My Lords, I am afraid that we have a number of amendments in this group. I have quite a lot of sympathy with Amendment 19A, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, but it seems to me that proposed new subsection (4)(c) is not anything like of the same order as proposed new subsection (4)(a) and (b). I read it as being procedural and think that it would not make it more difficult to satisfy the necessity and proportionality requirements. I hope the Minister can confirm that.
Amendment 21 deals with proposed new Clause 29B(4)(c), which provides that the Secretary of State can make an order imposing requirements for the CCA to be authorised, and the person authorising
it must believe that there are arrangements which satisfy those requirements. If the Secretary of State believes—if that is an appropriate use of the word, given our last discussion—that further requirements are necessary and would be of wide interest, in the fullest sense of that word, consultation ought to play a part.
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I say to the noble Lord, Lord Naseby, that the wording that I have used is pretty standard. Civil society, civil liberties organisations and the organisations involved in giving authorisation ought to be consulted. The noble Lord said, “Well, wouldn’t it happen anyway?”, but I think he can guess my answer to that, since it is why we have included the amendment.
Amendment 58 would apply something similar to a proposal for an order prohibiting particular conduct.
Amendment 62 would mean that orders under Section 29B would be subject to the affirmative procedure, for much the same reasons as we have proposed for consultation. The Member’s explanatory statement as drafted refers to “section 29B(4)(c)”, but the amendment would apply to Section 29B(10) as well, so I apologise for that.
Amendment 81 in part anticipates that different relevant authorities will need to consider different matters, and that different things will need to apply to them. I appreciate that it is normal to provide for parts of an Act to come into force at different times, applying to different areas. I can see that it could be necessary to commence the Act at different times for different authorities, but I hope that we end up with fewer in the schedule than we have at the moment, and that, for instance, the Food Standards Agency might need procedures which already exist for the police. Is it right for any provisions to be separated out, provisions which affect the justification for criminal conduct authorisations? Surely this should all be read as a single provision. I could go on, but I will not, in view of the time. Amendment 83 makes the same point applying to transitional and saving provisions.
In short, I hope that the Minister can give us examples justifying Clause 6(2) and Section 29B(4).