RESERVED MATTERS (Hansard, 11 November 1998)

§ Mr. McLeish
I beg to move, That this House agrees with the Lords in the said amendment.

§ Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Alan Haselhurst)
With this, it will be convenient to discuss Lords amendments Nos. 238 to 278 and 296.

§ Mr. McLeish
As the House is aware, schedule 5 lists the matters that are reserved to the Westminster Parliament. Those are the matters which the Government believe should be dealt with on a Great Britain or United Kingdom basis in order to preserve the integrity of the UK and to maintain a level playing field for business, workers and consumers.
Any matter that is not listed in schedule 5 is not reserved, thus giving the Scottish Parliament legislative competence for those matters that can best be dealt with by it: health, education, local government, housing, law and the criminal justice system, the environment and agriculture, and forestry and fisheries. In practical terms, the Parliament will have very wide-ranging powers to make primary legislation in key areas which affect the lives of everyone in Scotland.
During proceedings in another place, we took the opportunity to make a number of primarily technical and drafting changes to the schedule to clarify the competence of the Parliament. The amendments—which are all firmly in line with the overall approach spelt out in the White Paper in July 1997, concerning the following sections of schedule 5—fall into this category: No. 237 on the Crown; Nos. 248 and 249 on elections; No. 250 on cinema safety; Nos. 255, 257 and part of 275 on financial assistance to industry; No. 256 on oil and gas; Nos. 260 and 262 to 267 on social security and pensions; Nos. 261 and 268 on training and job search and support; and Nos. 269 to 272 on equal opportunities.
We also promoted amendments Nos. 240 to 244 and 276 to 278 to improve the layout of the schedule and its interpretation provisions. In a number of cases, we have made adjustments to the boundary between reserved and devolved matters. Further reflection revealed practical problems with the existing approach, so amendments Nos. 238, 251, 253 and 254 reserved the interception of communications in relation to the prevention and detection of serious crime, although ministerial functions will be executively devolved.
Amendments Nos. 246 and 247 update the reference to the Data Protection Act 1984 to the 1998 Act, which has the effect of slightly widening the scope of the data protection reservation. Amendment No. 258 devolves bus fuel duty rebate in line with the devolution of general bus policy.
Lords amendment No. 296 transfers minor devolved functions from the registrar of companies in Scotland and the assistant registrar of friendly societies for Scotland to the Accountant in Bankruptcy.
458 It is a significant list of amendments, and I shall be happy to provide further details. I commend all the amendments to House and ask the House to accept them.

§ Dr. Fox
I should like to ask the Minister for clarification of two very short points, the first of which is on Lords amendment No. 255. What will be the exact practical effect of passing Lords amendment No. 255? Secondly, on amendment No. 258, will he explain why—as the Government had reserved grants to operators of bus services to defray duty charged on fuel—the position has suddenly changed? What implications might that have for bus companies operating close to or across the border? I ask for clarification simply to deal with any anxiety felt by, or representations from, those groups because of the amendment.

§ Mr. McLeish
On the first point, financial assistance to industry, Lords amendments Nos. 255 and 257 provide clarification of the extent to which certain ministerial powers relating to the giving of financial assistance to industry will transfer to Scottish Ministers.
Lords amendment No. 255 provides that giving financial assistance under section 1 of the Mineral Exploration and Investment Grants Act 1972—so far as it relates to exploration for oil and gas— is a reserved matter; whereas Lords amendment No. 257 provides that credits and grants under sections 10 to 12 of the Industry Act 1972 are not a reserved matter. However, by virtue of clause 52, the powers under the Industry Act will be shared powers, and the UK Minister as well as Scottish Ministers will be able to exercise those powers in or as regards Scotland.
Part of Lords amendment No. 275 clarifies that the Scottish Parliament can legislate on giving financial assistance to commercial activities for the purpose of promoting or sustaining economic development or employment. That will, among other things, enable the Parliament to make general provision that permits such assistance to industries, including those operating in reserved areas. However, the Parliament will not have competence to legislate for such assistance specifically in relation to a reserved commercial activity.
On the hon. Gentleman's second point, bus fuel duty, Lords amendment No. 258 removes the reservation of bus fuel duty rebate, thus making it a devolved matter in line with other aspects of bus policy. The matter was originally reserved because it was viewed as a tax matter, but it has recently been reclassified as a matter of public expenditure with responsibility for it transferred to the Scottish Office. In those circumstances, we felt that it was appropriate to remove it from the list of reserved matters.