Clause 25 - Information
Fire and Rescue Services Bill
9:25 am
Mr Philip Hammond (Runnymede and Weybridge, Conservative)
I am not sure that, if the Minister casts his mind back to the some of the Secretary of State's more publicised actions, he would want to be tarred with the view that the Secretary of State always acts reasonably. However, I understand that, in the discharge of his official duties, by definition the Secretary of State always acts reasonably.
The point of the amendment is to try to establish what reports the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister expects to require. If the Under-Secretary can reassure the Committee that it will simply be the reports that are made on a regular basis to the ODPM, nobody will have a problem with that.
Following on from our debates on Tuesday, perhaps the Under-Secretary will tell the Committee whether one of the reports that he might ask for is an annual report on revenues raised through charging under different categories. Then, the next time I am facing him and want to ask him about how much revenue is raised through charging for different activities, he will have the information available instead of having to bluff his way out four or five times by talking about the percentages of fire authorities that may make charges under certain categories, rather than telling the Committee how much revenue is being raised. There is a thought for the Minister on a useful area in which reporting and returns of information could be extended.
Amendment No. 101 would delete paragraph (b), and it, too, is a probing amendment. On first reading the clause, the paragraph appears entirely redundant. Any information that the Secretary of State requires could be obtained through the requirement to make a report or a return to him. On reflection, however, I wondered whether the Under-Secretary has it in mind that the reports to be made under paragraph (a) will be recurring annual, monthly or quarterly reports, and that the power under paragraph (b) is intended to allow him to demand additional information that is not provided on a routine basis. Exploring that a little further, is it the Government's intention that the reports and returns under paragraph (a) will be provided by all authorities? Does the Under-Secretary see paragraph (b) as more of an enabling provision to let the Secretary of State fish for specific information from individual authorities?
I do not want to feed the Minister of State's inclination to see paranoia in my every question, but I must say to the Committee that the paragraph (b) could—if I am interpreting what Ministers have in mind correctly—be used to mount fishing expeditions to harass a fire and rescue authority. I would like to hear an assurance from the Under-Secretary that there is no intention to seek lots of new information on an ad hoc basis from individual authorities. It would be helpful if the Committee could understand how the two different paragraphs are intended to work and why paragraph (b) is not redundant.