Clause 56 - Specified considerations
Enterprise Bill
6:30 pm
Mr Nigel Waterson (Eastbourne, Conservative)
My hon. Friend the Member for South Cambridgeshire has elegantly rehearsed the argument about extending the public interest exception beyond national security. As I said when we debated an amendment at some length—I do not want to repeat those arguments—we are far from satisfied. The Under-Secretary is saying that no one in her Department can conceive of any circumstances, not matter how hypothetical, in which that power might be extended, but at the same time she is utterly determined to keep it in the Bill. That is a major concern, not least because it calls for a wholly different regime and philosophy from that in the rest of this part of the legislation, which is something that the Library brief helpfully makes clear. Again, we have made the point, which bears brief repetition, that if we are all in favour of keeping ministerial involvement to a minimum, the exception has to be extremely narrow.
I do not want to rehearse the arguments deployed by my hon. Friend and I want to focus on what is in the Bill as opposed to what might be in clause 56, or other clauses, at some time in the future. We are told that the concept of national security is based either partly or wholly—again, I should like that to be clarified—on the phrase ''public security'', which, once again, crops up in the EC merger regulations. I would be grateful if the Minister would give us some guidance on how that phrase is defined.
We have all advanced the debate on the basis, which is almost an assumption, that national security
is a defence matter. The hon. Member for Hemel Hempstead (Mr. McWalter) gave the example of defence equipment contracts, but national security could also involve terrorism.