Conditions for making emergency regulations
Civil Contingencies Bill
4:45 pm
Ms Fiona Mactaggart (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Race Equality, Community Policy and Civil Renewal), Home Office; Slough, Labour)
The Government cannot support the amendment, but it might help hon. Members if they listened to—I am sorry, that sounds as though I am telling hon. Members off, and I did not mean it that way. The provision covers what would happen if it were not possible to discover for certain whether an existing piece of legislation could be relied on quickly enough in an emergency situation. We are
talking about extraordinary situations. It is possible that legislation that had been designed for one purpose could properly be used in an emergency situation, but it would not have been used in those circumstances before, because emergencies are emergencies, so there would not be experience of such a use.
The law is often complex and relevant provisions might be in relatively obscure legislation. The meaning and intent might be subject to differences of interpretation and it might be necessary to seek counsel's opinion to see whether a particular power is sufficient and appropriate to be used in the emergency. In such situations, when lives might be at risk and it is not possible to ascertain with complete certainty whether a piece of legislation will be effective, and when there is not time to seek the views of a higher legal authority, the measure represents an assurance that it is not ultra vires to make a provision that due consideration reveals could have been made under existing legislation. Such measures would not be taken because a Minister was lazy, but because circumstances were extraordinary, and the legislative power in question perhaps had not been used in that way before.
The provision ensures that when regulations are made, they are made properly. We may find ourselves in those circumstances, and this is a proper provision to make.