Constitution

My Lords, on the substantive question that the noble Baroness raises on sessional orders, there has clearly been a lot of concern about whether some provisions of the SOCPA are necessary and whether they are an inhibitor to legitimate protests and demonstrations outside Parliament. However, there is also concern that if those provisions are simply repealed and problems arise in the future with regard to open and free access to Parliament and issues around noise there will not be sufficient powers to deal with those problems sensibly and effectively. We need to look at sessional orders in relation to the past experience of such orders. We have said that we will look to Parliament to give further advice on those matters and I am happy to take into account the noble Baroness’s comments on that.