STATUTORY ORDERS PROCEDURE. (Hansard, 14 March 1946)

§ LORD RANKEILLOUR

had given Notice that he would ask His Majesty's Government whether they will consider the submission to the House of a draft Standing Order to provide that no Statutory Order subject to special parliamentary procedure, which is unopposed, shall become law without examination and approval by a Committee of one or other House of Parliament. The noble Lord said: My Lords, in putting the question which stands in my name I have to refer to the Statutory Orders (Special Procedure) Act of last year. This Act is not an easy one to read and I trust I shall not get lost in its mazes. It is not an exhilarating Act. At its worst I think it might serve as a soporific for the noble and learned Lord on the Woolsack or the Lord Chairman should they suffer at any 187 time from insomnia. I want to make one point, and one point only, which emerges from it—that is, that there will be a number of Statutory Orders which in some cases will supersede the present procedure by Private Bills. Very often such Orders will become law without any examination whatever upon their merits. What will happen is that an Order will be laid before Parliament if it complies with certain rules as to presentation, but those rules will not provide for any detailed examination by any persons whatsoever. Of course, petitions may be presented against it, and if those petitions are presented there is a very elaborate procedure as to how they are to be dealt with which I will not go into now, but if no petition is presented the Order may become law simply by the passing of a fortnight of time unless it is annulled in either House of Parliament.

I should like at this point to ask the noble and learned Lord, the Lord Chancellor, what the procedure would be for annulling it. I imagine it would be comparatively simple here, but in another place would it have to be done by a Prayer late at night, or would the Chairman of Committees find time for it as he does now with an unopposed Private Bill? I think it is very unlikely that any annulment will take place, because if it is not sufficiently contentious to promote opposition it is unlikely that any member would propose its annulment and in any case he would have to do it within a fortnight. It does not at all follow that because a Private Bill is unopposed it may not contain some mischievous precedent or principle in it. I spoke on this matter before and I will not go into it again, but having been for eight years Chairman of the Unopposed Bills Committee in another place I know that it was not unusual for us to find that there was some mischievous precedent and one which we had to amend. There were such deficiencies not only in the ordinary Private Bills but in the Provisional Order Bills promoted by some Department, and therefore I suggest that some provision should be made to ensure that these Orders shall be properly considered on merits. I am not wedded to any special plan, but I do trust something will be provided. We had some discussion on this point before and it appeared in the course of the dis- 188 cussion that it could not be done under Clause 9 of the Bill, that it would have to be done in some other manner, presumably by a new Standing Order. That and that only is the point I wish to press upon the Government now.

§ THE LORD CHANCELLOR (LORD JOWITT)

My Lords, under Section 9 of the Statutory Orders (Special Procedure) Act, 1945, it will be necessary for each House to adopt Standing Orders for the various purposes there set out, and, of course, apart from Section 9, under their inherent powers to regulate the procedure of the House. I understand arrangements are being made for the appropriate officers of the two Houses to confer. The Lord Chairman and the Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee with their advisers are in a position to submit draft Standing Orders to their respective Houses. There will, of course, be an opportunity of discussing them in the ordinary way. It is open to your Lordships, as to another place to debate any Standing Order.

It might be found in the course of experience that such a Standing Order as the noble Lord suggests would be desirable. I am, however, inclined to deprecate any action at the moment in your Lordships' House which would tie the hands of the Lord Chairman and the officers of the House either in their conference with representatives in another place or in the submissions which they would in due course make to your Lordships under Section 9 of the Statutory Orders (Special Procedure) Act. I think this is essentially a matter in which we shall learn by experience.