Part of National Security and Investment Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 3:30 pm on 3 December 2020.
Alan Whitehead
Shadow Minister (Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy)
3:30,
3 December 2020
The Minister has given a good exposition of what the Clause is about: the attendance of witnesses. I note that, as he said, the witnesses are required to give evidence on the equivalent level of civil proceedings before the court—as the clause states:
“A person is not required under this section to give any evidence which that person could not be compelled to give in civil proceedings before the court.”
To return to our previous debate, if that is the test—if the sanction is not a criminal sanction—what if the witness were to say, “I do not consider the evidence I am being required to give to be proportionate to the use to which it will be put”? What would that mean for the evidence in front of the Secretary of State? Would it be stopped? Would the Secretary of State then be unable to sanction that witness further? Or could the witness be compelled to provide information even if they did not think it was proportionate, and could they take action against the Secretary of State on the grounds that the evidence they had given in the first place was not proportionate? Perhaps the Minister could take us through that procedure, possibly in an Intervention.
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.
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.
An intervention is when the MP making a speech is interrupted by another MP and asked to 'give way' to allow the other MP to intervene on the speech to ask a question or comment on what has just been said.
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.
