Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [Lords]

As usual, my hon. Friend, the shadow construction Minister, makes an apposite point. There was a good degree of consensus in Committee, under the present and previous Ministers, but as they say, kind words butter no parsnips. We shall find out the Government's intentions today and discover whether they are keen to assist in a practical way when it comes to new clause 3. No doubt the hon. Member for Meirionnydd Nant Conwy will make his case in his usual cogent and powerful way. Let us move on to new clause 7, which was tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Shrewsbury and Atcham (Daniel Kawczynski) over the summer. The then Minister made some pertinent points about single statutory adjudication, and seemed minded to accept the strong case for it. She said:""On the wider point about a single statutory adjudication scheme, it would introduce greater clarity and simplicity but it would also represent a much more significant intervention into freedom of contract".––[Official Report, Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Public Bill Committee, 18 June 2009; c. 237.]" I am not sure that that case was made very strongly with evidence, and I do not think that the Minister convinced the Committee as a whole or her own side in particular. As I mentioned on that occasion, on 3 March, in the Grand Committee—which was specifically discussing a single scheme for adjudication—Lord Brett said:""That would not be unreasonable. Therefore, we have made an offer to the industry that we will conduct a thorough review of the existing adjudication scheme set out in secondary legislation when we make amendments".—[Official Report, House of Lords, 3 March 2009; Vol. 708, c. GC293.]" That leads me to press the Minister on the specific subject of single statutory adjudication. When will the review take place, and what are its terms of reference? Given that we are in a crisis period involving disputes between larger and smaller parties in the construction industry, when will we see the results of the review? Will it feed through into—possibly—secondary legislation? If the Minister is not minded to assuage my concerns and those of my hon. Friend the Member for Shrewsbury and Atcham today, will she at least tell us whether the review is forthcoming, and what it will say? I will be brief, because other Members wish to speak and important aspects of other clauses require proper debate. We applaud the changes that the Government have made in amendments 21 and 22: they have listened to the views expressed, across a wide spectrum, in Committee in June. I will not steal the thunder of the hon. Members for North Cornwall (Dan Rogerson) and for Falmouth and Camborne, but their amendments have considerable merit. We are inclined to support them at this stage, but the Minister may well surprise us and accept them, and we look forward with interest to hearing what she will have to say. The construction sector is in crisis. The Government must do all they can to assist an industry which has probably been hit harder than any other industry in the country as a result of the recession. We look to the Minister to give the necessary leadership, to note the consensus across all parties and out there in the construction world, and to accept the amendments.