No. NC7, to move the following Clause:—

'(1) In its application Regional Assemblies, the following provisions of this Act have effect as if for each reference to the Secretary of State there were substituted a reference to the Regional Assemblies—

(a) Parts 1 to 6;

(b) sections 57 and 58.

(2) Sections 57(4) and (5) do not apply to an order or regulations made by the Regional Assemblies.

(3) For the purposes of this clause, a ''Regional Assembly'' means an elected assembly for a region that has been established pursuant to a referendum held under the Regional Assemblies (Preparations) Act 2003.'.

—[Richard Younger-Ross.]

Brought up, and read the First time.

I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.

I have to confess that earlier this afternoon I doubted that we would get to this point. I am delighted that we have. I thank the hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge, in particular, for helping us to do so. The new clause would give regional assemblies the same decentralised power under the Bill as that proposed for the Welsh Assembly. If regionalisation is to mean anything, it should be about moving powers down from local authorities, rather than up. We therefore hope that the Minister sees that there are good reasons why some of the powers that he currently holds could equally be held by the elected authorities that we shall have in the north-east and the north-west. The arguments on the matter are well rehearsed.

I must say to the hon. Gentleman that every now and then I write an amendment that I look at the next morning and realise that it is a piece of total and utter garbage. I hope that I have had the good grace not to move them. This new clause is the worst that I have seen in the entire time that I have been dealing with Bills in Committee. It is a preposterous piece of regional extremism; I have never heard such nonsensical argument. The hon. Gentleman argues that we should devolve powers downwards, yet the powers in question—powers of fire and rescue authorities—are already exercised by local authorities. The proposals are utterly unworkable—giving the powers of the Secretary of State, many of which are specifically about creating a national framework, to individual regional assemblies so that there would be a different regime in each part of the country. I can only repeat that it is the worst new clause that I have ever seen.

I am not sure that I will go quite as far as the hon. Gentleman, whose contribution to the production of new clauses and amendments that might appear to merit the term ''preposterous'' has also been significant. However, I can find very little to recommend this new clause.

In our most recent debates, we have highlighted the importance of effective measures to improve operational efficiency and not create bureaucracy. To create structures that will require separate regional frameworks, region-specific audit procedures and performance measures, and to enter into a whole series of operational procedures with not only the UK Parliament, but, in the case of the north-west and the north-east, adjoining devolved administrations, seems a bizarre proposition.

I can see no benefit from the new clause; I can see a great deal of bureaucracy and confusion. It would undermine the whole purpose of the Bill, which is to establish a framework that ensures that national matters are handled at a national level; that matters that are best handled at a regional level are handled regionally; and that those matters best handled locally are handled at a local level. I hope that the hon. Gentleman will withdraw the new clause.

I thank the Minister for his response, but there is an inconsistency: Wales is being given powers but the English regions are not. The Minister is being inconsistent and I will not withdraw the motion.

Question put, That the clause be read a Second time:—

The Committee divided: Ayes 2, Noes 11.

Question accordingly negatived.

I am unsure whether we have finished on a high or on a low, but at least we finished with a little bit of vigour.

Question proposed, That the Chairman do report the Bill, as amended, to the House.

We have completed our business, with extraordinary precision, to the exact minute allocated in the programme resolution. This Committee has been good, effective and thorough. It has scrutinised the Bill rigorously and covered every element in it. That does not always happen, and it is a great tribute to the firm and fair chairmanship of Mr. O'Hara and yourself, Sir Nicholas, and the contributions of hon. Members that we have achieved this outcome. I wish to express thanks to all those who helped our proceedings: the Clerks, the Hansard reporters, the police and others who were responsible for ensuring that the Committee ran smoothly.

I thank the hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge, who as always has been assiduous and courteous in pursuit of the Opposition's scrutiny role. I was saddened that he was not always supported by the hon. Member for Cotswold (Mr. Clifton-Brown), who enlivened our proceedings briefly, but I am delighted that the hon. Member for East Devon was able to be here throughout the proceedings. I offer my thanks to the hon. Member for Teignbridge, particularly for his short and usually constructive

interventions. He was supported by the hon. Member for Southport, who also made several telling and valuable contributions to the debates.

I offer a great debt of thanks to my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary, who has been an absolute rock of support. This was his first Committee on the Front Bench; I am sure that there will be many more. I am very grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Eastwood (Mr. Murphy), who oversaw our proceedings with the proper efficiency required of the Whips Office and ensured, despite a brief moment of difficulty over one of the knives, that we ended at precisely the right time and with the right result. To end on an 11-2 vote can hardly be a bad thing from the Government's perspective. I am grateful, too, to my Parliamentary Private Secretary, my hon. Friend the Member for Plymouth, Sutton (Linda Gilroy), despite a brief moment when I thought that she was about to support an Opposition amendment.

It is time to end our proceedings, and I am very grateful to all my hon. Friends for their diligence in ensuring that we had a Government majority almost all the way through and for their helpful contributions to the debate.

I am particularly grateful to you, Sir Nicholas, and to Mr. O'Hara not only for ensuring that we did the job properly and thoroughly and stayed in order, but for giving a light and humorous perspective on life and on our proceedings. These scrutiny functions make for serious occasions, and they can become a bit dour if there is not some humour from time to time. As always, you have enlivened us with your humorous yet efficient approach to chairing our proceedings.

We had certain difficulties with names from time to time. I am glad that no one managed to get my name wrong. We had the three Ps—paranoid, preposterous and pedantic—and we nearly had ''opportunistic'' as well. It does not start with a P, but it compensates by having two Ps in the first three letters, so perhaps we should refer to the four Ps.

