---

Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill

I have sympathy with the points made by the hon. Members for Ellesmere Port and Neston (Andrew Miller) and for Somerton and Frome (Mr. Heath). Although it was wise of the Minister to accept the Lords amendment and to recommend to the House that we share that acceptance, there is a big problem, which is not confined to Law Commission recommendations. The problem is over what the Government choose to do by statutory instrument and what they choose to do by primary legislation. Sometimes, a Committee of the House is faced with a 50 or 100-page wide-ranging statutory instrument of great complexity and considerable importance. A limited number of colleagues hold a short debate and they have to vote on a take-it-or-leave-it basis; nothing can be amended. When constituents write to us some time later to ask how a measure could become law with no fuss, no argument and no debate, we have to reply that it was easy, because it had been decided that the matter was a statutory instrument, under a general framework from a piece of primary legislation—such as the European Communities Act 1972, to name but one such piece. Wide-ranging provisions can go through as an SI under an Act with no proper scrutiny or debate, and certainly without the opportunity to amend, which is crucial to the proper examination of legislation. Although it is prudent of the Government to recommend withdrawing from the Bill such a comprehensive power over law reform, the House really needs proposals from them to enable us to decide that something is contentious and thus needs proper scrutiny and debate. Even if it is contentious only for a minority of Members they should have a right to decent time and a procedure that can explore the possibilities and the options. If there are many other less contentious, or completely uncontentious issues, under the Law Commission, perhaps we need a much easier form than the full panoply of primary legislation procedure.