Part of Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill – in a Public Bill Committee am 10:15 am ar 22 Tachwedd 2007.
David Heath
Shadow Leader of the House of Commons
10:15,
22 Tachwedd 2007
This is one of those Humpty-Dumpty moments where we are invited by a Minister to look at words that are written on the paper, and construe them in the opposite way to how any other person would understand them. I return to subsection (10). How can the words:
“Subject to any directions given to the Commissioner by the Secretary of State”,
be construed in any way other than as a potential—I must say potential—limit to the commissioner’s discretion to determine the scope of and the procedure to be applied to an investigation and a decision? Had it said,
“following a direction from the Secretary of State”,
I might have been able to understand the Minister’s point, but it says,
“Subject to any directions...by the Secretary of State”.
Despite the hon. Lady’s suggestion that I am incapable of reading the Clause in front of me, those words cannot be interpreted as being anything other than an overlying control of the discretion on the part of the Secretary of State. If it is her intention to state the wide discretion available to the commissioner, she would be better off leaving those 10 words out altogether. In that way everybody would be clear that a direction would be given by the Secretary of State, and that once it had been given it would be for the commissioner to determine the scope and nature of the investigation. I invite the hon. Lady to consider that before Report.
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.
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.
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.
