Clause 7 - Procedure for orders under s. 6
Identity Cards Bill
5:15 pm
Edward Garnier (Shadow Minister, (Assisted By Shadow Law Officers); Harborough, Conservative)
I agree with the hon. Gentleman. The points that he made are another way in which to attack my worries about the 60 unseen and unheard of powers that the Secretary of State is giving himself under the Bill. There are good arguments to be voiced about the value of the amendment and the hon. Gentleman has made them.
However, I am worried that the process by which Parliament can deal with such matters will be constrained by the regime under the Bill. Not only can the courts strike down secondary legislation, so it might be thought that secondary legislation is a power that would be better for us, but, more to the point, in an emergency, Ministers can amend secondary legislation without parliamentary approval. Powers in the Human Rights Act are given to the Minister to amend legislation that, in this case, will be matters of some worry. I shall leave it at that, because I know that the general point that the hon. Gentleman made was better made by him than by me.
It is important that we never leave off discussing and putting forward our concerns about the way in which legislation increasingly empowers Ministers to do things over which we have no control. The Government find it convenient to legislate in that way, and that is a problem not just with this Bill, but with all sorts of other legislation. It is increasingly the way in which modern legislation is constructed, and it is just an enabling system for Secretaries of State to hang secondary legislation, giving themselves the power to do this, that and the other. In this Bill, it reaches the level of 60 individual powers, and I am not sure that that is a good way to run a country.