Part of Clause 2 – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 20 Rhagfyr 1973.
Mr Edward Leadbitter
, Hartlepools, The
12:00,
20 Rhagfyr 1973
I beg to move Amendment No. 15, in page 3, line 14, after 'instrument', insert
'and subject to approval by affirmative resolution of this House'.
We now come to a point of some importance which concerns whether the procedure to be followed involves an
affirmative or negative resolution of the House. I feel I must take some care in dealing with this point because, since the last edition of Erskine May was printed, the Select Committee on Stautory Instruments has established new procedures in respect of affirmative and negative resolutions. Although the Joint Committee on Delegated legislation in the first instance examines orders with great care in terms of their propriety and legal framework, there still arises the question by which resolution the matter should be covered.
The Minister may well be able to give us an assurance that the second stage of the changes laid down in the procedural requirements in Erskine May is satisfied by the establishment of Standing Committees for the examination of the instrument beyond the points of propriety and the legal sense of the instrument. But I must counter that by suggesting that taking an instrument, which is subject to the negative procedure, before a Standing Committee takes away from the House its powers to examine it.
So far as I am aware, the affirmative procedure is to indicate the importance of an instrument. The test is that the Government have to bring it before the House. That test is supported by the fact that parliamentary practice has established that that procedure is adopted when matters of substance and important portions of delegated legislation need to have a high degree of scrutiny. That does not apply to the negative procedure, even though in Standing Committee, because the matter is closed in Standing Committee.
Even so, the outstanding objection is that finally the negative procedure, having gone through the steps I have outlined, is still subject to catching the attention of an hon. Member. We all know what happens. Labour Governments as well as Conservative Governments have used the lateness of the hour to get by the ordinary Member, who has perhaps not been so careful as he might have been, or has been so busy that he has not noticed a statutory instrument in time to put down a Prayer to seek its annulment.
We are dealing with a matter which concerns people very much. I can see that the questions of deciding electoral areas and specifying the numbers of councillors and times of elections are matters which can follow the areas of consultation which the Minister has described. I readily accept that now. The corollary is that the end product of the exercise and related matters should come before the House on the affirmative procedure.
The affirmative procedure enables the House of Commons to fulfil its traditional rôle. We proceed on the basis that the Government must bring their order to the House. The Government having come to the House of Commons, they must submit the order to a debate lasting at least 1½ hours after 10 p.m., no matter what the business may be and no matter what Standing Order is invoked to interfere with the business during the day. Even though there is a debate under Standing Order No 9, which occupies some hours during the day, the affirmative procedure enables the House of Commons to debate an order for 1½ hours.
Not so with the negative procedure. I concede that the Select Committee on Procedure has done much to try to deal with the difficulty, but we must make it clear that no matter what happens in the Joint Committee and the Standing Committee, once a statutory instrument becomes subject to the negative procedure the debate is closed at 11.30 p.m. The business could carry on till 11·25 p.m. and we would be left with only five minutes. The usual channels ensure that "a Nelson" is done and it is forgotten about, but a Back Bencher who feels seriously about the matter must be very much awake; and he has only five minutes to deal with it.
I am ready to accept the Minister's good intentions as to enlarging areas of consultation, should that be required. After that, when we have to deal with specific statutory instruments the right thing to do, when it involves the public and electoral matters, is to employ the affirmative procedure.
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.
The House of Commons is one of the houses of parliament. Here, elected MPs (elected by the "commons", i.e. the people) debate. In modern times, nearly all power resides in this house. In the commons are 650 MPs, as well as a speaker and three deputy speakers.
In a normal session there are up to ten standing committees on bills. Each has a chair and from 16 to 50 members. Standing committee members on bills are appointed afresh for each new bill by the Committee of Selection which is required to take account of the composition of the House of Commons (ie. party proportions) as well as the qualification of members to be nominated. The committees are chaired by a member of the Chairmen's Panel (whose members are appointed by the Speaker). In standing committees the Chairman has much the same function as the Speaker in the House of Commons. Like the Speaker, a chairman votes only in the event of a tie, and then usually in accordance with precedent. The committees consider each bill clause by clause and may make amendments. There are no standing committees in the House of Lords.
Delegated legislation is law made by ministers under powers deriving from Acts of Parliament.
Thousands of pieces of delegated legislation, commonly known as statutory instruments, are passed by Parliament each year.
They enable the government to make minor, technical changes to the law without having to introduce a whole new Act of Parliament.
A Backbencher is a Member who holds no official position in government or in his or her party. Back benchers sit on the back benches in the Chamber.
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.
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.
