Part of Enterprise Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 11:30 am on 7 May 2002.
Miss Melanie Johnson
Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department of Trade and Industry
11:30,
7 May 2002
The hon. Gentleman is encouraging me to write to him further. There will be a hierarchy for taking into account competition, public interest, customer benefits and the regulated statutory functions. If the Secretary of State accepts a Competition Commission analysis of competition, she will choose the remedy in the light of all the relevant considerations. I take the hon. Gentleman's point that, supposing no adverse effects were identified, how would we meet the possible public interest requirement. I undertake to write to him about that.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
A parliamentary bill is divided into sections called clauses.
Printed in the margin next to each clause is a brief explanatory `side-note' giving details of what the effect of the clause will be.
During the committee stage of a bill, MPs examine these clauses in detail and may introduce new clauses of their own or table amendments to the existing clauses.
When a bill becomes an Act of Parliament, clauses become known as sections.
