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Flood and Water Management Bill

My Lords, I have Amendment 2 in this group, which would add to the end of Clause 3(3), ""but they do not form an exclusive list"." The noble Lord, Lord Cameron, referred to the list not being exhaustive or limiting. It is clear that it is not because of the way in which it is phrased, but it is a very strange clause. I support the noble Lord’s amendment, which seems entirely sensible. Clause 3(3) is a very odd bit of the Bill. It starts off by stating: ""The following are examples of things that might be done in the course of flood or coastal erosion risk management"." It gives an exemplification of the powers that the risk management authorities will have. I have never seen anything like it in a Bill before. When putting forward these things, the Government veer between two different points of view. Sometimes, they set out clear powers—sometimes, they are duties—for authorities, showing what they are able to do. In other cases, they will not provide such a list—we are always being told that the Government do not like lists. Very often, the Government will put forward some very general powers for a body that they are setting up; opposition parties will put forward all kinds of additional things that they think should be in a Bill; and the Government will say, "No, that’s a list. We don’t like lists". They do not like lists because there is a real danger that they will at some point be regarded as being exclusive. Even if the wording is very vague, such as a list of examples of things that might be done—which hardly confers a power; it is just an exemplification—people will say, "No, that isn’t in the list and therefore the Government really didn’t mean it to happen". When matters reach the courts, as they sometimes do, the court may well take the view that things set out in the legislation were clearly intended and other things were not. My amendment, first, draws attention to the unusual wording of the subsection; that is: ""The following are examples of things that might be done"." It is extraordinary wording to have in primary legislation. It is almost as if one is writing an article about the legislation halfway through it. Secondly, the amendment makes it absolutely clear that while the actions listed in the subsection are no doubt worthy and desirable, there may nevertheless be lots of other things which could be done. The fact that the list, unusually, is in the Bill does not mean that other things cannot be done.