National Security Bill

Lord Wallace of Saltaire Excerpts

Committee stage
Wednesday 18th January 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Coaker (Lab)]

I say to the Minister, before he sits down, that in view of what the noble Lords, Lord Pannick and Lord Carlile, have said, it is not satisfactory. We do not have a policy statement, we cannot see the regulations and, when the regulations are passed, the Government will pass them through the negative procedure. I would have thought, at the very least, given the worries and concerns that have been raised, that the affirmative procedure, as the Delegated Powers Committee said, in these circumstances in particular, might be something the Government would consider. I ask the Minister to reflect on that.

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD)]

I hope the Minister will agree to draw the attention of his department to the debate held in this House last week on delegated legislation and to the very strong sense across the whole House, including on his Benches, that this House is meeting a Government who give us less and less information about regulations and prefer to leave more and more out of Bills so that Ministers may act as they are. This is an abuse of Parliament and should not be pursued further. That message is particularly important for a Bill such as this, and the Government should consider it.

[Lord Murray of Blidworth (Con)]

I have no doubt that the department will reflect on those points. We are all very aware of last week’s debate, in which the Leader participated.