Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 21 February 1951.
Mr David Maxwell Fyfe
, Liverpool, West Derby
12:00,
21 February 1951
I do not want to make a cheap point, but I do want hon. Members in all parts of the House to consider this problem, because I believe that a great deal of the working of modern democracy depends upon getting the proper solution to it. I do not want to go too wide, Mr. Speaker, but that is the basic problem.
If we look at the position with which we are faced today, we cannot be satisfied with it. We have 100 defence regulations on the books, and, in addition, 16 subsidiary codes. That is a tremendous mass of backroom legislation which is not made in this House and which is only subject to the procedure of Prayer, which is very difficult to work. That is only the beginning. All these regulations have orders made under them, and practically every order has licences or permits depending upon it. Very little of that gets any Parliamentary control at all. That would be a situation which would require the attention of the House of Commons did it stop there; but after this Bill there may be three different Acts of Parliament which have to be looked at before anyone can find out for what purposes the Minister has exercised these powers.
We start with the 1945 Act, which deals with demobilisation and resettlement and the adjustment of industry for times of peace. We then come to the 1947 Act, which was introduced as a result of the dollar crisis for the purpose of expanding our exports and increasing our imports. Again, its general purposes were in very wide terms, against which I animadverted when it was introduced. We are now adding a third purpose, that of defence. It means that we have three contradictory purposes for these Acts being on the Statute Book, which is not a very tidy or proper way of dealing with the problem. In addition, the time-limits for regulations under two of the acts have expired, and these are being continued by yet a third. The House ought to be critical of this way of doing its work.
I do not mind what debating points hon. Members may make of this, but I would not advise my hon. Friends to vote against the Bill in view of the importance of defence—that is something we all recognise. However, we want assurances on the subject. To give a rather lighthearted example to show the somewhat wonderland position into which we have got, under which of these Acts and regulations would the Minister have power to lop off an inch from utility braces? I wish to make our view perfectly clear, because it is futile, having stated the problem, not to indicate how it ought to be dealt with.
The Government must examine not only the legislation but the regulations. The regulations can be put into three categories. In the first category we find those which can be revoked straightaway. For example, there are those regulations that have become redundant because of legislation which has been passed. Regulation 55A has become redundant because of the Statistics of Trade Act, and Regulations 62, 62A and 66 have become redundant because of the Agriculture Act. All of us could find many other regulations which are no longer necessary.
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