§ Mr. John FraserI beg to move amendment No. 34, in page 42, line 36, leave out from 'State' to second "the' in line 43 and insert—
'may approve and issue any document (whether or not prepared by him), if in his opinion;'.
§ Mr. SpeakerWith this it will be convenient to take the following amendments:
No. 35, in page 42, line 43, at end insert—
'(1A) The Secretary of State may designate a body to prepare, in consultation with such persons as they think fit or he directs them to consult, any documents or class of documents to be approved and issued by him under subsection (1) above.'.No. 36, in page 42, line 43, at end insert—
'(1A) No document shall be approved under this section if ii has been prepared by an Approved Inspector, its servants or agents under section 32'.No. 37, in page 43, line 9, leave out
'or, as the case may be, the body giving the approval'.No. 38, in page 43, line 16, leave out from 'State' to 'may' in line 17.
No. 39, in page 43, line 19, leave out from 'document' to 'and' in line 20 and insert—
'which he has issued for the purposes of this section, or direct its revision by the body which prepared it for his approval (as the case may be)'.No. 40, in page 43, line 27, leave out from 'State' to second 'approval' in line 28 and insert—
'may withdraw his'.No. 41, in page 44, line 2, at end insert—
'and the order shall specify the document or class of documents which the body designated is to prepare for the Secretary of State's approval under subsection (1) above'.
§ Mr. FraserThis group of amendments ensures that approved documents which will provide evidence of compliance with building regulations are not approved by private building inspectors so as to maintain the independence and integrity of private inspectors. The Opposition believe that approval of documents should be the duty of the Government. A constitutional principle is involved. If the amendments are not accepted, bodies outside Parliament will be given power to legislate.
The National House Building Council believes that it will be given two functions by the Bill. According to its head of legal services, it believes that it will be appointed as building inspectors and that its handbook,
"in a suitably amended form could also be an Approved Document so that all the Regulations relating to low rise housing would be in one simple document."
In other words, the council believes that it will be both inspector and legislator. It might be perfectly proper for the council's manual to be incorporated as an approved document, but the act of such approval ought not to he the act of a private body which is also a private inspector. It should be the Minister's responsibility. Not much, apart from the principle that control of legislation must remain with the Minister, if not with the House, is involved.
§ Mr. GowThese proposals have been the subject of intensive consultation and they have been widely welcomed. A key element in our proposals is that the regulations, which will remain a statutory instrument and subject to parliamentary approval, will be supported by 521 documents which give practical guidance on technicalities of design and building methods. As the House knows, they are approved documents under clause 44.
The hon. Member for Norwood (Mr. Fraser) referred to the method of granting approval. The Bill envisages that documents from a variety of sources might be approved. There will be two routes to approval—either there will be direct approval by my right hon. Friend or there will be approval by a body which has been designated for that purpose by statutory instrument.
I repeat what I said in Committee. We envisage including only two bodies in the designation order, the British Standards Institution and the British Board of Agrement, both of which are authoritative and fully independent bodies supported by successive Governments over a long period. I hope that that assurance will allay the hon. Gentleman's anxiety.
§ Amendment negatived.