Criminal Defence Service Bill [Lords] (Programme) (No. 2)

Of course I agree with my hon. Friend’s last point, but how can he possibly have known that the Bill was non-controversial? The fact that my hon. Friend the Member for Huntingdon (Mr. Djanogly) has a cosy arrangement with the Government according to which it is allegedly non-controversial does not mean, as far as the rest of us are concerned—we may not have participated in Committee, but we may have come along with fresh ideas, or we may have been approached by constituents or interest groups—that a measure that may have looked bland and uncontroversial at first will remain the same throughout its passage. I object to the assumption that measures can be deemed uncontroversial by those who know better than my hon. Friend the Member for Rayleigh (Mr. Francois) and me, and that we must then row in behind that regardless.