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Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

I understand that this is a probing amendment and I hope that I can satisfy noble Lords why the provision is in the Bill in this form. Clause 10 makes clear how the Bill works in relation to matters devolved to the Scottish Parliament. The general position is that orders made under this Bill cannot make provision in areas devolved to Scotland. As has been recognised, the only exception to this, as Clause 10 sets out, is that orders can make consequential, supplementary, incidental or transitional provision even in areas devolved to Scotland, so long as the need for this arises out of provision made by the order for purposes which are reserved to Westminster. Orders cannot make any free-standing provision in matters devolved to Scotland. The intention behind Amendment No. 76 maybe to prevent an order making consequential, supplementary, incidental or transitional provision which would be within the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament were it contained in an Act of that Parliament. An example of where the ability to make such provision is needed is where an order, in amending Westminster legislation, re-numbers some of its provisions, or if the name of a body is changed or a body is abolished. If a Scottish Act cross-referred to those provisions, the changes to the numbering made by the order would mean that the Scottish Act then referred to the wrong provisions. Under the Bill the order could be used to tidy up the Scottish Act by updating the references to correspond to the correct provisions. This would mean that there was no need for the Scottish Parliament to legislate to make the consequential amendments needed. The amendment appears intended to remove this useful ability, but I hope that the Committee will now accept that it is useful. The ability to make such changes is fully in accordance with the convention agreed between Westminster and the Scottish Parliament. This convention requires the consent of the Scottish Parliament where the Westminster Parliament intends to legislate on devolved matters, but it is agreed that such consent is not required when legislation deals with devolved matters only incidentally to, or consequentially upon, provision made in relation to a reserved matter. This position is set out in Devolution Guidance Note 10 issued by the Department for Constitutional Affairs, which has responsibility for devolution. I hope that I have dealt with the points raised, but I shall try to answer any further questions, should they be asked.