Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

I almost stopped trying to catch your eye, Madam Deputy Speaker, because I agreed with everything said by my hon. Friend the Member for Huntingdon (Mr. Djanogly) when he moved new clause 5 and everything said by my right hon. Friend the Member for East Yorkshire (Mr. Knight) and the hon. Members for Somerton and Frome (Mr. Heath) and for Cannock Chase (Dr. Wright). On these questions of parliamentary procedure, we are Members who are usually brought together across the Floor in such discussions. I speak only to underline the importance of the points that are being made for the benefit of those in another place. The general understanding outside is that the Government have made a substantial retreat, and it might be felt that the worst problems have somehow been solved and that there is not a great deal left to do. Unless the Minister makes an extremely generous response to the debate, I hope that Members of another place will examine seriously whether we are adequately reassured by what has been done. I regard the Bill as dangerous because we are talking about circumventing the ordinary parliamentary processes of considered debate and judgment and using instead a fast-track procedure that might have broad application. I am prepared to take the risk of passing such a Bill because of my enthusiasm for deregulation. I have no reason to doubt the bona fides of either Minister who has handled the Bill in detail because both genuinely endeavoured to have as wide a Bill as possible so that they can deliver deregulatory measures. I look forward to reading the reports and finding out what has been delivered. I think that the Minister will be contending with the culture of Westminster and Whitehall, but I hope that his good intentions will produce something worth while. We need the strictest safeguards when introducing a procedure that can further reduce the use of the proper parliamentary process for potentially difficult subjects. As my right hon. Friend the Member for East Yorkshire said, we should hold the Government precisely to the undertakings that the former Minister gave. I thus echo everything that has been said about the Select Committee having the right to exercise a veto at its own discretion, bearing in mind the concern that we have all expressed that the procedure should not be used to circumvent parliamentary procedure when a significant body of interest is entitled to be heard. I have to say—this is about the only note of dissent that has arisen between any two Members who have spoken, because we have not yet heard the ministerial reply—that I have never been completely reassured by the Select Committee veto. Select Committees have an in-built Government majority. A year or two ago, the House was given the opportunity to reconsider the way in which Select Committees are appointed because of concerns that the powers of ministerial and Whips Office patronage were being brought to play in appointments to Select Committees. I do not want to discuss whether that is still true, but the danger is only too obvious—and it might recur. At present, there is a great deal of patronage. We are lucky that such good Chairmen as the ones who have spoken have emerged from the process. Nevertheless, there is an in-built Government majority. The undertakings that were given from the outset were outlined in a precise quotation from my right hon. Friend the Member for East Yorkshire. We were reassured that the full parliamentary process would be used for any controversial procedure. In my opinion, that means giving an adequately large minority the opportunity to have their views heard and debated, and to insist that an important change goes through the correct process.