Part of Enterprise Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 11:30 am on 7 May 2002.
Ken Purchase
Labour/Co-operative, Wolverhampton North East
11:30,
7 May 2002
The matter is becoming confusing and it is right that we should understand it properly. Notwithstanding the fact that the Secretary of State may find other reasons, let us deal specifically with security. Even though no competition issues may flow from what the Secretary of State considers a security issue, would not she decide that the security issue overrides all the other considerations?
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.
