Clause 12 - Assessors
Inquiries Bill [Lords]
4:00 pm
Mr Jonathan Djanogly (Shadow Minister, Home Affairs; Huntingdon, Conservative)
I beg to move amendment No. 10, in clause 12, page 5, line 17, leave out subsection (4) and insert—
‘In deciding whether or not it is in the public interest to appoint an assessor, the Chairman must have regard to the need—
(a)to ensure that the panel has available to it the necessary expertise to undertake the inquiry; and
(b)to avoid incurring unreasonable cost.’.
The Conservative peers originally proposed this amendment as they felt that the Bill placed too much stress on costs to the detriment of other factors such as expertise. The Government addressed this by removing the reference to costs and replacing it with the current reference to expertise. That was welcomed at the time by the Opposition. However, our amendment today underlines the need also to consider costs. This is not the most crucial amendment of the afternoon, but why should the subsection, which concerns the regard chairmen must have when appointing assessors, address only expertise or costs? Why can it not address both?