My Lords, I regret I was unable to participate in Second Reading. However, I followed that debate and have read the Minister’s letter to those who took part. I also have amendments that we will be discussing later in Committee.
The noble Lords, Lord Fox and Lord Lansley, the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, and I are now veterans of legislation that the Government have sought to change quite radically. There were at least two iterations of the Trade Bill, and then there was the Professional Qualifications Bill. That has raised a wry smile on the noble Baroness’s face, and it has brought back significant memories.
The difference, however, is that, for those Bills, the Minister was able to recognise not only the mood of the House but the practical consequences of bringing forward significant changes without there being a degree of consensus—as the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, has said—at least on understanding what the Government were intending to do before they brought forward the changes. The passage of the Professional Qualifications Bill was paused. The Government recognised that their case had not been made, preparations had not been in place and that the materials were not available for Parliament to do its constitutional duty to scrutinise. I hear the Minister repeat time and again in the Chamber how much he values this Parliament, and this House in particular, doing our job. However, on this Bill, which he is responsible for, he is denying us the very tools to carry out this proper scrutiny work.
There is a precedent of other Ministers and other departments recognising that a pause is not a government defeat but will strengthen their case when they bring
back their properly worked out amendments. Indeed, on the Professional Qualifications Bill and Trade Bill, there was consensus on the amendments brought forward at the end. It helped the Government carry out their job, as we were sincere in believing that they had faith in their proposals.
If we are to be soothsayers as far as understanding what the Government are seeking to do, then the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, made a reasonable fist of trying to interpret Amendment 1—the Minister chose not to do so. If the noble Lord is right or wrong, we should at least know what the Government intend when changing that proposal because, as my noble friend Lord Fox, and the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman, indicated, not a single government amendment has come with an explanatory statement.
I refer to the Cabinet Office Guide to Making Legislation from 2022, which the Minister is responsible for—I am certain the Minister has a copy; I can lend him mine if he wants. Section C is on “Essential Guidance for Bill Teams”; I think the Bill team is sitting behind him. In paragraph 22, on Amendments—this is from the Cabinet Office’s own guidance, not from me—it says:
“All government amendments require an explanatory statement, in plain English, setting what an amendment will do.”
So, why did the Minister refuse that on this Bill? It is a mockery of the guidance.
The Minister, after making his apology to the Grand Committee, chose not to outline any of the amendments. He did not explain whether Amendment 1 and the others will have significant policy implementation differences. If the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, is correct, then they will. That is how all of those who will be putting together procurement and replying to tenders will interpret the legislation, so of course it will have an implication on that. That is why we look at impact assessments to consider what level of consequence there will be.
The Government have not felt it necessary to bring any changes to the impact assessment—unlike for the Professional Qualifications Bill, I remind the Minister. However, this is also stated categorically in the Guide to Making Legislation in paragraph 13, on impact assessments:
“The … impact assessment … will need to be updated during parliamentary passage to reflect any changes made to the bill”.
I therefore ask the Minister: why has there been no update to the impact assessment to take into consideration any changes made to the Bill?
If the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, is correct, there will need to be some quite significant changes to the impact assessment, because the cost is all predicated on the streamlined approach that has been presented under the Bill before the Government sought to amend it. The Committee does not need to be reminded that the Government now want a far more competitive, flexible, streamlined procedure, moving from seven systems to three. If it is now the dance of the three and half veils, of “covered” or not covered, and organisations are having to work out which area they are going to fill in, of course there will be impacts that need to be outlined.
4.30 pm
Another reason why we expected to have explanatory statements was so that we could see what some of the consequences are—such as those outlined by the noble Baroness, whose perseverance I admire in going through all of the list. I was hoping that the Minister might have taken the opportunity, at the very least, to speak to the other amendments in his group but, unbelievably, he chose not to. Why? There was nothing in his speech about changes to non-discrimination on goods as well as suppliers and interaction with the internal market. There was nothing to do with the light-touch regimes on public contracts and modifications. Why? There was no explanation as to why Northern Ireland was forgotten about in the drafting of the legislation and has now been recalled in Committee. There was nothing with regard to the potential implications of the impact on Scots law when it comes to some of the changes to domestic legislation on civil law reform in Amendment 349. The list goes on. Depressingly, I do not think that the noble Baroness’s list was exhaustive.
There was nothing from the Minister outlining any of the consequences beyond the covered and not covered. I hope that, when he sums up, we will hear, in lieu of explanatory statements, exactly what these amendments are, because we have nothing to go on. I reread the Government’s consultation response; there was no mention of covered or non-covered, of course. There was no indication as to what some of the consequences could be, but perhaps that was because of the TCA with the EU. Perhaps the Government have now realised that the Bill as drafted is not consistent with those elements in the TCA. There is nothing from the Government with regard to how this legislation will accommodate elements of the TCA on a single point of contact for interest; on ability to take into consideration the track record of those previously applying, or indeed if there is an interaction with the subsidy regime, which is a requirement of the TCA but absent from this Bill; or on why social, environmental and labour considerations are not spelled out for procurement under this, given that they are there.
If the amendment which the Minister has introduced but not spoken to has consequences that go far beyond simply the below-threshold—as the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, had to indicate—the Minister must explain it. This set of amendments should be withdrawn or not moved so that, before the next day in Committee, explanatory statements can be attached to them. The Minister must give me the commitment now that the impact assessment will be updated and that there will be a new, entire set of explanatory statements. That is the least that the Minister could do, as other Ministers have done in situations far less bad than this.