Draft Instrument: reported for not yet
having a power to make the Order
Draft African Development Fund (Multilateral Debt
Relief Initiative) Order 2006
1.1 The Committee draws
the special attention of the House to this instrument on the ground
that there is, as yet, no power to make the Order.
1.2 The purpose of the draft
Order is to enable the Secretary of State, on behalf of the Government,
to make payment of further contributions to the African Development
Fund pursuant to arrangements made between the Government and
the Fund, and to make payment of sums required to redeem any non-interest-bearing
and non-negotiable notes or other obligations issued or created
by the Secretary of State in respect of the payment of the further
contribution.
1.3 Section 11 of the International
Development Act 2002 (which repeals and re-enacts similar provisions
in the Overseas Development and Co-operation Act 1980) provides
that, where the Government becomes bound to make a payment to
an international financial institution having economic development
as one of its objects, the Secretary of State may make the payment
if it is approved by an Order made by him with the approval of
the Treasury. No such Order can be made unless a draft of it has
been laid before and approved by the House of Commons. Thus, the
Secretary of State's power to make the Order in terms of the draft
will only arise when: (a) the Government becomes bound to make
the payment to the institution, and (b) the draft Order is approved
by the House. Paragraph 3 of the memorandum submitted by the Department
for International Development (printed at Appendix 1) explains
that no obligation to make the payment will arise until an Instrument
of Commitment is deposited by the Government. The draft Order
has been laid at this time in order to secure the approval of
the House before the deposit of the Instrument of Commitment,
and to authorise the making of the Order in terms of the draft
which would justify making the payment. Paragraph 3.3 contains
an undertaking by the Secretary of State that no Order will be
made in terms of the draft until the Government is bound to make
the payment on the deposit of the Instrument in question.
1.4 The Committee has resolved
to follow its usual practice[1]
of reporting this type of draft Order on the basis that, although
there is, as yet, no power to make the Order, there is no technical
reason for the House not to approve the draft Order: it should
merely be aware that it is acting, as on occasions in the past,
on a Ministerial undertaking. The Committee reports the draft
Order accordingly.
1 First, Third and Fourth Reports of the Select Committee
on Statutory Instruments (Session 2005-06), and the earlier Reports
of the Committee mentioned in the footnote at page 5 of the First
Report. Back
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