Clause 25 - Duration
Civil Contingencies Bill
3:30 pm
Mr Oliver Heald (North East Hertfordshire, Conservative)
I shall speak to amendments Nos. 105, 106 and 129. The point is the same: there should not be an unlimited period of emergency regulations. Amendment No. 105 would mean that, for one emergency, there would be a maximum of 90 days of emergency regulations. If the Government wanted to continue with the powers after that, they would have to introduce a Bill, but 90 days gives them adequate time to do that. It would be wrong, as the hon. Member for Sheffield, Hallam (Mr. Allan) has said, to allow Ministers to continue with emergency regulations over very extended periods of time.