Clause 12 - Orders
Export Control Bill
9:30 am
Dr Vincent Cable (Twickenham, Liberal Democrat)
I shall say just a few words in support of the amendment. The legal eagles may have noticed that my amendment has become rather redundant, as amendment No. 11, which originally referred to it, was withdrawn. I shall, therefore, speak in support of the hon. Gentleman's amendment, rather than my own.
He briefly and cogently made the point that all parties are interested in having good and appropriate parliamentary scrutiny. That was the spirit of the Quadripartite Committee, and both sides expressed the opinion that the Bill should proceed in that way. My interpretation of the amendments is that they would ratchet up the level of parliamentary scrutiny, so that delayed affirmative action would become affirmative, and negative action would become affirmative in all cases. I am sure that the hon. Gentleman is in no way trying to obstruct Government business. This is simply an attempt to enhance the role of Parliament in these proceedings in a carefully thought through way.
It is not clear why clause 6 is not dealt with affirmatively. That seems a little arbitrary; perhaps the Minister could explain that. When we debated the issue on 17 July, I introduced amendments on increasing parliamentary scrutiny. The Minister told me that
``any orders made for reasons that fall wholly or partly out with the purposes must be approved by Parliament by the affirmative resolution procedure. That means that any orders made under the subsection would cease to have effect if not approved by both Houses of Parliament before the end of a 30-day period.''—[Official Report, Standing Committee B, 17 July 2001; c. 28.]
I understand that it is a 40-day period, but he may have made a slip of the tongue, since I assume that he was not improvising policy as he spoke. I hope that he clarifies that point.