CLAUSE 10.—(Development orders.) (Hansard, 7 July 1947)

§ Mr. Buchanan
I beg to move, in page 12, line 10, to leave out from the beginning, to the end of line 11.
This Amendment should be read together with the two following Amendments in page 12, lines 15 and 24. Subsection (4) of Clause 10 enables the Secretary of State, by a development Order, to suspend any enactment in the interests of proper planning. The Subsection might, however, be construed as confining the power of suspension to acts passed and regulations made before the passing of the Bill. The present Amendment would enable the Secretary of State to-suspend regulations, orders or bylaws made after the passing of the Bill under Acts passed before that date. The Amendment also provides for the power to direct that all enactments shall not apply or shall only apply subject to-modification. This power to modify is a new provision which we think will be useful in the future.

§ Mr. J. S. C. Reid
This is a very great extension of what I think we must always watch very carefully—delegation of power to a Minister to make alterations to Acts of Parliament and other enactments, without even publishing or submitting to this House the alterations he makes. We did not take strong exception to the original Subsection, because that merely enabled enactments to be suspended. That would probably not be done without good cause, and does not introduce much complication. But here we have a power, not only to suspend, but to modify to an indefinite extent. If we are to have an Act of Parliament modified in one direction here and another there, all certainty is gone. We do not know whether these modifications are going to be published. If someone sees something taking place on somebody else's property, how is he to know whether what the other person is doing is legal or illegal? It may be that the other person may have up his sleeve some modification under an order which may not be a general order; it may be a special 1913 order for a particular subject. To allow a Government Department to make one law for one place and another for another, and not even to publish or submit it to this House, is really going a very long way indeed.
The hon. Gentleman did not explain what was the necessity for this. He merely said it would be useful. Of course, in one sense, it will be useful, because he can give away what he likes in any direction. But, in another sense, it will be very much the reverse, because if we are going to have a variety of practice according to the person who gives the permission, or according to the district in which it is given, we shall get into confusion. I had hoped that the hon. Gentleman would be able to tell us the real need for this. I am afraid it is the old story that if one gives them an inch, they take an ell. Every time Government Departments are given some small chance of going their own way and altering what has been done by this House, then the next time they ask for more. There is no stopping them. This sort of thing has got to come to an end sometime.
We are getting a little tired of the way in which this power is being extended to Government Departments to play fast and loose with what this House does, and with no control by this House over the action of the Departments. These Orders cannot be prayed against. I do not know whether they can be discovered by the ordinary person, or whether they are even to be published. I hope the hon. Gentleman will answer that point. I do not think that they come under Statutory Rules and Orders. If I want to find out the extent to which the provision under an Act of Parliament has been modified in other cases, so that I can ask for a similar modification in my own case, where do I find what the Department has done in the past? If the hon. Gentleman could tell us that, it would go some way to meeting our troubles, because it would then be possible to see what the policy of the Department is. Unless these Orders are easily discoverable, I think tins is indeed going too far.

§ Mr. Buchanan
After all, there is no substance in saying, "You shall do this for one side, but you shall not do it for another." The real point that the right hon. and learned Gentleman is raising is 1914 that these things should not be done without the House of Commons being made aware of them. That is legitimate criticism. My answer is that in each case, unless an Order is covered by the Second Schedule, which is limited in extent, the Order must not only be published, but must be the subject of an affirmative Resolution. On page 12, line 23, hon. Members will see these words: provided that, without prejudice to the foregoing provision, where any such order makes provision for suspending any enactment contained in a public general Act (other than any of the excepted enactments specified in the Second Schedule to this Act)"— That applies to this case— the order shall be of no effect until that provision is approved. It does not only involve placing the Order on the Table, but this House must approve it. Therefore, it is a very salutary power.

§ Mr. J. S. C. Reid
Does it apply to the special Orders as well as the general ones?

§ Mr. Buchanan
Yes.