Clause 36 - Regulations and orders
NHS Reform and Health Care Professions Bill
2:45 pm
Mr John Hutton (Minister of State, Department of Health; Barrow and Furness, Labour)
It will be obvious to all members of the Committee that the manuscript amendments are a response to this morning's debate on clause 26, in which I made it clear that I was minded to accept the calls of the hon. Member for West Chelmsford and my hon. Friend the Member for Crawley (Laura Moffatt) for regulations made under clause 26 to be approved by affirmative resolution of both Houses and not, as we originally proposed, by the negative resolution procedure.
The amendments do indeed provide that regulations made under clause 26 will be subject to affirmative resolution procedures. They are a response to the Opposition's argument, with which I agree, that
regulations made under clause 26 are unusual and merit greater parliamentary scrutiny than the negative resolution procedure would provide.
As I said during our discussion of clause 26, I am persuaded by the argument for a higher level of parliamentary scrutiny of the arrangements dealt with in the clause. Systems such as these are not normally set up through secondary legislation, but dealt with by the parliamentary ombudsman and included in primary legislation. In the light of the way in which the amendments provide for regulations to be made, I hope that they will command the support of the Opposition.
Because clause 36 provides for the making of orders and regulations under the Bill, the amendments—unlike those tabled by the hon. Member for West Chelmsford—amend clause 36 and not clause 26, even though they refer to regulations dealt with in clause 26. Manuscript amendment (a) amends clause 36(2), which provides for regulations in the Bill to be subject to the negative resolution procedure, by excluding regulations under clause 26 from the negative resolution procedure. Manuscript amendment (b) amends clause 36(3), which lists the secondary legislation that is subject to the affirmative procedure, by adding the regulations under clause 26 to the list that requires the affirmative procedure.