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Health and Social Care Bill

moved Amendment No. 145: 145: Clause 114, page 61, leave out lines 37 to 39 and insert— ““(3) A statutory instrument that— (a) contains regulations made by the Secretary of State under section 45A, and (b) is not subject to a requirement that a draft of the instrument be laid before, and approved by a resolution of, each House of Parliament, is subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament. (3A) The Secretary of State may not make a statutory instrument containing (whether alone or with other provision) the first regulations under section 45A that include provision made by the Secretary of State by virtue of section 45B unless a draft of the instrument has been laid before, and approved by a resolution of, each House of Parliament.”” The noble Lord said: I shall also speak to the other amendments in the group. This group of government amendments has been tabled in response to the recommendations of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee published on 12 March. The Government have accepted all the committee’s recommendations in full and these amendments amend the Bill accordingly. A copy of the formal response from my honourable friend Ben Bradshaw to the committee has been placed in the House Library. In view of the fact that the amendments simply insert the committee’s recommendations into the Bill, I shall not speak to them at length, although I will be happy to respond to any points that noble Lords may have. I shall speak briefly to Amendment No. 197, however, because it touches on the delicate issue of hybridity. Although this was not included in its report on the Bill, the committee also helpfully identified an oversight in relation to a regulation-making power in Part 3, which Amendment No. 197 seeks to correct. Under Part 3, in urgent situations, proposed new Section 45R of the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 enables regulations to be made under an emergency procedure. This would be necessary where it was deemed that an urgent action was needed to protect the public from a significant health risk. In such a circumstance, regulations could be made to come into force immediately and would later be required to be approved using the affirmative resolution procedure, or they would cease to have effect after 28 days. I should point out that such regulations could be considered hybrid if they affected only a certain group of individuals or businesses where a public health risk was identified, not others of a similar class. As noble Lords will know, the parliamentary procedure for hybrid instruments can be lengthy. This would not be appropriate where the public could be at risk. That is why Amendment No. 197 seeks to remove that requirement for the hybrid instrument process to take place where the public health risk requires urgent action. The principal aim of Clause 123 is to protect public health. As such, the overriding concern of regulations should be public safety rather than private interests. I beg to move. On Question, amendment agreed to.