Clause 7 - Duty to secure prescribed early years provision free of charge
Childcare Bill
10:30 am
Nick Gibb (Shadow Minister, Education; Bognor Regis and Littlehampton, Conservative)
The amendment has been tabled to deal with a new form of legislation that seems to have crept into our system—guidance. Guidance now seems to be even more powerful than secondary legislation. The amendment also applies to clauses 8, 11, 12 and 13. By the time I reached clause 13 I was becoming exhausted, so I and my hon. Friends left it at these five clauses for the time being.
A great deal of legislation now takes place through the tertiary form of legislation known as guidance, which is very influential. For example, the guidance to magistrates determines the reality of sentencing in this country. The Bill has a plethora of requirements for the Secretary of State to issue guidance. It is beholden on Members of Parliament at least to read the guidance, so that we can take a view on the impact of legislation on the real world. The problem is that there is no mechanism for scrutinising the guidance, not even an hour-and-a-half debate. There is not even the negative resolution procedure, whereby Members of Parliament could pray against Government guidance being issued.
It is true that there is no requirement for the Government to say in a Bill that a Secretary of State should issue guidance. Secretaries of State can issue guidance willy-nilly. However, given the increasing importance of guidance in setting the practical framework of legislation, there should be a mechanism in place in the House that enables Members of Parliament to be alerted to the guidance and to read it. That is why the amendment also calls for a written ministerial statement to announce that the guidance has been issued and a copy of it placed in the Library. That gives us an opportunity to read it and then to raise with Ministers, through debate, at Question Time or in correspondence, our concerns about it and any issues that our constituents raise about the way in which it is being implemented. Constituents often complain in correspondence about the law, and it turns out that the law says no such thing and that they are in fact complaining about the guidance.
The other reason why we ask for written statements to alert us to the fact that guidance is being issued is that Governments of all complexions have a tendency to slip out less favourable news without alerting people to it. I cite as an example the annual report of the Department for Education and Skills published on 20 June 2005. No press notice was issued, let alone any written statement or even a parliamentary answer. I wonder whether that was because of the number of targets that had been missed. For example, the No. 1 target to raise standards in English and maths so that by 2004 35 per cent. of 11-year-olds would achieve level 5 or above in those subjects was not met. I could go on about the number of missed targets, but I will not. I see you nodding at me gently, Mr. Benton, to tell me that it would not be a good idea to go on.
However, I make a serious point. Our role in the House of Commons is to scrutinise the Executive, and a great deal of Executive action today takes place in a way that is almost designed for us not to see it. The amendment simply puts in place mechanisms to make the job of Opposition and Back-Bench Members of Parliament slightly easier, so that we are alerted to guidance by ministerial statements. Then we can read the guidance in the Library with ease, without having to go to all the effort to ask for it, which can sometimes be quite difficult.
I shall leave it on that note and wait to hear what the Minister and others say on the amendment.