Constitutional Reform Bill [HL]

Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 2:30 pm on 15 March 2005.

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Photo of Baroness Ashton of Upholland Baroness Ashton of Upholland Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs, Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Constitutional Affairs) 2:30, 15 March 2005

My Lords, I beg to move that the House do agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 3.

The amendments in this group are purely matters of drafting improvement and consistency and do not affect policy. They replace references to "the Minister" with references to "the Lord Chancellor" throughout the Bill.

As noble Lords have already indicated, the Bill as introduced in this House last year sought to abolish the office of Lord Chancellor, and therefore many functions were described in the Bill as being the responsibility of "the Minister". Since then, noble Lords are fully aware of the changes that have been made. To ensure that the Bill is consistent, I am therefore seeking to replace those references with ones to "the Lord Chancellor".

The amendments ensure that it is immediately clear to the public, without the need to cross-refer to another part of the Bill, that the Lord Chancellor is the Minister responsible for exercising these functions. This follows existing precedent that, where functions are vested in the Lord Chancellor in statute, they are vested specifically in that office.

Moved, that the House do agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 3.—(Baroness Ashton of Upholland.)