§ Mr. SpearingTo ask the Lord President of the Council if he will give examples of small and less controversial amendments to primary legislation, which would be unlikely to be made due to time constraint, which could not be made in the same manner as those contained in chapter II of the Deregulation and Contracting Out Bill, as indicated in his evidence before the Procedure Committee on 16 February.
§ Mr. NewtonChapter 3 of the booklet "Deregulation—Cutting Red Tape" identifies 55 measures which the Government believe would be suitable for the order-making power in clauses 1 to 4 of the Bill. One example which I quoted in my evidence to the Procedure Committee was an amendment to the Patents Act 1977 and the Registered Designs Act 1949 to enable the Patent Office to accept documents in forms other than paper, such as electronic filing. The deregulation initiative is a rolling programme and more measures are expected to come forward in the future.