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Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

I am amazed that the hon. Gentleman was able to say that with a straight face. As he knows very well, parliamentary time for Bills from a variety of Departments is likely to be precious and it is difficult for space to be made for them. That is one reason why it is important that the Bill allows for the opportunity for Law Commission recommendations to be brought before Parliament in a speedier fashion. That is the very purpose of new clause 21. After all, Law Commissions are by their nature generally apolitical, so it is not that easy to win parliamentary time. That is one reason why proposals might otherwise not be enacted for very many years. That is not good, because people and businesses are not able to benefit from the considered proposals that the Law Commissions have made. For those reasons, I recommend the new clause to the House. If I may, I shall refer to the amendments to the new clause and explain to the House why I must ask it to resist them. The problem with amendment (a), which is intended to restrict the scope of the order-making power to implement Law Commission recommendations by ensuring that Ministers cannot change those recommendations in any way if they wish to use the order-making power, is that it is too restrictive. It would not allow any changes to the recommendations. The words ““with or without changes”” introduce a degree of flexibility into new clause 21. The new clause would therefore avoid the loss of good measures by reason of quibbling arguments that a change is beyond a particular technical parameter, while still preserving the overall rule that the order in question must implement a Law Commission recommendation and not something different from that.