UK Borders Bill

I am not altogether sure that I understood what the Minister said. He repeated what we have already been told by the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Scotland, in her letter, when she explained that this matter was to do with the point raised by the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee and the purpose was to follow the Identity Cards Act more closely. Removing these two paragraphs means, as the Minister has explained, that the code to which authorised persons must have regard has disappeared. The Minister simply told your Lordships that this would be replaced by practice guidance. What the code might have contained and what the practice guidance might contain could have been identical. Neither of them would necessarily have referred to the PACE codes of practice. The replacement of the code by practice guidance does not have any bearing on the explanation which the Minister, and the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Scotland, gave us in the letter. I am left slightly uncertain as to why simply replacing the code by practice guidance has the effect which the Minister explained in the letter and again this afternoon.