Part of Sustainable Communities Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 2:00 pm on 23 May 2007.
Oliver Letwin
Shadow Minister without Portfolio
2:00,
23 May 2007
I am grateful to the Minister for his remarks. They do indeed clarify the position, as I think my hon. Friend the Member for Ruislip-Northwood would agree. They were a whole heap clearer than his earlier remarks, and I am sure that we shall await the Minister’s Amendment. However, I want to say something in the spirit of putting into his mind things that may be helpful when we come to Report and when he comes to consider the amendments that he will move then.
If I understood the Minister aright in his concluding passage, he was suggesting that his amendmentswould provide for the local authority under some circumstances to take over the functions in some respects of some existing other body. I think that it is worth warning him that it is unlikely, in my view, that such an amendment could succeed in achieving the object that we seek, and I shall explain why, in the hope that he will reflect further.
Where there is a current Government agency or devolved agency—a regional development agency,for example—it will typically have a remit that is established first in statute, then perhaps in regulation and thereafter in some kind of ministerial targets or edicts. I may be wrong, but I suspect that if the Minister attempts to draft a Clause that gives the local authority the right not to seek the ability to redirect moneys but to seek to take over specific functions, that will have the effect that we do not want of putting the local authority, when exercising those functions, under the duty to follow the remit that the agency had.
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.
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As a bill passes through Parliament, MPs and peers may suggest amendments - or changes - which they believe will improve the quality of the legislation.
Many hundreds of amendments are proposed by members to major bills as they pass through committee stage, report stage and third reading in both Houses of Parliament.
In the end only a handful of amendments will be incorporated into any bill.
The Speaker - or the chairman in the case of standing committees - has the power to select which amendments should be debated.
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.
