Parliamentary Standards Bill

I hope that I may ask the noble Baroness the Leader of the House for specific guidance for greater clarity. The noble Lord, Lord Higgins, has drawn attention to her very helpful letter. All Members of the Committee have benefited from the very considerable detail of that letter. However, it raises questions in my mind as a layman; for example, in relation to the paragraph to which the noble Lord, Lord Higgins, referred. The paragraph states that, ""the Government considers that the IPSA and the Commissioner will be subject to judicial review on ordinary administrative and human rights law principles. This, however, does not pose a risk to privileged matters as the IPSA and the Commissioner will not be concerned with such matters"." However, the dividing line between the administrative work of IPSA and the commissioner and what follows from that activity seems to be rather muddied. For example, the MPs’ code of conduct relating to financial interests, for which we have now provided in Clause 5, will, once it is approved by the House of Commons, presumably have full protection of parliamentary privilege. But up to that point, presumably the draft will still fall within the possible purview of judicial review and, indeed, other challenge of the nature that the noble Lords, Lord Higgins and Lord Jenkin, have referred to.