Clause 41
Welfare Reform Bill
5:45 pm
Jim Murphy (Minister of State (Work), Department for Work and Pensions; East Renfrewshire, Labour)
I apologise to the hon. Gentleman for not having alluded to his specific question. What we seek to do there, as in other clauses, is to draft quite a wide power and then follow it up in regulations or guidance, whichever is most appropriate. Draft regulations in relation to the clause have been provided. The alternative to taking the relatively broad power is to set out in primary legislation a rather prescriptive definition of the purpose.
Welfare reform Bills do not appear annually. We cannot rely on the flow of primary legislative vehicles to continually update the Government’s interventions in a changing welfare market. That is why we take a relatively broad power which we can follow up with regulations or guidance. The House and others will take a view so that we get those regulations and guidance absolutely right. To place on the face of primary legislation a specific constraining power would mean that the primary legislation would be pretty quickly out of date and unable to adjust to the changing nature of the welfare market.