Equality Bill

My Lords, in moving Amendment 135, I will speak to Amendments 136, 135A, 136ZA, 136ZAC, 136ZB, 136ZZZA, 136ZZZB and 136ZCC, which relate to the procedure for parliamentary control of secondary legislation. I am indebted to the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee for bringing these points to our attention. Although it has not been spoken to, I should like to comment on Amendment 136ZZA in the names of the noble Baronesses, Lady Warsi and Lady Morris, which seeks to probe why the provisions for the control of secondary legislation do not currently apply to an order which makes provision in consequence of the commencement of some or all of the Bill, but which is in a separate instrument, as provided for in Clause 200(7). The absence of such control was noted by the Delegated Powers Committee in its third report of the current Session. This was not an oversight. We had already provided that any such orders that made consequential amendments to primary legislation should be subject to the affirmative procedure. However, we did not believe that such control was strictly necessary for other orders because they can contain only minor, consequential and transitional provisions. But equally this is not an issue where we would seek disagreement with the committee, so we are happy to accept the principle behind the noble Baronesses’s amendment on the basis that it responds to the committee’s findings. We have accordingly introduced our own Amendments 136ZZZA and 136ZZZB, not because that of the opposition is defective, but because the advice of counsel is that it would be clearer to take the slightly less convoluted language we propose. We therefore urge the noble Baronesses not to press their amendment. The Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee in its report on Parts 1 to 5 of the Bill recommended that an ““affirmative”” parliamentary control procedure apply to any regulations made by Ministers to amend Section 1, that add or remove public authorities subject to Clause 1—the public sector duty regarding socio-economic inequalities. We, the Scottish Government and Welsh Assembly are grateful for the recommendation of the committee and happy to accept that an affirmative procedure should apply to such regulations. The socio-economic duty is obviously novel and innovative, and it is appropriate that Parliament should give careful consideration to any changes we propose to the list of public bodies subject to it. Amendment 135A therefore makes the necessary changes to Clause 200 to ensure that any regulations under Section 2 made by Ministers of the Crown are subject to the affirmative procedure. Amendments 136ZA and 136ZB make the necessary changes to Clauses 201 and 202 respectively to ensure that regulations made by the Welsh and Scottish Ministers under Section 2 are also subject to the affirmative procedure. The Delegated Powers Committee identified in its second report of this Session an omission in relation to the parliamentary control of Orders in Council, which Amendment 135 rectifies. While the vast majority of secondary legislation in the Bill will be delivered by ministerial order or regulations, Clause 82, headed ““Offshore work””, uniquely uses an Order in Council to specify where and how the Bill, in so far as it relates to work, applies to offshore workers. An Order in Council is appropriate because Clause 82 concerns the application of the Bill beyond UK territorial waters. Due to an oversight, the Bill does not provide a parliamentary procedure for Clause 82 because it currently contains no reference to ““Orders in Council””. Such orders should, as with other secondary legislation, be capable of annulment by either House of Parliament. Amendment 135 achieves this. I am again indebted to the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee for bringing to our attention a slight uncertainty in the drafting of Clause 200. As it highlighted, this formulation could be regarded as ambiguous as to whether it includes those special cases mentioned in subsection (3) of the clause which should be subject to the negative procedure. Amendment 136 therefore clarifies that these orders should be subject to that procedure. Amendments 136ZAC and 136ZCC do exactly the same in respect of the powers of the Welsh and the Scottish Ministers. I beg to move.