Parliamentary Standards Bill

I, too, wish to see the House move on as quickly as possible to the sunset clause, but the points raised by my hon. Friend the Member for North Essex (Mr. Jenkin) merit consideration. In the vote that we have just had, whereby clause 10 was removed from the Bill, the Committee made it transparently clear that whatever regime is set up to deal with our finances and allowances externally, it cannot and must not infringe article IX of the Bill of Rights. I therefore hope that the Secretary of State, in his reply to even this short debate, will assure us that the Government recognise what the Committee was saying in that decision and will ensure that whatever is put together in the House of Lords to rebuild this Bill will be done in a way that achieves that objective. I say that because although we have removed the clause that said that the Bill of Rights does not apply, we have not secured anything that expressly says that it does apply. I hope that the Secretary of State will, in the spirit of the vote that took place—the Committee was trying hard to reach a consensus—indicate that he fully appreciates what that message was. It is clear that it is possible to have a regulatory regime in which our allowances and salaries are dealt with externally to this House without intruding on the Bill of Rights. That can happen only if the Secretary of State is prepared to re-examine clauses 7, 8 and 9—some other areas may also need to be examined in a bit of detail—in order to ensure that what is put together conforms with the protection that the Bill of Rights affords to our independence, and freedom of speech and action. Without that, we will end up having further arguments when this Bill returns from the House of Lords. Although the Bill is not in a fit state to go on to any statute book anywhere as it goes now to the House of Lords, I am pleased that the way in which it is going there gives the other place a perfectly clear indication of what it must do to put the Bill right. I hope that the Government will co-operate in this process. Mindful of that, I hope that when the Secretary of State responds to the points that have been made, particularly those raised by my hon. Friend the Member for North Essex, who has performed such a sterling role in the passage of this legislation, he will provide the assurance that he recognises that the Bill of Rights will not be infringed upon in this legislation.