Constitution

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for his comments about the Law Commission. We have already heard from the noble and learned Lord, Lord Howe, about the dangers of covering issues in too comprehensive a way. Clearly, we will need to feel our way forward as to how best to take forward Law Commission proposals. The noble Lord did not mention post-legislative scrutiny; he might have done because that was contained within a statement made by the Leader of the other place last week. The proposal that a law be reviewed by the relevant government department, and then by Parliament, three years after it has been passed, is an important one. I suspect we will debate that in due course. As for Lords reform, the noble Lord will know that there have been some freedom of information requests, which have not found favour with my department. It really is important that the participants in the cross-party talks can talk freely in seeking the agreement that I have already referred to. I urge noble Lords to ignore leaks and speculation, and to be a little more patient. When the White Paper is out, we will have many happy hours debating it.