Clause 18 - Meaning of ''emergency''
Civil Contingencies Bill
2:45 pm
Mr Oliver Heald (North East Hertfordshire, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 107, in
clause 18, page 12, line 11, leave out subsections (5) and (6).
The amendment would remove subsections (5) and (6). Those subsections allow the Secretary of State to say that an event threatens damage to human welfare, and also to amend subsection (2) to define whether disruption to supply threatens damage. Subsection (6) allows consequential amendments to part 2 of the Bill provided that the draft has been approved by both Houses.
My hon. Friend the Member for Stone (Mr. Cash) made it clear on Second Reading that the subsection was worthy of particular consideration. He made the point that although times and circumstances had changed since 1920, questions of liberty and justice remain immutable. He pointed out that the Bill allows for carte blanche amendment, as he put it, and adaptation of existing legislation. He went on to criticise subsection (5) as enabling a Secretary of State to add classes of events and situations and specify them pretty much at will. That would obviously be subject to approval of both Houses of Parliament, but with a Government with a substantial majority—up until now—it will happen.
My hon. Friend went on to quote Rene Descartes as saying, ''I think, therefore I am''. He made the point that in this Bill, the Secretary of State is saying, ''I think, therefore it shall be.'' I would like to probe the Minister on the purpose of subsections (5) and (6). Why are they necessary? In the context of the structure of the clause, which is designed to list only the matters that shall be treated as threats to human rights, is it right that the Government go on to say, ''Except that, if we want to, we can add any range of ideas or particular event''. The provisions do not seem to have the sort of certainty that the Under-Secretary was talking about a moment ago.
Will the drafts be amendable? The draft cannot be laid before Parliament and amended, which is true—unusually—of the emergency regulations themselves, and that concession has been greatly welcomed. Given that the effect of the provisions could be to open up a range of new areas in which emergency powers can be given, should not the drafts be amendable?
What will happen if we are in an emergency situation and the powers need to be exercised, but Parliament is unable to meet, for whatever reason? One can imagine an emergency bad enough that Parliament would not be able to meet. In those circumstances would the Secretary of State be stuck and unable to add to the categories, or is there some catch-all arrangement later on in the Bill? Would it be possible to deal with matters in some other way?