Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee publishes Commercial Payments Bill report

The Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee has published its report on the Commercial Payments Bill.

The latest developments are:

• The Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee is appointed by the House of Lords to report on whether any bill inappropriately delegates legislative power.
• The delegated powers in sections 2B(7), 2D(7) and 2E(4) of (the renamed CPILPA 1998) allow for a potentially major carve-out from the general rules on when commercial payments are due.
  • In simple terms, these sections give the Secretary of State powers to exclude certain types of contracts from the mandatory payment terms.
• The Report notes that the “wider the scope of the exceptions, the less will be the impact of the general rules”.
• The Committee recommends, in the absence of a convincing justification for their inclusion, that the delegated powers in clauses 1 to 3 of the Bill are removed.