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Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

moved Amendment No. 84: Page 7, line 45, at end insert ““, and ( ) a statement whether in the opinion of the Minister the order is compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.”” The noble Lord said: Amendment No. 84 requires a Minister to make a statement that in his opinion an order is compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. I tabled my amendment before the noble Lords, Lord Goodhart and Lord Maclennan, tabled their Amendment No. 85. I am sure that their drafting is more appropriate than mine, and I certainly will not object if the Minister says that he intends to accept Amendment No. 85 rather than Amendment No. 84. Under Section 19(1)(a) of the Human Rights Act, a Minister introducing a Bill must declare whether, in his view, the Bill is compatible with the convention rights. That is an express duty, and it places an onus on the Minister to consider convention rights when bringing a Bill forward. It is not a case of simply going through the motions, since the Joint Committee on Human Rights will not necessarily accept that the Minister is correct in believing that the Bill is compatible. A Minister may have to justify his claim. The Joint Committee has been extremely active in considering whether Bills comply with the convention and other human rights instruments to which the United Kingdom is a party. In the first three years of its existence, it drew the attention of each House to about 100 Bills out of the 300 it considered. There has been considerable correspondence with Ministers, all of which has been published. As a consequence of its work, it has helped to build up in Government what its first chairman, Jean Corston, now the noble Baroness, Lady Corston, termed ““a culture of justification”” rather than one of assertion. If we accept that the Section 19 requirement is appropriate and has served a useful purpose, there should be a similar requirement in respect of orders made under this Bill. As the Constitution Committee pointed out in its report on the Bill, Parliament is delegating its authority to change the statute book. The committee states, at paragraph 59: "““We see considerable merit in requiring Ministers to treat draft orders in similar ways to bills in relation to explaining and certifying compliance with Convention rights””." Providing for such a requirement will deliver the same benefits as with Bills. In this case, the orders willbe drawn up in departments, rather than by parliamentary counsel. The knowledge that an order has to carry a compatibility statement and that the statement may be subject to scrutiny by the Joint Committee will help to focus minds, contributing to the development of the culture so ably identified by the noble Baroness, Lady Corston. The case for this provision is both clear and compelling. I beg to move.