Income-related Benefits (Subsidy to Authorities) Amendment (No.2) Order 2008 (S.I. 2008/695)

2.1 The Committee draws this Order to the special attention of both Houses on the ground that it is defectively drafted in two identical respects.

2.2 The Income-related Benefits (Subsidy to Authorities) Order 1998, which is amended by this Order, covers (so far as is material) subsidies to local authorities based on residents' rent rebates. Subsidies are, by virtue of provisions in the 1998 order, fixed in respect of each authority listed in the left hand column of a particular table by applying a specified calculation to a number of figures, including two figures listed opposite the authority in the middle and right hand columns of the table. Paragraph 4 of the Schedule to this Order replaces the table by one in which two of the authorities listed in the left hand column have blanks opposite them in the other two columns.

2.3 In a memorandum printed at Appendix 2, the Department for Work and Pensions, while agreeing that it was not necessary to include the two authorities in question in the table, argues that their inclusion will not cause any confusion in practice. The Committee is not convinced. The listing of the authorities with blanks opposite could, it is accepted, be read as if the authorities were not included at all; but it could equally well be read as if the figures in the middle and right hand columns had been zero. No explanation is offered as to why, on the basis of that interpretation, the intended result would have been achieved. The Committee reports paragraph 4 of the Schedule for defective drafting, acknowledged in part by the Department.