Clause 21 - Scope of emergency regulations
Civil Contingencies Bill
9:30 am
Mr Oliver Heald (North East Hertfordshire, Conservative)
It is good to be in a different Room and notice the wide chasm that has opened up between the Opposition and Government. I am sure that that is an encouraging feature.
The three Conservative amendments—Nos. 86, 82 and 87—are all concerned with the disapplication or modification of enactments. The first place in which that arises is clause 21(3)(j), which gives the power to disapply or modify enactments by emergency regulations. Amendment No. 86 would remove that power; amendment No. 82 would leave the power in place, but not permit the Human Rights Act 1998 to be disapplied or modified; and amendment No. 87 would protect the Human Rights Act and other constitutional enactments from disapplication or modification.
The amendments are based on the comments from expert bodies, such as the Law Society, Justice, and Liberty, and on the views of the Joint Committee when it considered the draft Bill. The principle that there are fundamental human rights that must be respected and that, even in a state of emergency, there are some rights that should never be infringed is shared across the Committee. However, the Government take the view that it is not necessary to make the sort of provisions that I am suggesting.
Emergency regulations can be made over a broad range of areas. The powers in the Bill seem to be designed to give the Government scope to cope with unforeseen circumstances. Yet, when it comes to the question of entrenching or not allowing the disapplication or modification of the Human Rights Act and other constitutional measures, we are asked to rely on the following assurance in the Government's response, which said that
''we cannot presently envisage circumstances in which this power would lawfully enable us to make a substantive amendment to a constitutional enactment.''
What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander however, and if the Government are to have such wide-ranging powers on the basis that the unforeseen must be catered for, it seems odd that they are not prepared to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to protecting some of our most important constitutional enactments. It does not seem right to rely on the Minister's assurance. Circumstances change, Ministers change, and we should design good law. If we want to exclude the disapplication or modification of the Human Rights Act, we should do so. I note that the Government response says that
''it may be safe to assume that Parliament intended to confer the power to interfere with such a statute if the interference is trivial.''
It is not as though the Government are saying that they will not touch any of these Acts because they are inviolate. They are saying that they want to be able to touch them and interfere with them by using emergency regulations, provided that, in their opinion, the change that they make is trivial. That is not very encouraging.
Either there is a class of entrenched or constitutional Acts, or there is not. Lord Justice Laws has suggested that there is and the Minister, in the Government response, seemed to accept that although it is a recent thing, there is such a class of Acts. The current wording of the Bill does not reflect that sort of thinking, but we believe that it should, which is why we tabled a group of amendments to protect the Human Rights Act 1998 in one way or another. Amendment No. 117 would also protect our basic constitutional Acts.
The Government say that it is very hard to define what a constitutional Act might be. The Liberal Democrats, perhaps aided by Justice and Liberty, have produced a new schedule that includes the obvious ones. If the Government are concerned that one or two others should be included, I suggest respectfully that they adopt the same principle that applies throughout the rest of the Bill, which is, if in doubt, put it in.