Clause 55 - Duty to give notice to foreign
Crime (International Co-operation) Bill [Lords]
5:00 pm
Mr James Paice (South East Cambridgeshire, Conservative)
Methinks the Minister protests too much sometimes. [Interruption.] I protest at the vagueness and sloppiness of the drafting and the fact that the Government do not have full cognisance of the implications of what they are doing. They want what the Minister interestingly refers to as flexibility—in other words, the powers that are here for Ministers to do what they want.
It is a worrying trend in legislation that this power is increasingly being taken. It has been around for a long while but every piece of legislation that I look at increases its usage—Ministers take powers to make
whatever decisions they may think fit if the Bill does not seem to work. This is an important point, and I intend to reflect on it and to study what the Minister has said when we read the record of these proceedings. We might need to pursue the matter at a later date. At this stage, I beg to ask leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
Clause 55 ordered to stand part of the Bill.
Clause 56 ordered to stand part of the Bill.