Crispin Blunt

Conservative Party | Reigate

MP begins scrutiny of biggest ever bill in Parliament

Commons committee scrutiny begins with a Government defeat

Today Crispin Blunt and 22 other MPs began the detailed scrutiny of the Company Law Reform Bill. This is currently 925 clauses long and although not highly controversial politically its detail is immensely important to all the companies of the United Kingdom. Mistakes in this legislation could result in hundreds of millions of pounds worth of legal bills for companies and companies choosing to form in other countries with resulting potential job losses in Britain. Crispin Blunt’s job is that of an Opposition Whip and he has a particular responsibility for Trade and Industry. It is part of his job to help organise the scrutiny of Trade and Industry legislation on behalf of David Cameron’s team in House of Commons committees.

The Company Law Reform Bill is likely to finish as the largest act ever passed by Parliament. The Government have been preparing it since 1998 and only recently accepted the argument that since it was amending three quarters of the Companies Act 1985 it should become the new Companies Act, so that there is only one source of statute law for companies and their advisors to address. This is likely to mean many hundreds of new clauses will be added to the bill during its committee stage in the House of Commons.

Until New Labour came to power the time taken by MPs to scrutinise each piece of legislation in detail was normally unlimited. The Government would only curtail debate with a “guillotine” motion if the passage of the Bill was being threatened by the length of consideration or it was felt the Opposition were deliberately stringing proceedings out. Under New Labour every piece of legislation has only a limited time in committee and this, the biggest bill ever, has been presented to the House of Commons very late in the session. This means that MPs will have very little time to do the primary work that they as legislators.

Crispin Blunt commented:

“The Government’s management of this piece of legislation has been a shambolic mess. They are insisting that the existing 925 clause and the many hundreds of new clauses must be considered by the 13th July. This means about two minutes will be available per clause and does not allow sufficient time for arguments for and against particular clauses on matter of great technical importance to be heard. Whilst this Bill has been seven years in the preparation it is only in Parliament that the Government’s arguments to accept or reject suggestions from outside experts can actually be tested in debate, and the Government’s explanations for their proposals publicly challenged and examined.

“Today we had a good example of the Government’s inability to manage its own program. The Opposition parties want more time so we can do our job properly. We agree this Bill must become and Act by November, when the parliamentary year ends. The Government’s program only allows us one month. At the beginning of proceedings today not enough Labour MPs turned up to support their ministers in committee. The result was that the program was defeated and a new program had to be considered. But because the Government would not agree to make anything other than a cosmetic change to the timetable of one hour we were not able to consider the detail of the Bill at all today.

Crispin Blunt went on to say:

“Next week we will begin 16 committee sessions where we will need to examine upwards of 80 clauses a session. To put this in perspective the NHS Redress Bill, which is 20 clauses long, was given eight sessions. For the next month I and my six Conservative colleagues on the Bill Committee, all of whom have a professional and technical expertise on aspects of Company Law will do our best to examine this very important Bill. But we will only be able to scratch the surface and it is a disgrace that the Government are not allowing MPs to carry out their primary role as the nation’s legislators.”

Today’s Evening Standard noted this victory for the Opposition in their ‘Match of the Day Column’ awarding Crispin Blunt a two nil victory of Margaret Hodge, the Government minister on the Bill.