Lighter Evenings (Experiment) Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 1:"Page 1, line 18, leave out ““decision of whether to bring into force in Scotland”” and insert ““subject-matter of””" The noble Lord said: In speaking to Amendment No. 1, I shall speak also to Amendments No. 2 and 5. They are basically technical amendments suggested by the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee that has reported on the Bill. I shall roughly summarise paragraph 18 of its 12th Report of this Session, which will give the reasons. It states:"““The commencement power in Scotland and Northern Ireland (when the Assembly is not suspended) is given not to the Scottish Ministers or a Northern Ireland Department but to the Scottish Parliament and the Northern Ireland Assembly themselves, bodies charged with making primary legislation of their own within devolved areas””." This is a novel provision and reflects the fact brought out in the Explanatory Notes that whether the provisions will be brought into force at all for Scotland and Northern Ireland is something on which the policy decision is expected to be taken by the relevant national parliament or assembly. In accordance with the usual constitutional arrangements, leaving the policy decision on an experimental period to them could be achieved by ensuring without doing any more that the subject matter of the Bill is a devolved matter. So far as the committee is aware, it would be unprecedented for the Scottish Parliament or the Northern Ireland Assembly to be given powers to commence an Act of the United Kingdom Parliament, which is why it is drawing attention to the amendments. So even though this is creating a precedent, it does not make it impossible; above all, it makes it workable for the devolved assemblies to make their own decisions on whether they wish to take part in the experiment and when they wish to take part in the experiment covered under the Bill. I beg to move.