Lord Blencathra (Con)

I am another Member who had not intended to say a single word on whether the clause should stand part; I am rather relaxed about it. The Government Whips must blame their noble friend Lord Rooker, who provoked me into commenting because I agree, once again, with every single wise word he said. The noble Lord referenced the Delegated Powers Committee, of which he was a distinguished member at one point. I was the chair of the committee when we produced the Democracy Denied? report. It highlighted the fact that every Government over the past 30 years—Tory, Labour, Conservative-Lib Dem and Conservative again—took more and more powers away from Parliament via delegated powers. The delegated powers in the Bill are excessive and have rightly been criticised. The noble Baroness is also right that no Government in any democracy in the world can function unless there are delegated powers; not everything can be in Bills. The questions here are: how many delegated powers are appropriate; and what will they contain? The trouble is that we have more than 40—48, I think—possible delegated powers, including Henry VIII powers. That seems excessive. I pay tribute to the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, for producing some amendments that would implement the delegated powers recommendations, but I think he knows that if he did not produce them, this House, on Report, would implement every single one of the delegated powers recommendations; we would gut those bits of the Bill that did not implement them. So, although he has generously provided some amendments regarding the delegated powers recommendations, he knows full well that this House will implement all of them in any case. That is all I want to say on the Bill. Delegated powers under all Governments have been increasing and ought to be diminished. Although I have some concerns about the contents of the Bill, I have many more concerns about the 48 powers that will be written by civil servants in the Department of Health. At the moment, they are unable to tell the difference between a man and a woman; I do not want them writing up how I will die in future.