Clause 41 - Orders and regulations
Identity Cards Bill
9:45 am
Edward Garnier (Shadow Minister, (Assisted By Shadow Law Officers); Harborough, Conservative)
This innocent-sounding clause comes under the heading “Supplemental”, but it deals with orders and regulations. Although it is supplemental, it is a key aspect of the Bill that I would not wish to skate over. I suggest that it must be subject to far greater discussion and that it needs greater clarity. Let us just dip into it. Under the clause, the Secretary of State or the National Assembly for Wales is given order or regulation-making powers to be exercised by statutory instrument. We should bear it in mind that, for example, subsection (4) states that
“every power conferred by this Act on a person to make an order or regulations includes power ...
(b) to make provision subject to such exemptions and exceptions as that person thinks fit; and
(c) to make such incidental, supplemental, consequential and transitional provision as that person thinks fit.”
I have made my complaints about secondary legislation and about the enabling nature of the Bill, but in this clause we see such things on the page in stark black and white, and it is incumbent on the Government to tell Parliament precisely what they intend. If they cannot do so this morning, they should do so at least by the time the Bill leaves the House of Commons.