DDB 105 HOUSE OF LORDS SELECT COMMITTEE
ON
DELEGATED POWERS AND REGULATORY REFORM
HOUSE OF LORDS SELECT COMMITTEE
ON
DELEGATED POWERS AND REGULATORY REFORM
Memorandum to the Joint
Committee on the draft Disability Discrimination Bill
1. Lord Carter, Chairman of the Joint
Committee considering the draft Disability Discrimination Bill,
wrote to Lord Dahrendorf, inviting this Committee to consider
the delegated powers in the draft Disability Discrimination Bill.
We welcome the opportunity to contribute to the pre-legislative
scrutiny of this bill. This Memorandum sets out some general points
we would like to make at this early stage of the Parliamentary
scrutiny procedure.
2. We are grateful for the assistance
of a "delegated powers memorandum" which was drafted
for the Joint Committee by the Department for Work and Pensions
("the Department").
3. There are a large number of delegated
powers in the draft bill. Although, at this stage, we would like
to make observations in respect of four of them only, we wish
to make clear that this should not be taken as an indication that,
were the other delegated powers to remain in the bill, we would
find them appropriate in every case.
4. The
four powers on which we offer comments are contained in new sections
21D(7), 21F(5) and 21H(3) (which we consider as a group) and clause
7.
5. New Sections 21D(7), 21F(5) and
21H(3) all include Henry VIII
powers to omit or amend conditions and other provisions relevant
to whether treatment or an outcome is justified. The powers are
more extensive than, for example, the existing section 20(8) (referred
to in the memorandum) and were these powers to remain in the bill
subject to the negative procedure only, the Committee might very
well be inclined to recommend that they should be subject to affirmative
procedure.
6. Clause
7 allows certain provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act
1995 to be amended, subject to the affirmative procedure, in any
way the Secretary of State considers appropriate. This provision
is addressed at paragraphs 63 to 71 of the Department's memorandum.
The reason given for taking the power appears largely to be (paragraph
70) that the existing provisions are complex and that the Disability
Rights Commission (or others) may come forward with a suggestion
for improvement. Were this power to remain in the bill, it is
likely that the Committee would find this reasoning unpersuasive
and would question whether the delegation of the power to the
Secretary of State is inappropriately wide.
- We reserve the right to comment
again on the bill when it is introduced into Parliament and at
that stage we will, in accordance with our terms of reference,
report to the House of Lords on the appropriateness of the delegated
powers contained in the bill and of the level of Parliamentary
scrutiny applied to them.
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