New Clause 19

Part of Pensions Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 1:15 pm on 21 February 2008.

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Photo of Nigel Waterson Nigel Waterson Shadow Minister, Work & Pensions 1:15, 21 February 2008

I am delighted that the Minister thinks that he has the powers to do this, and at some point might even use them. I appreciate the point about limited availability of parliamentary draftsmen, which is why we have tried to help him out by drafting the relevant provision. I do not think that he has raised any technical issues on that particularly. He has confirmed my worst fears that this is indeed part of what is called a rolling deregulatory programme. We would like to see it roll a bit faster, that is all that I am really saying. Now it is all going to be swept up in the review. Another review was announced in the Chamber today, I gather, so I think that we are up to 57 reviews since the current Prime Minister took over.

Clause

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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Minister

Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.