Clause 2 - Directions etc. by the Secretary of State
Private Security Industry Bill [Lords]
11:00 am
Mr John Bercow (Buckingham, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 19, in page 2, line 24, at end insert—
`(2A) The Secretary of State shall lay a copy of any such direction before each House of Parliament.'.
It is a pleasure, Mr. Benton, to echo the welcome to you that has been expressed by my hon. Friend the Member for Surrey Heath and the Minister of State. We look forward to your chairmanship of our proceedings and to the firmness, fairness and humour that you will bring to the task.
Clause 2 is broad and, some fear, potentially all-encompassing. That is why we want to amend it. The Minister will be aware of both the content of the amendment and the fact that my noble Friends in another place tabled a similar amendment, the purpose of which is to ensure that Parliament retains—or perhaps I should say establishes—some leverage and control over what is issued to the authority.
On 1 March in another place, the amendment was tabled on Report. On that occasion, the Government's stance seemed equivocal. Lord Bassam seemed uncertain—and I put that as mildly, politely and understatedly as is my wont—whether the directions given by the Secretary of State to the SIA would be transparent. He said:
``there will be very limited circumstances in which these confidential directions might be necessary.''
It was not clear to me that those limits were explained or explored. He continued:
``Yes, they might relate to directions naming individuals or companies.''
However, he went on to tease us, inadvertently if not deliberately. He began by attempting to reassure us that
``in the majority of cases—probably 99 per cent.—there will be transparency
and went on to say:
``in the majority of circumstances the directions should be a matter of public record . . . . We plan to establish the authority on the basis of a presumption of openness on the issue except in the limited and very sensitive circumstances that I have described.''—[Official Report, House of Lords, 1 March 2001; Vol. 622, c. 1366-68.]
However, the point at which my hon. Friends and I cavil is that Lord Bassam referred to
``limited and very sensitive circumstances''
but did not describe them in any meaningful or adequate sense, although he wrongly claimed to have done so. We are anxious to tease such a description out of the Government. If there is to be transparency in the great majority of cases—we will know what the directions are and they will be on the public record—why is that presumption not in the Bill? If it is 99 per cent. certain that everything will be public, or if it is certain that, in the ordinary course of events, 99 per cent. of the direction will be made public, where is the harm in assuring us of that by stating as much in the Bill?
It repays study if we examine the worthwhile but slightly curious debate in the other place, in which my noble Friends sought to establish what the Government had in mind, or to gain some reasonable example of the directions that they might issue. However, they were unable to get much information out of the Government. My noble Friend Viscount Astor emphasised the broad power in clause 2 for the Secretary of State to
``give general or specific directions in writing to the authority''
as well as
``the power to request information''.
In the course of the debate, Viscount Astor asked the Under-Secretary why directions were required and whether they would be a matter of public record. In response, he got a Sir Humphrey-style answer. [Interruption.] Lord Bassam said:
``I believe that the standard arrangement is for the Secretary of State to be able to give directions to non-departmental public bodies. If necessary, that could include the placing of a cap on fees.'' —[Official Report, House of Lords, 1 March 2001; Vol. 622, c. 1362.]
If all that is involved is a cap on fees—