to operational issues, such as whether forms required to process reciprocal healthcare arrangements should be changed. I do not think that would be an appropriate use of parliamentary time. For that reason, we feel that the negative procedure is appropriate to use for the regulations. With the additional amendments we have tabled today, the Bill allows for effective governance while providing for an improved level of parliamentary oversight. Noble Lords will recognise that it is vital that the Government can make regulations quickly and react to varied possible scenarios arising from the UK’s exit from the EU.
The House is also absolutely right to hold the Executive to the highest possible constitutional standards. We understand that ensuring sufficient scrutiny is a legitimate and ongoing concern. That is why we have worked hard in bringing forward a considerable package of government amendments to increase scrutiny and transparency and to alleviate any fears that we are taking powers that are not absolutely necessary. We took a significant step in removing the entire Henry VIII powers for this reason. We have also placed a statutory duty on the Government to publish the annual report, which has just been debated, to give Parliament greater reassurance on how the Bill will be implemented and scrutinised. Finally, we have proposed subjecting any regulations that add to the list of persons authorised to be subject to the affirmative procedure. We think parliamentarians have rightly demonstrated that data protection is a critical issue, and we have decided that it is appropriate that these regulations be subject to the draft affirmative procedure.
Having explained that and gone through our thinking, I hope the noble Baroness, Lady Thornton, will agree that it is not appropriate to impose scrutiny processes on all the regulations made under this Bill, as that could see us in future debating technical changes to administrative systems that implement healthcare regulations. That would not be appropriate. On this basis, I hope she will feel free to withdraw her amendment.