Clause 23
Welfare Reform Bill
9:00 pm
Danny Alexander (Shadow Minister and Disability Spokesperson, Work & Pensions; Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, Liberal Democrat)
I beg to move amendmentNo. 167, in clause 23, page 18, line 8, leave out ‘the first’.
The amendment would amend the provision on parliamentary control. The Bill states that affirmative resolutions of the House should apply only to the first regulations under clause 12 on work-related activity and the regulations on pilot projects under clause 18, and that all other regulations should be subject to a negative resolution. The proposal would delete “first” so that all regulations that relate to work-related activity should be subject to an affirmative resolution, but it is designed more broadly to probe the Government’s intentions for parliamentary scrutiny in general.
If I am not mistaken, clauses 10, 11, 13 and 14 will be of significant import. Not only should all regulations under clause 12 be subject to an affirmative resolution, but there is a good case for regulations made under the other clauses also to be subject to an affirmative resolution, as opposed to the negative resolution. I realise that such matters are a fine point of parliamentary protocol, but none the less there is a clear difference between the two.
The deletion of “first” would make it clear that all such regulations would have to subject to further parliamentary debate as opposed to being only so subjected if a resolution were prayed against. Such procedure would be more appropriate given the extent of the public interest in the way in which regulations relating to matters that are subjected to work-related activity and, more broadly, conditionality should be considered. Given my explanation of the amendment, I look forward to the Minister’s response.