National Security and Investment Bill (Seventh sitting) Debate

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Department: Department of Health and Social Care

Michael Tomlinson

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Prisons (Substance Testing) Bill

National Security and Investment Bill (Seventh sitting)

Michael Tomlinson Excerpts

National Security and Investment Bill (Eighth sitting)
Committee stage & Committee Debate: 7th sitting: House of Commons
Thursday 3rd December 2020

(4 years ago)

Public Bill Committees
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Read Full debate National Security and Investment Bill 2019-21 View all National Security and Investment Bill 2019-21 Debates Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts Amendment Paper: Public Bill Committee Amendments as at 3 December 2020 - (3 Dec 2020)
That is about as vague and woolly a time requirement as it is possible to put in legislation. I remember, thinking back to my days in the Health and Safety Executive, that the phrase “reasonably practicable” appeared in a lot of legislation on health and safety requirements. The “reasonably” part means taking into account the other circumstances applying to the Secretary of State and the Department at the time, so if they are up to their eyes in dealing with Brexit, trade deals, getting the vaccine distributed or anything else, then “as soon as reasonably practicable” could become a very open-ended time limit indeed. As soon as the Secretary of State has decided to accept—
Michael Tomlinson Portrait The Lord Commissioner of Her Majesty’s Treasury (Michael Tomlinson)
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On a point of order, Mr Twigg. I beg to move—

None Portrait The Chair
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Order. The hon. Gentleman cannot move to adjourn while a Member is speaking.

Michael Tomlinson Portrait Michael Tomlinson
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I apologise to the hon. Member for Glenrothes; I will wait.

Peter Grant Portrait Peter Grant
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It is easy to see that there will be circumstances where “as soon as reasonably practicable” becomes a very open-ended time limit—or non-time limit—indeed.

Given that so much of the rest of the Bill puts time limits on the Secretary of State to ensure that potentially beneficial transactions cannot be held up forever simply due to delays in the Department, the combination of the words “as soon as reasonably practicable” in subsection (5), right at the start of the process, and the massive uncertainty in the minds of businesses if the Secretary of State does not make regulations persuades me that the Bill should not allow the Secretary of State to make those regulations but should require the Secretary of State to make them, because the clause simply does not work or make sense if they are not made.

Ordered, That the debate be now adjourned.—(Michael Tomlinson.)

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