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Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

My Lords, I shall speak to Amendment No. 28. I am in the same quandary over this issue: I do not think that the Bill is right but I am not sure what ““right”” would look like. Amendment No. 28 has merits and demerits. Its merits are that it could ensure—I keep hammering on about this—that changes in the roles, powers and existence of regulators that have been established by primary legislation would receive a higher degree of scrutiny. Its demerits are that, alas, some primary legislation gets stuffed with small and rather less important detail, which needs to be changed. I am as guilty of that as many other Members of this House, as I am sure your Lordships are painfully aware. I would not want to see a change in the Bill that prevented some of the minor changes established by primary legislation from getting through by the fastest possible means. We must not lose sight of the purpose of the Bill: it is to improve regulation and to ensure that burdens are not disproportionate and that changes to legislation can happen quickly. With regard to Amendment No. 28, I do not think that the primary nature of the legislation is the issue. Much primary legislation does not concern matters of high importance but deals in the detail to which I referred. It is the degree of controversy or agreement that should be the touchstone or the fundamental nature of the change. Again, I go back to, for example, changes in the role, powers or existence of a regulator established by statute. During the debate on Amendment No. 18, I was encouraged when the Minister hinted that there might be some movement by the Government to bring forward an amendment at Third Reading to specify in the Bill when the affirmative or super-affirmative procedure might be required. I hope that I did not misunderstand him and that we can press him to give us more information today about his hint before this matter is put to the test—if, indeed, it is.