Clause 34 - Amendments of health service legislation in connection with consolidation
NHS Reform and Health Care Professions Bill
11:00 am
Mr Oliver Heald (North East Hertfordshire, Conservative)
The House is always slightly jealous of its powers and the use of the Henry VIII clause is generally not supported. During the past few years there has been more legislation than in former days. I am told that the rot set in in about 1964. Harold Wilson's Government doubled the amount of law on the statute book between 1964 and 1970, and the rot having set in, the rest of us joined in, and it has doubled every 10 years since. That may be apocryphal, but there is grain of truth in it because we have seen a burgeoning of law and it is sensible to consolidate from time to time. The year 1977 does not seem all that long ago to some of us, but 100 Acts of Parliament have apparently been made since then, which is extraordinary.
We are not against consolidation in health legislation and we have only to read the Bill and its subsections being described as (DZA) and (1A)(z) and so on to realise that we are coming to the point where it is difficult to amend it sensibly. However, the Henry VIII clause must be used sparingly and narrowly. I do not understand from the explanatory notes and the clause why it is necessary to move the clause now. Consolidation Acts must go through the procedures outlined by the Minister and I do not understand why this clause could not be part of one of the Bills going through the House at that stage. Is it necessary to pave the way for it? Perhaps the Minister will explain.