§ The Chairman of Committees (Lord Tordoff)My Lords, I beg to move the Motion standing in my name on the Order Paper.
Moved, That the First Report from the Select Committee (HL Paper 9) be agreed to.—(The Chairman of Committees.)
§ Following is the report referred to:
§ 1.Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee: terms of reference
§ Before the dissolution of Parliament, and without a formal meeting, the Procedure Committee agreed revised terms of reference for the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee (formerly the Delegated Powers and Deregulation Committee). Because there was no time before the dissolution to report these new terms of reference to the House, the Committee is doing so now. The Committee also recommends that the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee should be subject to a 4-year rotation rule.
§ The revised terms of reference are:
§ to report whether the provisions of any bill inappropriately delegate legislative power, or whether they subject the exercise of legislative power to an inappropriate degree of parliamentary scrutiny; to report on documents laid before Parliament under section 3(3) of the Deregulation and Contracting Out Act 1994 and on draft orders laid under section 1(4) of that Act;to report on documents laid before Parliament under section 1(1) of the Regulatory Reform Act 2001 and on draft orders laid under section 6(1) of that Act; and to perform. in respect of such documents and orders, and of subordinate provisions laid under section 4 of the Regulatory Reform Act 2001, the functions performed instruments by the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments.;
§ (the words in bold are new)
§ Additionally, the Committee recommends the following changes to standing orders necessitated by the Regulatory Reform Act 2001:
§ Standing Order 40(6) to read as follows (new words are in bold):
§ "Any motion relating to a report from the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee on a draft order laid under section 1 of the Deregulation and Contracting Out Act 1994 or on a draft order laid under the Regulatory Reform Act 2001 shall be entered before a motion to approve that draft order."
1383§ Standing Order 72(1) to read as follows (new words are in bold):
§ "No Motion for a resolution of the House to approve an Affirmative Instrument shall be moved until:
§ (a) except in the case of any Order in Council or draft Order in Council made or proposed to be made under paragraph I of Schedule I to the Northern Ireland Act 1974, or a draft order proposed to be made under section I of the Deregulation and Contracting Out Act 1994, or a draft order proposed to be made under section 1 of the Regulatory Reform Act 2001 there has been laid before the House the report thereon of the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments;
§ (b) in the case of a draft order proposed to be made under section 1 of the Deregulation and Contracting Out Act 1994, or a draft order proposed to he made under section 1 of the Regulatory Reform Act 2001, there has been laid before the House the report thereon of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee; and
§ (c) in the case of a Hybrid Instrument, the proceedings under Private Business Standing Order 216 or 216A have been terminated."
§ 2. The printing of explanatory notes to bills
§ Standing Order 50 provides that a public bill brought up from the Commons when this House is not sitting may be printed and circulated before first reading. The Committee recommends that the standing order should apply also to any Explanatory Notes accompanying such a bill and that the words "and any Explanatory Notes thereto" should be added at the end of Standing Order 50(1).
§ 3. Human rights declarations and second readings of bills
§ The Committee recommends that the minister in charge of a government bill, who gives the statement required by s. 19 of the Human Rights Act 1998 on whether the provisions of the bill are compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights, should under normal circumstances move the second reading of the bill. If that minister is unable to do so, another minister should do so on the basis that he or she is acting on behalf of the minister who has given the statement.
§ 4. Appellations
§ The Committee recommends that Members of the House who hold or have held the office of Chief of the Defence Staff should be entitled to the appellation "noble and gallant".
§ 5. Repeating the oath in Gaelic
§ Members of the House must take the oath of allegiance or make the solemn affirmation before they can sit and vote in the House. The oath or affirmation must be taken in English, but since 1982 any Member of the House who wishes to do so has been allowed to repeat it in Welsh. The Committee recommends that a Member of the House should be allowed to repeat the oath or affirmation in Gaelic.
§ On Question, Motion agreed to.