Amendments to L&R Bill

Spy blog is not impressed at the 10 pages of amendments the government are proposing on the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill, popularly known as the Abolish Parliament Bill.

"These Amendments do not allay our concerns about the Constitutional dangers which this Bill presents:

• There is still no explcit limitation, written into the text of the Bill via these Amendments, which would prevent the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act being used to modify itself.
• It will still apply to any Act of Parliament including the Human Rights Act, Habeas Corpus, the Civil Contingencies Act, the various Terrorism Acts etc. i.e. there is still no list of exempted Acts of Parliament as was suggested by the Opposition during the Committee stage.
• It will still apply to any rule of the Common Law.
• The amendments do not change the the totally inadequate "consultation" arrangements proposed in the Bill - i.e. the Minister can hand pick exactly who he chooses to consult with, and then ignore their suggestions, on a whim. There is no requirement even to follow the Cabinet Office's own Code on 12 week public consultations.

The only alleged "safeguards" are a strengthened role for some Parliamentary Committees."