Social Security Administration Bill [Lords] (Hansard, 12 February 1992)

§ The Attorney-General (Sir Patrick Mayhew)
I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time.
This is the first of six Bills relating to social security that are before the House this evening. They all relate to the consolidation of statutes relating to the state system of social security, so I shall, with permission, speak to all six together.
These Bills between them represent the first consolidation of all the United Kingdom statute law on social security. The first three relate to Great Britain. The other three contain corresponding provisions for Northern Ireland.
The Social Security Administration Bill is concerned, as its name implies, with the administration of the social security system. It deals with matters such as the payments of benefits, adjudication, enforcement and uprating.
The Social Security Contributions and Benefits Bill deals with the contributions on which certain social security benefits depend, and also with the various benefits themselves. It covers a wide range of benefits from unemployment and sickness to child benefit and the Christmas bonus to pensioners.
The Social Security (Consequential Provisions) Bill contains repeals and consequential and transitional provisions arising out of the other two Bills.
As I have said, the other three Bills relate to Northern Ireland and have the same purpose as their Great Britain counterparts. They are the Social Security Administration (Northern Ireland) Bill, the Social Security Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Bill and the Social Security (Consequential Provision) (Northern Ireland) Bill.
In preparing the three Great Britain Bills, the Law Commission and the Scottish Law Commission have, in accordance with normal practice, issued a report on the consolidation in which they make a number of recommendations for minor amendments that are necessary in order to produce a satisfactory consolidation. For the Northern Ireland Bills, the Lord Chancellor laid before Parliament in November last year a memorandum containing a number of corrections and minor amendments that were needed in order to facilitate the consolidation. That was in accordance with the Consolidation of Enactments (Procedure) Act 1949.
All six Bills were referred in the usual way to the Joint Committee on Consolidation Bills during their passage in another place. The Joint Committee has since reported, on 11 December 1991, its approval of the minor amendments and corrections referred to in the report of the Law Commissions and in the Lord Chancellor's memorandum.
I believe that the House will wish to join me in congratulating the respective Law Commissions and draftsmen, here and in Northern Ireland, on their prodigious industry in bringing this project to fruition. The work involved has been enormous, and will be greatly appreciated by those who have regular recourse to this area of the statute book, especially those who advise clients about their right to claim benefits.

§ Mr. John Fraser (Norwood)
I start where the Attorney-General finished, by congratulating the Law Commissions and the parliamentary drafstmen on their work on this and the other Bills in the series. I shall also speak to all six Bills together, as I hope that it will shorten our proceedings.
The legislation is important, but a glance at one of the Bills will show that it is also complex and technical. However, it is law that is mainly for laymen, not lawyers. Consolidation means that those who need to look for this branch of law need search in only one jungle instead of several, as they have to do now. Therefore, as always, I welcome consolidation.
Welcome for the Bill and support for the measure, which is being prepared under the aegis of the Law Commission, do not excuse the Government's lamentable and pathetic record on implementing the work of the Law Commission. The Attorney-General spoke of the enormous use of resources in bringing together a vast number of statutes into six related consolidation measures. I wonder whether that acts to the detriment of other law reform.
We have a report from the Law Commission on the table. However, since 1984, only 11 of 33 reports have been implemented. Of 12 reports in 1988 and 1989, only two have been implemented. There is a whole series of law reports, which I would not be allowed to refer to in detail, but which includes measures on international fraud, corroboration of evidence, the wholly unjust liability of original lessees, a Bill to facilitate the use of the Welsh language in conveyancing and the rights of widows on intestacy, on which nothing has been done.
Although the Government have drafted this Bill, their record on the other law reforms that flow from the work of the Law Commission has been a disgrace. Our praise for this Bill should not obscure our condemnation of what we regard as the Government's slothful and neglectful reaction to most of the work of the Law Commission.

§ Mr. Bob Cryer (Bradford, South)
I also welcome the consolidation because the flow of legislation—primary and subordinate—from this Government in particular and from previous Governments in general has been massive, as the Attorney-General knows. I am Chairman of the Joint Committee on delegated legislation, which frequently asks the Department for consolidation of subordinate legislation, so it is pleasing that primary legislation has been subjected to the same process.
I want to deal especially with the measures which affect England, Wales and Scotland. Consolidation is especially important because there is an intricate web for applicants. We should never forget that it is difficult for applicants to find their way through the social security network to get the payments which are necessary for people in a very poor and often vulnerable position.
The consolidation will not provide an easy guide but it will help to provide a helpful, consolidated and largely single source of help and guidance for those who become expert in it in the advice centres which are available to many people. We hope that the consolidation will be used to provide an authoritative guide, and I hope for two things.
1032 First, as the legislation will be used by many people who in turn give help and advice to perhaps hundreds or thousands of people who visit advice centres, the price must be kept as low as possible. The price has rocketed under this Government, to the point at which it is prohibitive even for some public institutions. This is not the Attorney-General's responsibility, but I urge him to recommend to the Department of Social Security that it keeps the price within a practicable limit to help organisations.
Secondly, it might be helpful if copies were available at each social security office. It is true that many people would not be able to fathom the legislation because it is complex, but it would be helpful if a reference copy were available to those who were interested. As we make the legislation, and as this consolidation has been designed to remove the difficulties of examining disparate documents by, in this instance, putting them into three Acts of Parliament, surely we should encourage people to read the Acts and to use them as sources.
To do that, we must make them available, but unfortunately, for the most part, copies of legislation or Acts of Parliament are too expensive for the ordinary person to obtain. Of course, they are too expensive for the applicant for social security to obtain.
Many local authorities are now so short of money that, whereas at one time they might have bought these reference documents as a matter of course, they are seeking documents that they can drop from their list and, in the case of a reference library, this legislation might be one of those documents. That is a misfortune and the Government should at least try to assist people in the provision of this information.
Having made those qualified remarks, I always welcome consolidation. If we send out a great deal of confused and patchy legislation, that is a failure on our part which makes it hardly surprising that citizens fail to comprehend it.