Welfare Reform Bill

I shall speak also to Amendments 23 and 26. These amendments would apply the super-affirmative procedure to regulations introduced for Clauses 1 and 2. This colourful-sounding procedure is not used very often but it is well precedented in other Acts. At the moment the most obvious example is the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act 2006, which allows the Government to propose legislative reform orders to amend or repeal a provision in primary legislation considered to impose a burden on business or others, as long as it could be reduced or removed without removing unnecessary protection. When the draft order is laid before Parliament, the Minister must recommend one of three possible parliamentary procedures for dealing with it, one of which is the super-affirmative procedure, which requires the Minister to have regard to representations, House of Commons and House of Lords resolutions and committee recommendations of either House of Parliament that are made within 60 days of laying, in order to decide whether to proceed with the order and, if so, whether to do so as presented or in an amended form. If the order is to be proceeded with, both Houses debate it in the usual way. In other words, the super-affirmative procedure is really just the affirmative procedure with a few bells and whistles added. Why am I proposing this very specific procedure for regulations made under these two clauses? After all, the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee did not recommend this procedure, but that should not be a bar to anyone else putting forward an opinion. My reasoning is simple. Taking Clause 1 first, "work for your benefit" is a completely new concept which is very controversial. Whether the Minister likes it or not, it is already being compared unfavourably with the American system of workfare, which, as the Peers’ information pack note says, is a, ""largely punitive programme of work aimed at dissuading claimants from continuing their claim"." We do not yet know how "work for your benefit" will work because we have not seen the all-important regulations, although the Minister is being helpful in giving us some clues along the way. Surely the Government cannot complain if all we are asking is for Parliament and those in the field to be able to comment on a genuinely draft order setting out how this part of the Bill will work. After all, the then Minister in the other place, Mr Tony McNulty, admitted that regulations under this part of the Bill are important and represent a significant shift in policy. The only way to change the regulations is still for the Government alone to do so. Parliament and others can suggest changes but it would be solely the Government’s decision. However, if the Government did not listen to representations, they would risk a Motion to reject the regulations which might be passed in either House of Parliament, although that is pretty unlikely. More transparency and better scrutiny is now being advocated more than ever before in all the dark recesses of government. This call for more transparency has been made since the Bill was debated in the other place. This procedure would make sure that Parliament knew what it was giving its consent to. The Minister may say that the DWP consults stakeholders anyway, but the consultation on many issues appears to be patchy, and impact assessments are not always carried out, even on important DWP statutory instruments, as I know from my service on the Merits of Statutory Instruments Committee. Furthermore, as I have said before in the House, the committee set up specifically to scrutinise statutory instruments for the DWP, the Social Security Advisory Committee, often makes recommendations which the Government then ignore—either that or they take on board only one or two suggestions out of a good many. I believe that it is high time that this super-affirmative procedure for regulations was used more often in order for Parliament to be at the heart of law-making, rather than just a peripheral player. I beg to move.