28 April 2006
An influential committee of MPs has demanded that the government amend the controversial Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill, in order to provide safeguards against the 'misuse' of the powers it awards ministers.
The Bill – which is awaiting its second Commons reading – amends the 2001 Regulatory Reform Act by enabling government to change legislation without first debating it in Parliament. This is to fast-track changes that are meant to lessen the 'regulatory burden'.
But the public administration select committee has now joined the regulatory reform and procedure committees in calling for a substantial dilution of the powers the Bill gives to the government.
The government has argued these are 'proportionate' to its stated aim of 'better regulation', and are balanced by a clause instructing ministers to lay only orders that do not remove a right or freedom a 'person might reasonably expect to continue to exercise'.
The PASC criticised this clause, however, arguing that determining whether or not it had been followed could be settled only in court, not Parliament.
'Parliament is the legislature of this country, and should ensure that it has the powers and processes needed to scrutinise primary or secondary legislation adequately,' the committee stated in its report.
The committee added that judicial reviews were important as an additional safeguard against parliamentary mistakes, but that the primary task was to ensure that Parliament retained adequate powers of scrutiny.
The committee's rejections of the powers the Bill gives ministers to implement legislative changes proposed by the Law Commission were equally forthright.
Noting that there had been no cases of delayed regulatory reform due to the parliamentary process, the committee asserts: 'It is Parliament's responsibility to make new law, and significant proposals for such law should be made as primary legislation, however eminent and expert the body which recommends them.'
The committee proposed 'as a minimum' that MPs be given a right of veto over which pieces of legislation could be fast-tracked. Amendments should also be made to ensure ministers cannot use new powers to change the Bill itself.
PFapr2006
