Saving Gateway Accounts Bill

I hope that I can convince the House that the Government’s approach to what is put on the face of the Bill and what is contained in secondary legislation—as well as to what is subject to the affirmative and negative procedures—is fair, reasonable, proportionate and appropriate. This group of amendments covers two points. Amendments 7 to 10 ask whether the exercise of some of the regulation-making powers should be subject to the affirmative rather than the negative procedure, whereas amendment 2 would introduce a requirement for the Government to consult interested parties and report to Parliament before using one specific power in the Bill. I shall begin by responding to the hon. Member for Fareham (Mr. Hoban)—and, by default, I suppose, to the hon. Member for Taunton (Mr. Browne)—on amendments 7 to 10. As I have said a number of times, we believe that the current use of delegated powers is appropriate. The important features of the savings gateway, including the list of qualifying benefits and credits and the method of calculating maturity payments, are all set out on the face of the Bill. However, many of the details of the operation of the saving gateway are relatively technical and our view is that they are best tackled through secondary legislation, because that provides the flexibility that will allow the scheme to be amended in the future to ensure that it continues to meet its objectives. We know that those objectives have the broad support of the House, and we want them to be amendable without the need for further primary legislation because we also know that that can suffer from the pressure of parliamentary time. We think that we have struck the appropriate balance, and I shall explain our approach to the House. The first use of all but one of the delegated powers in the Bill will be subject to the affirmative procedure. We think that that is the right thing to do to allow appropriate parliamentary scrutiny of the details of the scheme that is being introduced. However, subsequent use of most of the powers in the Bill will be subject to the negative procedure, as that will provide the necessary flexibility to make minor or technical changes to the scheme. Of course, we can debate which changes are minor or technical: hon. Members might have different views, and it is right that the Government be probed about such matters. However, I want to explain that there are four exceptions, under which each use of the regulations will be subject to the affirmative procedure. They include all three delegated powers relating to eligibility, which is clearly a central feature of the savings gateway. It is therefore right that any changes should be subject to full parliamentary scrutiny. The same is true of the match rate—the amount of maturity payment earned for each pound saved. The power to set that amount in regulations under clause 8(1) is therefore the fourth delegated power that will be subject to the affirmative procedure on each use. All the key parts of the savings gateway architecture are therefore either on the face of the Bill or subject to the affirmative resolution procedure. Moreover, all changes to eligibility and the match rate will be subject to the affirmative procedure.