Merchant Shipping Pollution Bill [HL]

Not for a minute, but two wrongs do not make a right, so that is not an argument in this case. I am concerned about this because it means that every aspect of the convention could be replaced by Order in Council. We have not seen the procedures for such an Order in Council, but if the order were positive, rather than negative, at least both Houses would see what was coming, even if they could not do anything about it. If it proved to be contentious, we would be in difficulty, because our existing procedures for dealing with secondary legislation are, on the whole, accepted or rejected by convention—we cannot modify it. Due to our convention that we do not reject it, we must accept it. This matter is fundamentally more important than it would appear from a simple reading of the Bill. I should be interested to hear the Minister’s reply and we may need to return to this matter at a later stage.