We had a wonderful time considering parliamentary drafting. I cannot think of an occasion when so much attention has been given to parliamentary draftsmen's choice of words, although on this occasion, unlike the last Committee on which I served with the hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge, we did not have to debate whether a sentence could begin with the word ''but''. Nevertheless, there was the splendid declamatory style of clause 34(2), which begins with the words ''These are the questions''. There is great sonority in that, for which we should pay tribute to the parliamentary draftsmen.

There have been other, stranger moments, not least the five-minute teach-in on the pronunciation of Teignbridge from the sitting Member of Parliament as well as an interesting excursion into how he procured a certain shirt that he was wearing one day in Committee.

On that note, Sir Nicholas, we should draw our proceedings to a close. I endorse the motion that we should now report the Bill to the House.

I shall remember the Committee as the closest that I have come to defeating the Government in a Standing Committee. Were it not for your diligent and ponderous handling of points of order, Sir Nicholas, we might have done it, then the Government Whip, while disappointed on one front, would no doubt have seen his Bill accelerate towards completion in just a few minutes, although not perhaps the completion that he would have wished.

The Minister mentioned my hon. Friend the Member for Cotswold. I should perhaps put it on the record that he very much regrets that he has not been able to join our proceedings for much of the time because of his commitment to Northern Ireland statutory instruments, which are an increasing burden on this place.

I thank you, Sir Nicholas, and Mr. O'Hara for chairing the Committee with a firm hand but good humour throughout. I do not know whether it is just that I am becoming more sensitive, but I find that these days I am less often brought to order and better able to detect when I am straying outside it before I run off the road.

I also want to thank the Ministers for the generally constructive way in which they have engaged in the debate, notwithstanding the odd digression into accusations of preposterousness and paranoia. I hope that the Minister of State will agree that some issues that have been aired will need to be aired again, because they have given rise to concerns that need to be looked at in future.

In particular I want to thank the Clerks, whom the Minister also thanked. Although he cannot thank his officials in the Committee, I suspect that he depends on them in the way that Opposition Members depend on the Clerks in the Public Bill Office to help them with the intricacies of legislation. I also want to extend our thanks to the Hansard reporters, the police and all the other staff who make the Committee function smoothly.

Yes, there have been one or two confusions over names. The Minister said with some satisfaction that his own name had not been got wrong. He may be surprised to know how many times I find he is confused with Mr. Ransford when I am talking to people outside this place. He might like to ponder that.

I think that we have done extremely well to bring our proceedings to a conclusion this afternoon, as intended, with the entirety of the Bill properly considered. I add to those of the Minister my thanks to every member of the Committee who has helped to make that possible.

This has certainly been an interesting 10 sittings for me. It is only the third Standing Committee on which I have served and the first on which I have led. In many ways it has been an interesting learning curve.

I, too, want to add my thanks to the Clerks in particular for all their help. Without their helpful advice it would be difficult for us to function as an Opposition.

You do not.

Perhaps I should say, in that case, that it would be difficult for us to function as an effective Opposition. As ever, the Clerks' advice is helpful in what we seek to do.

By and large this has been a good-humoured debate. Certainly some of the Ministers' responses have been helpful. We are grateful that they have taken a number of matters on board and will look at them. Some issues will arise again on Report, and some of our concerns, which I am sure are shared by others, will be aired again then and perhaps even in other places.

I have some sympathy with the hon. Member for Cotswold, who has not been able to be in the Committee for most of our debates, because while I have been a member of this Committee, I have also been a member of the Committee that is consider the Housing Bill. I have not yet learned the art of bi-location; it was not in the job description when I applied for the post and it is one of which people should be made aware.

I thank you, Sir Nicholas, Mr. O'Hara and the other staff for their help. I particularly thank you or your gentle nudges towards progress, which have been most appreciated.

Perhaps I can have the final word from the Chair. If I can enter the debate between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservative and Unionist party, I say to the Liberal Democrats that they are an opposition party and I say to the hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge that his party is the Opposition—Her Majesty's Opposition—so we return to the debate on ''the'' or ''a'' that we had earlier today.

I thank all members of the Committee for the part that they played, particularly those on both sides of the Committee who contributed to our debates. It has been interesting to sit in the Chair because a lot of expertise has been evident. I congratulate the Ministers on the way in which they dealt with questions from the Opposition, and I congratulate the Liberal Democrats on dealing with what was, for them, a difficult Bill. I pick out the hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge who, as the Front-Bench spokesman for the Opposition, undertook a major duty and responsibility in tackling the Bill almost on his own. I hope that I am permitted to admire that from the Chair and to congratulate him on the job that he has done.

I thank the Clerks, who have done a wonderful job and are of huge support. The Committee does not know much about their little words in the Chairman's ear now and again, but their service is vital and unique to the House of Commons. I thank them very much, likewise Hansard and the police. This has been a good Committee and, to repeat the Minister of State's view, to have completed the Bill when the knife came down at 5 o'clock, even if we were slightly hurried latterly, suggests that the Committee can co-operate. I congratulate all hon. Members on taking the Bill through Standing Committee in a constructive and positive way.

It has been a pleasure to be one of the two Chairman and I thank my co-Chairman, Eddie O'Hara. We shared our 10 sittings equally—five each. All I can say is that I have enjoyed the Committee and I thank everyone.

Question put and agreed to.

Bill, as amended, to be reported.

Committee rose at thirteen minutes past Five o'clock.