New clause 1 - Performance of functions and jurisdiction of the courts
Civil Contingencies Bill
4:45 pm
Mr Oliver Heald (North East Hertfordshire, Conservative)
I am grateful for that. This is the point that my hon. Friend the Member for Stone was particularly keen to get at; what does the Minister's state of mind have to be to trigger the performance of the functions referred to? The point that my hon. Friend was making about Liversidge v. Anderson was that, even in Lord Atkin's judgment—the Minister accepts that that is the correct way of looking at the matter—the Minister has to have reasonable cause for his thinking; he does not have to genuinely believe on reasonable grounds. That is the essence of my hon. Friend's point. I would be grateful for a bit more detail on what, in the Minister's view, is the reasonable state of belief required from a Minister in carrying out the functions. He has talked about the concept of reasonableness, but we should tie that down in a bit
more detail. I ask the Minister to say a bit more about whether the belief has to be a genuine belief on reasonable grounds in order to enable the Minister, or Her Majesty, to carry out the functions referred to in line 3.
As regards the national interest, the Minister and his colleague will know that I have been teasing out the following point in recent discussions: under the 1920 Act, there was the idea of the essentials of life; the Act was about providing to the community the essentials of life in circumstances in which they had been deprived of them. In the Bill, the definitions are much broader and the powers much wider. We are told about the trigger mechanisms and the ways in which the Bill provides protection but, overall, is the purpose of the Bill still the same as that of the 1920 Act—that is, to ensure that an emergency can be dealt with by ensuring that the essentials of life are made available to those deprived of them? If not, and the purpose is now wider, will the Minister explain why? I am sure that that was what my hon. Friend was getting at in using the expression
''that the exercise of those functions are essential in the national interest''
in his new clause.
We want the Bill to be used only in circumstances that are grave and affect the national interest, and in which the community has been deprived of the essentials of life. In other words, we want to know whether the essential aims of the Bill are no different from those of the 1920 Act, and whether the Bill is a modernisation, or an updating; we want to know whether it is looking at the same issues, but in a modern context.