---

Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

moved Amendment No. 28: Page 6, line 18, at end insert- ““( ) An order under this Part which creates, amends or repeals any primary legislation must be made in accordance with the affirmative resolution procedure or the super-affirmative resolution procedure. ( ) In this section ““primary legislation”” has the same meaning as in the Human Rights Act 1998 (c. 42).”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, many, though not all, of the orders that will be made under the Bill will involve changes to or the repeal of primary legislation. I believe that the basic principle here is that primary legislation should not be altered by the negative resolution procedure, as that gives virtually no opportunity for either House of Parliament to give proper consideration to the matter. However, I recognise that there are exceptions to what I have called the basic principle. I am aware that the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee sometimes accepts clauses in a Bill that provide for transitional or consequential amendments to be made by the negative resolution procedure. There may be cases where a Bill contains a power to modify provisions in that Bill to a limited extent. In such cases, the negative resolution procedure is appropriate, because the modification is of no significance. But the negative resolution procedure is used appropriately only where the powers to be made by the order using that procedure are very limited and where the ability to make those powers is closely circumscribed. But with those exceptions I believe that it is right that primary legislation should be altered by secondary legislation only through a process that guarantees that the order is considered by both Houses of Parliament. I recognise that the procedure for dealing with affirmative resolution is unsatisfactory, particularly in the other place, but it is at least better than the negative resolution procedure. Given that the Bill provides wide powers to alter primary legislation and there is no limitation to the alterations for which the negative resolution procedure would be appropriate, apart from the general restrictions on what can be achieved by the Bill as a whole, we should write into the Bill a requirement that any alteration of primary legislation should be by affirmative resolution or by the super-affirmative procedure. I beg to move.