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Public Bodies Bill [HL]

I wish to move this amendment briefly. I have ended up a bit confused on one point. Until the latest selection of amendments, my little amendment was sailing on its own and I might have regarded it as a sort of beacon of light—a light ship. Somehow, in the course of the past couple of days, it has acquired nine barnacles, and I am not quite sure whether they are benign barnacles or hostile barnacles. I have not studied them sufficiently to know whether I have a view on all of them. I think I am agnostic about some, hostile to some, and supportive of others, but I will sort that out when I have heard what noble Lords have to say. What I do know is that since there are those who appear to think that I have been a bit troublesome on this Bill, I want to make the point that this is the first amendment I have actually moved, so all the trouble has been made by other noble Lords. My amendment is entirely benign. The only thing I have done that is unkind is to write my notes on the back of an envelope to match the Bill, but perhaps that was unkind. My speech will be short. I trailed it on Monday when something similar cropped up in a speech made by the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter. I gave my main thinking at col. 1409 of the Official Report. The background is that I looked at Clause 8 and wondered what it is that Ministers have to take into account in making orders under these sections—efficiency, effectiveness, economy and securing appropriate accountability. I indicated on Monday that the accountability argument is pretty fair nonsense. Ministers are accountable for all this, so the issue is about how that accountability is exercised. Leaving that aside, all the other criteria strike me as utilitarian. I would claim as a mere humble former practising Member of Parliament to be interested in values. All I have done is put down an amendment that says they have also got to take account of, "““fairness, openness, transparency and justice””." That is pretty close to asking the Government to accept motherhood, and if they doubt it, let me say that during some train travelling today—I should say that I used four trains, three of which were at least 15 minutes late—I had plenty of idle moments. What I do in my idle moments is study the document that I carry close to my heart. It is the coalition’s programme for Government. I am a faithful supporter. Its subtitle is, ““Freedom, Fairness, Responsibility””. The foreword on pages 7 and 8 was written by my right honourable friends the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister. It says that, "““we will ensure that fairness is at the heart of those decisions … we will extend transparency to every area of public life””." In respect of consumer protection the document states: "““We need to promote more responsible corporate and consumer behaviour through greater transparency””." I think that that should apply to the Government as well. The document goes on to make reference to, "““changes to our political system to make it far more transparent and accountable””." The only thing I cannot find a reference to is openness. If Ministers do not like all these words or if the draftsmen say that they are not the sort of thing you put in Bills, I can live with that, but I do think that something along these lines ought to be incorporated. On the basis of the evidence I have just quoted, I claim to be the true believer, and if the Minister resists me, I think that he declares himself a heretic, so I look forward to hearing what he has to say. I beg to move.