Parliamentary Standards Bill

As the noble Lord, Lord Peston, is not in his place, I hope that after he has read Hansard tomorrow he will not accuse me of being guilty of the offence known as supporting the Government. He sits behind them and obviously wants to disassociate himself totally with this measure. I hope the Official Opposition will not now accuse me of the same sin. Clause 5 is fine—it reminds me of the provisions for other codes of practice—because, unless I am quite mistaken, it starts with IPSA, the independent body, preparing the code; it gives the power to IPSA to keep it under review and to revise it, which seems sensible; and it then requires IPSA to fully consult all the proper authorities in the House of Commons. I take it that the Speaker, in laying the code, is acting formally—in other words, he is simply the mechanism, the trigger, by which the code is laid. It then does not come into effect until it is approved by a resolution of the House of Commons, by whom it is governed. There is therefore flexibility and consultation and, ultimately, the sovereignty of the House of Commons, as there should be. My difficulty is that I cannot find anything wrong with it.