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Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

I can help the noble Lord on that issue. On the first day in Committee, we got an admission from the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, that the Bill is to do with primary legislation only and has nothing to do with secondary legislation. I suspect that the noble Lord, Lord Desai, is talking about matters arising out of secondary legislation that primary legislation already gives the Minister power to change. It has to be emphasised that we are talking about amending primary legislation only. My view is that we should be extremely careful, because Ministers can never be trusted. Even my noble friend Lord Jenkin, who was an excellent Minister, should not have been trusted on principle. That is what Parliament is for: not to trust Ministers. When the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, replies, I am sure that he will say that this amendment is not necessary because the Government will not use the power. If it is not necessary and he is not going use it, he can accept the amendment. We do not trust him. Well, let us assume for the sake of argument that we make an exception and trust him of all the Ministers who have ever served the Crown. None the less, we do not trust anybody else. He cannot give that commitment. Either the power is necessary and will be used—in which case, the Minister should tell us when—or it is not necessary and the Government do not want to use it, and therefore they should not have it.