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Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

My Lords, perhaps I may briefly intervene. I do not know whether what I am going to say will help the case put by my noble friend Lord Jenkin or the case that, I suspect, will be made by the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, but there is already power under the 1972 Act to amend primary legislation by use of orders or regulations. I recollect very well that some years ago, before this Government came into office, the previous Government brought forward under the 1972 Act an order that amended the Sex Discrimination Act by removing a whole section and replacing it with another. That section related to the immunity of the Armed Forces from the Act. That amendment of primary law was made by an order under the 1972 Act. I remember that occasion clearly, because I asked an embarrassing question of the Minister who was taking through the order: what difference would it make if this House rejected the order? The answer, of course, was none whatever, because the order was being taken through under the 1972 Act of accession. So perhaps we are not quite in such uncharted waters as we might have thought.