Clause 1 - Purpose
Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill
5:45 pm
Jim Murphy (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Cabinet Office; East Renfrewshire, Labour)
That issue was addressed on Second Reading. Under the 2001 Act, it is under ministerial assurance that the Government would not seek to override the recommendation of the relevant Select Committees. I will not tempt your patience, Mr. Caton, by wandering on to debates that we are likely to have in Committee in the future, but I draw the attention of the hon. Member for Cambridge to the comments that I made on Second Reading about seeking to provide additional reassurances beyond a ministerial undertaking.
I want to come to the point raised by the hon. Member for North-East Hertfordshire about local Acts. Neither the Government nor Departments are seeking to take power to implement local Acts in a prescriptive way. The issue concerns local organisations and individuals seeking changes to local Acts which are not currently implemented for various reasons—for instance, the pressures of parliamentary time, which do not allow local Acts to get time on the Floor of the House or elsewhere. For example, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which, for a reason unbeknownst to myself—I have sought justification—is generally responsible for Covent Garden Market Authority—