Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

Could changes be made to the provisions of the Scotland Act 1998 and, as my hon. Friend says, the Government of Wales Act 1998 without recourse to debate on the Floor of the House? We must also consider subsection 7(c) of new clause 19 because although the measure includes an attempt to define ““legislation””, there is no definition of ““enactment””. Under the subsection, a ministerial order may provide for the transfer or delegation of"““functions conferred on any person by any enactment””." The broad-ranging power would enable Ministers to reconstruct completely many statutory bodies, executive agencies and non-departmental parties simply through subordinate legislation. Furthermore, subsection 7(d) gives Ministers the power to abolish any"““body or office established by or under an enactment.””" It is noteworthy that subsection (7) uses the word ““enactment””, although the rest of new clause 19 uses the word ““legislation””. However, unlike the word ““legislation””, the word ““enactment”” does not seem to be defined. Several further matters need to be addressed, so it is unfortunate that we have lost parliamentary time for debating a measure that is, in fact, a new Bill. I hope that the Bill will be improved in the other place. I do not want the Minister to choke on his humble pie because he has moved some way to improve the Bill, but I hope that we will have the opportunity to improve it further. I hope that we will have the opportunity to vote on the Liberal Democrat amendments to new clause 19 because they would improve the measure significantly.