Clause 5 - Power to amend sections 2 and 4
Childcare Bill
9:30 am
Tim Loughton (Shadow Minister (Children), Health; East Worthing and Shoreham, Conservative)
The clause is short and I want to probe its meaning. I hate clauses such as this that give enormous powers to the Secretary of State to change his or her mind at a whim, but at least the clause is subject to an affirmative motion of the House, if I understand correctly the reference in clause 98, which refers specifically to clause 5. It takes a little working out.
Why would the Secretary of State want to change the definition of early childhood services? It is not one little part of what we are talking about; it is virtually all of it. Will the Minister give us some examples of why and in what circumstances she envisages the Secretary of State wanting to redefine the whole subject?
I hate such phrases as
“make such other amendments ... as appear to him to be necessary or expedient.”
Again, that seems to give the Secretary of State enormous powers. We have had long debates on the details, but we seem to be changing the assumptions on which those debates were based. Will the Minister give some examples of why the clause is necessary and what is likely to be achieved by it that is not out of keeping with the aims and objectives that we have already debated?