Examination of Witnesses (Questions 417
- 419)
WEDNESDAY 15 SEPTEMBER 2004
RT HON
NICK RAYNSFORD
MP AND MR
IAN SCOTTER
Q417 Chairman: May I welcome you
to the fourth session of the evidence before the Committee on
the Regional Draft Assemblies Bill. Are you content to go straight
to questions or do you want to say a few words to start?
Mr Raynsford: I am very happy
to go straight to questions.
Q418 Mr Betts: Good morning, Minister.
We, like everyone else, would welcome the principle of draft legislation.
I think the Leader of the House has said that, as a general rule,
major pieces of legislation should first be issued in draft form.
Do you think therefore it is slightly unfortunate that certain
major elements of the Bill are currently little more than blank
sheets of paper waiting to be filled in at a later date?
Mr Raynsford: No, I do not. Let
me just remind you of the history of this. We did not publish
draft Bills before referenda in Scotland, in Wales or in Greater
London. Therefore, this is the first time that a draft Bill has
been published before a referendum. We agreed to do that, in response
to requests, so that the public would be better informed when
they came to take their decision in the referendum. That is the
purpose for the draft Bill having been published. It simply was
not feasible, given the timetable of the referendum, for the Bill
to be published for pre-legislative scrutiny, and we never promised
that that would be possible. What we did say was that we would
seek to publish a draft Bill setting out the main provisions of
the legislation. We have accompanied that with the policy statement
to flesh out some other areas where work has not yet been completed,
because this is a major Bill. It is a very significant piece of
legislation and it has been a pretty large task for my officials
and parliamentary counsel to get the Bill into a shape where it
can be published. I think it gives a very good feel for the range
of powers and provisions that will apply to elected regional assemblies,
and we have fleshed out any gaps in the policy statement. I believe
this is entirely in keeping with the pledge we gave, and it does
provide the public with the information that we said should be
available so they can make an informed decision when they come
to vote.
Q419 Mr Betts: You say that the main
parts of the Bill are there, but there are certain issues on the
specific powers to be given to the assemblies and restrictions
on the assemblies' powers, which are pretty important when people
are coming to form their view about whether to go ahead with this
process, and they are not there, are they, in full? They are still
to be filled in in detail?
Mr Raynsford: The policy commitments
are all there. They are stated in the policy statement. While
some of us who are aficionados for legislation may scour through
the Bill and look at the fine print late into the night, I think
the vast majority of members of the public will want to be able
to get information about this, and that information is available,
both in the form of the Bill and the policy statement.
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