Consumer Credit Bill

moved Amendment No. 37:"Page 54, line 1, leave out from ““section”” to ““House”” in line 2 and insert ““may not be made by the Secretary of State unless a draft has been laid before and approved by a resolution of each””" The noble Lord said: The amendment would require affirmative resolution by Parliament of statutory instruments based on the clause. The Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee said in its report:"““Clause 68 enables the Secretary of State, by order subject to negative procedure, to make such modifications of Acts or subordinate legislation as he thinks fit in consequence of any provision of this Act””." It went on to say:"““The DTI’s explanation of this level of scrutiny points to the precedent of the Enterprise Act 2002, but this predates the Committee’s Special Report on this type of power which supported a presumption in favour of affirmative procedure. Despite the fact that incidental and supplemental provision are not included, we see no reason to depart from our presumption that a power of this sort should be subject to affirmative, not negative, procedure””." We would have liked to have seen more use of affirmative resolution in relation to most of the secondary legislation and guidance under the Bill, but the committee did not support that. Accordingly, in an effort to reach a compromise we will not press the point in the wider context at this stage. But the Minister who wound up at Second Reading said that the Government were considering the committee’s suggestion in this regard, and perhaps the noble Lord will explain where those considerations have got to. I beg to move.