Viscount Camrose (Con)

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, for opening the final day of Committee. For a Bill of such importance, I am surprised at the speed of our progress. However, if quantity has been low, quality has more than compensated. I agree with the noble Lord that this Committee deserves rather more justification from the Government as to the need for the powers they are granting themselves. The Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee described the Clause 37(7) power as “unusual” and “novel”, capable of watering down requirements for consultation as it is not constrained by set criteria. The Government’s justification thus far for this power is that it allows them to “prioritise the content of the code of practice, rather than arbitrary requirements”. It sounds to me rather as if the Government’s position is that they see any set requirements for consultations and codes of practice as arbitrary. If that is the case—I would appreciate clarification from the Minister—I have to agree with the committee’s description that the position is “quite extraordinary”. By the way, I noted this morning that the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster has demanded an end to the culture of consultation. I fear that that will be quite a wrench for the former DSIT and its functions, it having launched four new consultations on a single day in July without having responded to the more than 11,000 responses to the AI and copyright consultation. We are already unclear about the machinery of government for that former department. Can the Minister tell us whether its existing and planned consultations will continue or whether today’s announcement represents a fundamental change of approach? It is not clear why the power conferred by Clause 40(5) has to be sufficiently broad to allow the Government to water down the contents of reports on network and information systems. Could it not be amended, as the committee has recommended, so that the power cannot be used to reduce the requirements to report? It is not unreasonable to question whether the Government really need these extensive powers. Your Lordships’ Committee deserves at least more justification than the Government describing set criteria as arbitrary. I appreciate the need for flexible and adaptive approaches to legislating for fast-moving technologies, but that must come with accountability and I am not sure that we have the balance right at this point. I look forward to the Minister’s response.