Parliamentary Standards Bill

I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time. I wish to make reference to the significance of what we are doing in creating the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority in terms of the law that will affect us and our expenses under the Data Protection Act 1998. Very simply, one of the most important elements of the Data Protection Act is who is responsible for holding the data and therefore who is responsible for answering freedom of information requests—and ultimately, I suppose, for making decisions along the lines of what is published and whether it has to be redacted and, to our great embarrassment, how. The Bill will set up IPSA, but it remains unclear as to when responsibility for controlling and holding the data will pass to it. It is obviously absurd to assume that that responsibility can pass on the day that the Bill receives Royal Assent, because the apparatus to handle it will simply not exist. It therefore makes good sense, in order to have an orderly transition, to try to specify a date on which the baton of responsibility is passed from this House to the new independent body, perhaps with an enormous collective parliamentary sigh of relief, leaving it to others to decide how data relating to our expenses can be handled, published and released. The new clause suggests that there should be a period of two months between the Bill receiving Royal Assent and the date on which the responsibility should formally pass. It is a very simple, uncontroversial proposal. If, for any reason, the Government believe that it should be, say, three months, we would not argue strongly about that. However, the principle of making it absolutely clear when this House relinquishes responsibility for the administration of our expenses is essential if we are to avoid more of the calamitous coverage that we have suffered from over the past few weeks. I merely ask the Minister to tell the House whether the Government are prepared to accept the new clause, in whole or in principle. Depending on the reply, we can either decide to withdraw it, and perhaps let the other place table another one, or to press ahead with it.