Statutory Instruments (Amendment) Bill [HL]

Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 18th October 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Thomas of Cwmgiedd (CB)]

It is a pleasure to follow the chairman of the committee on which I also have the honour to sit. I support what the noble Lord, Lord Thomas of Gresford, has put forward, congratulate him on his clear explanation and agree completely with him that the process must be amended by primary legislation. This Bill provides one step, but a very important step, in getting the balance right. It may be thought to be a matter of importance only to constitutional nerds and lawyers. It sounds very uninteresting, but this is a matter of great importance for two reasons. First, the Attorney-General in his Bingham lecture explained why it matters to the rule of law, but it also matters to the form of government we have. Secondly, the form of government we have now, as the three Nobel prize winners earlier this week have shown, is essential to economic prosperity and growth, so we cannot put this in the category of “not important”. It is central that we get some reform.

As the noble Lord, Lord Thomas, pointed out, the Attorney-General said in his lecture on Monday that a sharper focus on taking delegated powers is justified and there must be more careful consideration of the appropriate safeguards. I hope that, today or on a subsequent occasion, the Minister will be able to set out the concrete steps the Government intend to take to remedy this terrible problem. May I make three suggestions? First, it is plain that the Government have an addiction to delegated powers, the use of which became extremely extensive during Brexit interlude. There may have been reasons, but we must stop using them so much. The fact that the power is there does not mean it has to be used. I hope one of the steps we can take is to make Governments explain in Explanatory Memoranda why they are using delegated powers, rather than simply just using them. Breaking an addiction is difficult, but we have to take positive steps.

Secondly, there should be a requirement, save in exceptional circumstances, that no draft instrument be put forward without an impact assessment where the amounts at issue cannot be proved to be below the threshold for the provision of such an impact assessment. We need to return to the principle of good government: policy first, fully costed legislation second.

Thirdly, although the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee is taking great steps to improve matters through league tables, they are no substitute for a proper government department to supervise the standards of ministries, which differ enormously.