Mr Jonathan Sayeed (Mid Bedfordshire, Conservative)

I remind the Committee that with this we are taking amendment No. 5, in page 9, line 40, leave out

`and such fee (if any) as may be prescribed,'.

Mr David Chidgey (Eastleigh, Liberal Democrat)

Good afternoon, Mr. Sayeed, I welcome you to the Committee as Chairman. I am sure that we will enjoy your chairmanship in the coming days.

We have had a full, interesting and helpful debate, so I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

Question proposed, That the clause stand part of the Bill.

Mr Charles Clarke (Minister of State, Home Office; Norwich South, Labour)

I associate myself with the remarks of the hon. Member for Eastleigh (Mr. Chidgey) in welcoming you to the Chair, Mr. Sayeed. We had a good sitting this morning, and we are delighted that you are here.

We have discussed much of the substance of the clause. It makes it mandatory for the Secretary of State—which in practice means the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency—to establish and maintain a register of registration plate suppliers. The clause allows for regulations to be made to set out the details to be held on the register. Those details could include the addresses of all premises from which registration plates are supplied. The Secretary of State is obliged to disclose information from the register to anyone who requests it, and may set a fee for such requests—we have clarified that it is only a ``may'' and not a ``must''—and the process must be established by regulation to be debated in the House. We have also stated that we expect large parts of the register to be available on the web, and therefore to be available free of charge to any citizen.

Mr John Bercow (Buckingham, Conservative)

I also welcome you warmly to the chairmanship of the Committee, Mr. Sayeed.

The Minister rightly observed that, ordinarily, information would be provided on request, but in the light of subsection (6), will he advise us as to the circumstances in which it would be thought appropriate to withhold information from individuals? In other words, what would be the nature of the persons who would not be entitled to receive it? In paragraph (b), what might be the nature of the information that a person otherwise entitled to receive information would not be entitled to receive?

Mr Charles Clarke (Minister of State, Home Office; Norwich South, Labour)

I shall address that shortly when I come to the end of my remarks. The hon. Gentleman is quite right to raise that issue. We discussed those points when dealing with the amendments.

It is important to ensure that any business connected with number plate supply can determine whether a supplier is registered, as it will be an offence to trade with an unregistered supplier. A certified copy of the register, or an extract from it, will be conclusive evidence of a supplier's authenticity, and information may be disclosed to the police either in bulk or case by case. Access to the information will provide an audit trail, and will enable the police to trace and investigate suppliers that are believed to have supplied false plates.

I shall now deal with the intervention of the hon. Member for Buckingham (Mr. Bercow). We addressed the issue of the description of information that might not be supplied under subsection (6)(b) when debating the amendment tabled by the hon. Member for Eastleigh and the intervention made by my hon. Friend the Member for Ellesmere Port and Neston (Mr. Miller). We intend, when drafting the regulations, to discuss carefully with the industry whether everything in the register should be disclosed to everybody, or whether there are particular categories of information that it might not be appropriate to disclose. I emphasise the word ``might''. Such categories might include personal addresses or telephone numbers rather than addresses of businesses. There are many examples of such categories, but we have not come to a firm view, so we are including the provision that the Secretary of State may, after consultation with the industry, specify information that is not to be made public. Should the Secretary of State do so, it will be set out in regulation for the House to consider in whatever way it thinks appropriate.

Mr John Bercow (Buckingham, Conservative)

Will the Minister give way?

Mr Charles Clarke (Minister of State, Home Office; Norwich South, Labour)

I will in a second.

On the descriptions of persons who are not entitled to be supplied with information under subsection (3), it is at the forefront of our minds that all such issues are associated with organised crime, and that supply of information might not be appropriate in that context. Again, we intend to consult on that. We shall also widely consult the industry and organisations represented in the vehicle crime reduction action team, such as insurers, the car industry and the police, on categories in subsections (6)(a) and (b) before laying regulations for debate by the House.

Mr John Bercow (Buckingham, Conservative)

The Minister might have given me a clue to the solution in his reference to debate. A moment ago, he referred to the details of the regulations to be considered by the House in such terms or by such means as it thinks fit. He went on to use the word ``debate''. The detail must require some reflection—it would have been provided by now if it did not—so will he confirm that there will be an opportunity for the House properly to debate the matters under the affirmative procedure, and that they will not simply be nodded through on the negative procedure, which admits of no debate?

Will the Minister also confirm, in the name of good regulation, that there will be a minimum consultation period of three months on the intended regulations, and a suitable period, possibly a similar one of three months, of notice of the requirement to implement those regulations?

Mr Charles Clarke (Minister of State, Home Office; Norwich South, Labour)

I reject the proposition that we have not provided the detail. That is factually incorrect.

Mr John Bercow (Buckingham, Conservative)

I am not complaining about that.

Mr Charles Clarke (Minister of State, Home Office; Norwich South, Labour)

I accept that; I withdraw my objection. We have gone about matters perfectly appropriately by setting out the legislation and procedure and then consulting in a reasonable way.

On every Bill with which I have dealt, there has been an entertaining set of exchanges about negative and affirmative procedure.

Mr John Bercow (Buckingham, Conservative)

I always raise it.

Mr Charles Clarke (Minister of State, Home Office; Norwich South, Labour)

That reduces some of the weight that his raising it on this occasion might otherwise have had. Frankly, the various regulations in the Bill have been intended for negative rather than affirmative procedure as a result of comparison with some of the issues that the House needs to consider. I dealt in the last Session with the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Bill and the Terrorism Bill. The scale of the issues around the regulations is less significant and serious than some of those considered under affirmative procedure.

It is conventional for Oppositions of all parties to say that they want affirmative resolutions on everything, and conventional for Governments of all parties—including the Government whom the hon. Member for Buckingham supported, although not as a Member, before 1997—to go for negative procedure at all times. As a Government, we have been open on agreeing affirmative procedure on aspects of the Bills that I have dealt with for the Home Office. The question is one of a balance of judgment. In this case, the balance that we have struck is that negative procedures are right. I know that the hon. Gentleman will disagree with that—as he says, he disagrees every time the issue comes along, as he is entitled to do—but that is our approach.

I do not have details of the consultation periods, but the three-month period that the hon. Gentleman describes is reasonable, and we can talk about it. I will write to him further on the subject, if I may.

Mr John Bercow (Buckingham, Conservative)

I am reassured by the Minister. Several amendments were tabled to the clause. I made it clear when tabling them that I was not certain that the clause needed to be amended, but my hon. Friends and I wanted to test the water with some suggestions. In that context, I was relatively reassured by a good deal of what the Minister said, so I do not choose to press the amendments to a vote. It is not my intention to dissent from the proposition that the clause stand part of the Bill.

Mr David Chidgey (Eastleigh, Liberal Democrat)

I shall add briefly to the comments made by the hon. Member for Buckingham.

I have been gratified by the Minister's openness in dealing with our amendments. We may not be entirely satisfied with the responses, but I appreciate his earnestness.

Mr Charles Clarke (Minister of State, Home Office; Norwich South, Labour)

I am in a position to say to the hon. Gentleman, following the earlier exchange, that the Cabinet Office guidance is that three months is the normal consultation period. We shall ensure that there is at least a three-month period, which will meet the hon. Gentleman's concerns.

Mr David Chidgey (Eastleigh, Liberal Democrat)

I am grateful for the Minister's intervention to clarify that point. On that note, I confirm that we do not wish to stand in the way of the progress of the clause.

Question put and agreed to.

Clause 17 ordered to stand part of the Bill.