Part of Enterprise Bill – in a Public Bill Committee am 6:15 pm ar 23 Ebrill 2002.
Mark Field
Ceidwadwyr, Cities of London and Westminster
6:15,
23 Ebrill 2002
I beg to move Amendment No. 108, in page 134, line 43, at end
insert
'( ) For the purposes of this Part, 'privileged communication' shall have the same meaning as in section 30 of the Competition Act 1998.'.
The amendment is about good housekeeping as much as anything. Indeed, in the light of the explanation that we heard under the previous group of amendments, I hope that the Under-Secretary will be happy to take this amendment on board on the basis that good housekeeping means that the 1987 Act and this legislation should have parallels. There is also a view that the issue of privileged communication should at least be married up with the Competition
Act 1998. It has more in common with the Bill than even the 1987 Act, which introduced the concept of banking privilege.
Our proposal is fairly straightforward. The concept of privileged communication should have the same meaning in the Clause and the Bill as it does in section 30 of the 1998 Act. That change would avoid inconsistency, and I hope that it is not objectionable to the Under-Secretary.
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.
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.
