Parliamentary Standards Bill

My Lords, with great respect to my noble friend, I want to be as brief as possible. It is important that we recognise that the situation is somewhat better than it was, but there is still an immense amount to be done. The latest report of the Select Committee—and, indeed, the extremely helpful memorandum by the Clerk of the Parliaments, which I am glad has been provided—points out that there are still many issues of great constitutional importance that we need to deal with. I hope that we will be given adequate time and that the amendment proposed by my noble friend Lord Norton will be accepted, because we can then proceed on a sensible basis. If that is not so, it is important that the Government should clean up the highly objectionable clauses that the various committee reports point to, preferably with government amendments or, certainly, with acceptance of other appropriate amendments, so that we can get a Bill that is not wholly objectionable and does not completely defeat the object that it seeks to achieve. In that context, I refer to the point that was made—perhaps rather unfairly—in the Constitutional Committee’s report. It says that the noble Baroness, Lady Royall of Blaisdon, talking, ""24 hours before the removal of the proceedings in Parliament clause"," said: ""The package … is a coherent whole, and no part of it would work without the rest"." We have lost at least one major bit since then, so we are entitled to ask the noble Baroness where we stand after that. The committee goes on: ""The bill will accordingly have to be substantially recast. To do so under an accelerated passage is in our view wholly unacceptable given the questions of constitutional principle and detail that it raises"." That is a strong statement, but I hope that the noble Baroness can, in winding up, tell us how she proposes to recast the Bill if, indeed, we do not have time to sort it out. None the less, I very much hope that, when we come to a decision on the matter tonight, it will be to allow adequate time, so that Members of the House of Commons can go back to their constituencies saying, "You may be reassured by this Bill, which has been properly considered by Parliament, with a great deal of assistance from the Members of the House of Lords. This is something with which we can now restore faith in Parliament as a whole".