Serious Crime Bill [HL]

My Lords, I support the noble Lord, Lord Thomas of Gresford, and the remarks made by my noble friend. I am not going to discuss the merits of these two pages of fresh legislation—I am not qualified to do so, as I suspect many others here are not—but, my goodness, I recognise an abuse of the parliamentary system when I see it. It is outrageous that Ministers should have brought forward this detailed and important legislation at this stage of the Session. Will the Minister explain exactly how this happened? Who put it forward? When was it put forward? Did Ministers remonstrate? Were they strong enough to say, ““No, this is not how you legislate””? Quite frankly if I were a member of this Government, I would be deeply ashamed of attempting to legislate in this manner. There should be a discussion between the usual channels about whether the Bill could be carried over, so that it is adequately discussed and we have a proper piece of legislation. There is already much too much Home Office legislation, and more is coming in the next Session. No doubt some of these matters could be attended to in that forthcoming legislation. Home Office legislation is much too important for there to be imposed on the community and the country the sort of costs and mistakes that inevitably will emerge from this new clause.