Police and Justice Bill

My Lords, ““scupper”” is a wholly inappropriate word in this context. One of the reasons why ratification is a side issue here is because for the past three years we have been operating in this country as if the treaty were ratified, so it makes absolutely no difference to us. For the past three years the terms of this treaty, not those of the 1972 treaty, have been respected, even though these terms have no binding effect in international law. The noble and learned Lord, Lord Boyd, drew the attention of the House to the principle of the interests of justice and claimed not to know what it meant. I understand that to be what he said.