Electoral Administration Bill

I am grateful to the noble Lord for raising an important issue. The procedure that I propose to adopt is that we should have our Committee stage on Thursday, which will give us an opportunity to discuss the amendments already before the Committee that raise the whole question of funding issues, enabling us to discuss here in the Moses Room the matters about which noble Lords are very concerned. I then propose to bring forward amendments on Report, but to point out that noble Lords should view that as a Committee procedure; that is, there will be an opportunity on that particular set of amendments—whatever they look like, for I do not yet know—to have a proper and full debate. I used this procedure recently on the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill. Noble Lords may recall that the points-based system document was produced in time for us to discuss it at Third Reading. We treated that occasion as much more of a debating opportunity in order to allow the issue to be debated properly. The reason why I seek to propose this procedure on Thursday is that that will ensure that we do not delay the Bill, while enabling us to discuss fully these particular issues. However, I would be grateful for the views and opinions of noble Lords and I shall seek to respond to them.