Part of Legislation (Territorial Extent) Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 10:45 am on 27 April 2011.
Clause 4 sets out what the Secretary of State has to do to be compatible with clause 3, so clauses 3 and 4 are intimately combined. There are already processes that exist in this House when we are publishing draft legislation—the White Paper and the process of pre-legislative scrutiny—where the Government can set out exactly what they mean and the House can then tease out, test and challenge Ministers on what they mean. But I am not clear about how to ensure compliance. The hon. Member for North Wiltshire said that a way could be found for it to work. That may be the case, but the Government do not want to create significant burdens that will create extra work and extra cost for Government, particularly at a time when we are trying to do Government more efficiently and at lower cost, without a commensurate benefit. If the Government believed that the burden that the Bill imposed on Ministers would lead to a significant improvement, and that it would result in Members of Parliament and citizens being much clearer about the effect of legislation, the Government might have taken a different view. However, we believe that the burdens are potentially significant and unclear, and that they will not lead to any improvement in clarity for Members or citizens. That is why we oppose the Bill in principle and are opposing it in detail as we work our way through it.