Clause 12 - Orders
Export Control Bill
9:30 am
Mr Malcolm Savidge (Aberdeen North, Labour)
As with all my amendments, these are probing amendments and they hang together. Clause 12 is welcome, as it will ensure parliamentary scrutiny of the secondary legislation--that will be a statutory requirement. The Committee must agree that that is welcome.
Clause 12 provides for three levels of scrutiny for different areas of secondary legislation. The most stringent is the affirmative procedure, whereby a statutory instrument comes into force only if both the House of Commons and the House of Lords approve it. That will apply to all measures, although purely financial measures would, of course, be a matter for the House of Commons only.
The second most stringent level of scrutiny is the delayed affirmative procedure, whereby a statutory instrument must be approved within 40 days of being laid before Parliament.
The third most stringent level of scrutiny is the negative resolution procedure, whereby the statutory instrument comes into law, but can be nullified if a motion is passed against it in either House within—usually—40 days.
It is clearly in the interests of good government that we should have the most thorough parliamentary scrutiny. That is not just in the interests of Back Benchers of whatever party, but is in the interests of the Executive, provided that the Opposition do not cause inordinate delay or unreasonable instruction.
So that the Committee can understand this somewhat convoluted set of amendments, I shall explain their effect in the simplest possible terms. The statutory instruments that currently would be dealt with under the second most stringent level of scrutiny—the delayed affirmative procedure—would be moved up to the most stringent level of scrutiny—the affirmative procedure. The statutory instruments that would be dealt with under negative procedure would be moved up to the delayed affirmative procedure. As no statutory instruments would be dealt with under the negative procedure, subsection (5) would no longer be needed, and would, therefore, be deleted.
As I have said, the amendment merely probes. The idea is to give the Committee the opportunity to discuss the level of scrutiny that is required. The hon. Member for Salisbury referred to that when we discussed clause 6. I hope that it also gives the Minister the opportunity to consider further what levels of scrutiny are appropriate for secondary legislation under the Bill, and to explain his thinking to the Committee.