Parliamentary Standards Bill

I am grateful for the views that have been expressed. I listened to the noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, with great interest. He has, not for the first time, found himself in a minority of one and yet been exceedingly persuasive. We have noticed that on other occasions. My noble friend Lord Cope made it perfectly clear that we are here talking about only criminal proceedings, not civil proceedings, for the very good reasons that have been spelt out. I assumed that we were talking about formal investigations. The original amendment—before we realised that the whole clause was going to be removed, when we retabled it as a new clause—was tabled before the Government had indicated their intentions for the Bill. If I may say so, the noble Baroness made a strong case. The suggestion of a protocol between the police and the Committee on Standards and Privileges would probably be a better way to deal with the matter than having a single rule that applies to everything, because goodness knows what the variation in circumstances may be. That could give rise to the problem which, as the noble Baroness rightly said, has also affected this House, as is in the recent memory of many noble Lords. One argument that I find a little difficult to accept, but I accept that it is extremely well intended, is that it is not for this House to make rules. The Bill has to come to this House. We know that it will apply only to the other place. We have made a great many changes here to affect matters in another place. Therefore, with the greatest respect to the noble Baroness, I do not necessarily give a great deal of weight to the argument that we should not pass the amendment because it is a matter for another place. On the other hand, the argument that she made about a better way to do that is strong, so, while thanking those who took part in the debate, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 79ZA withdrawn.