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Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

I put my name to this amendment and I wish to reinforce what the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, said. I do not intend to repeat what he said but I want to pick up on the letter from the Minister, to which reference has already been made. In that letter, he seeks to defend the retention of these words in the Bill on the basis that the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart, mentioned—that is, that Ministers are under an obligation to act in a reasonable way and can be struck down if they act irrationally. The Minister has to act on the basis of the evidence before him and he has to reach a rational conclusion. He must not take into account matters that are irrelevant. On my reading, that does not preclude the Minister from considering evidence that he considers relevant and reaching a conclusion that is not, on the basis of his reading of the evidence, irrational. His consideration may not be wholly objective, but it may not necessarily fail the test established in the Javed and Padfield cases, to which the Minister refers. As far as I can see, the letter from the noble Lord does not make a case for retaining in the Bill the words that the amendment would remove. If we take the Minister’s argument that the Minister has to act rationally—and, in the noble Lord's view, objectively—presumably the words are superfluous. So why should not the reference to what the Minister, "““considers would serve the purpose in subsection (2)””," be taken out? As far as I can see, that either provides for objectivity or has no effect at all. Either way, I can see no argument for retaining those words. I think that that clarifies matters and moves one from a position of semi-objectivity to one of objectivity, which is wholly desirable.