Member

Throughout the development of those clauses, we have worked closely with the Department for Transport, the DVLA, the police, the National Crime Agency and HMRC, along with the devolved Governments in Scotland and Northern Ireland. As a result of that engagement, it was clear that there was, however remote in practice, the opportunity that regulations could be made by the Secretary of State without first consulting the devolved Governments due to the discretion given her in the current draft. In order to change that, we have tabled the amendment about which I wrote to the noble Lord at the time and about which we had a bit of confusion on Tuesday, which I hope is now resolved. It was always the Government’s intention to consult devolved Administrations in Scotland and in Northern Ireland, and the government amendment makes sure that we enable just such an outcome by clarifying that the Secretary of State must consult with the Department of Justice in Northern Ireland and Scottish Ministers before making the regulations. I also make it clear that we are going to consult and keep in touch because we wanted to do that on a range of matters, and we will continue to do that with not just the devolved Administrations but police representatives too.