COMPLAINTS REGULATIONS

HC Deb 07 June 1976 vol 912 cc1041-3

Amendments made: No. 28, in page 4, line 33, leave out paragraph (b) and insert— '(b) without prejudice to paragraph (a) above—

1. (i) for requiring a chief officer of police to furnish a member of his police force against whom such a complaint is made with a copy of, or of the record of, the complaint;
2. (ii) for requiring the Board to transmit any such complaint received by them to the chief officer of the police force concerned;

(bb) for requiring any action or decision, of the Board to be notified to the persons concerned and, in connection therewith, for enabling the Board to furnish those persons with any relevant information;'.

No. 29, in line 41, leave out or of the foregoing provisions of this Part of this Act'.

No. 30, in page 5, line 1, leave out from 'taken' to end of line 3 and insert— '(ee) for enabling the Board to dispense with any requirement of that section or of the foregoing provisions of this Part of this Act in circumstances other than those mentioned in paragraph (e) above;'.

No. 31, in line 10, leave out 'cases' and insert circumstances'.—[Dr. Summerskill.]

Amendment proposed: No. 32, in page 5, line 17, leave out 'and any statutory instrument containing such regulations' and insert: '(5) Regulations containing any such provision as is mentioned in subsection (1)(ee) above shall not be made unless a draft of them has been approved by resolution of each House of Parliament; and other regulations under this section'.—[Mr. Arthur Davidson.]

Mr. Speaker

With this we shall take Amendment No. 33, in page 5, line 17, leave out and any statutory instrument containing such regulations' and insert: '(5) Regulations under this section shall not be made unless a draft of them has been approved by resolution of each House of Parliament'.

Mr. Sims

The Parliamentary Secretary has formally moved Amendment No. 32, but I suggest that, on an important amendment such as this, the Government should give a brief word of explanation.

Mr. Arthur Davidson

I am happy to do so. The hon. Member will appreciate that in response to requests made in Standing Committee I undertook to consider whether the affirmative rather than the negative resolution procedure would be appropriate for any of the regulations to be made under the clause. I explained during the discussions that many of the regulations to be made under the clause were likely to be included in a single Statutory Instrument with discipline regulations made under Section 33 of the Police Act 1964. As I explained at that time, such regulations are themselves subject to negative resolution and it could cause difficulties if Clause 5 regulations relating to discipline had to be dealt with under a different procedure. Most Clause 5 regulations will relate to procedural matters for which the affirmative resolution procedure would be inappropriate.

However, we think that the affirmative resolution procedure, although inappropriate for most of the powers in Clause 5, would be justified in the case of regulations made under what was the second half of Clause 5(1)(e) and which is now subsection (5)(1)(ee). This is because such regulations will have an important bearing on the substance, and not just the method, of the board's work in that they may specify certain categories of complaint in respect of which the board will have power in a particular case submitted to it to dispense with further inquiries and with further consideration by the board itself. The amendment is intended, therefore, to secure that these regulations shall be subject to the affirmative procedure.

Amendment agreed to.