Parliamentary Standards Bill

I wish to raise two practical points, one of which is a question to the Minister. Paragraph 1(2) of Schedule 1 states: ""At least one of the members of the IPSA must be a person who has held (but no longer holds) high judicial office"." Is it intended that there should be an age limit for members of IPSA? If it is, and if the age limit is 70, you will not be likely to get many judges because they do not have to retire until the age of 70. Therefore the Government might consider whether it should be someone who is holding high judicial office rather than someone who has retired. As the noble Lord, Lord Shutt, said, there might be a very small pool from which to gather the member of high judicial office. Secondly, in supporting seven instead of five, paragraph 12 on "Committees" states: ""The IPSA may establish any committees which it considers appropriate"," and, ""Any committee … may establish one or more sub-committees"." But, ""All members of a committee or sub-committee must be members of the IPSA"." If you have got only five, you will not have many sub-committees; you will have a sub-committee of the whole committee.