Parliamentary Standards Bill

My Lords, I hope that we can take this amendment with Amendments 10 and 11. Noble Lords will remember that the Government tabled a fairly substantial amendment to the Bill in Committee, inserting subsections (4), (5), (6) and (7) in Clause 7. Subsection (5)(b) refers to, ""such other conditions as may be specified by the IPSA"," in relation to payments. Subsection (7)(c) also refers to, ""such other conditions as may be specified by the IPSA"." I have to say that I was totally confused: I did not know what those conditions referred to. However, the noble Lord, Lord Bach, very swiftly enlightened me by saying: ""IPSA can impose conditions about which cases are suitable to be dealt with in this way".—[Official Report, 14/7/09; col. 1086.]" Light dawned, and one then realised that this was quite an important part of the Bill. We now have the very full description set out on the first and second pages of the letter of 16 July written by the noble Baroness the Leader of the House, which explains clearly to what the provision refers; namely, that if a Member has made a claim which turns out to be of the kind referred to in the Bill and is of relatively minor concern, the commissioner does not have to refer the findings to the Committee on Standards and Privileges. I can well understand, as is explained at some length in the letter, that the IPSA may well want to attach some conditions to the circumstances in which that non-referral might take place, and it is to that that "other conditions" in the Bill refers. However, although the clarification has been made, the letter is not part of the statute. It may be sensible for the noble Baroness to say just a few words, perhaps not as long as her letter, to put on the record just what these conditions are about. It was said in the debate—I think by the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart—that it was important that people should know what the conditions are. One therefore asks whether they will be published or are relevant only to particular cases. It would be helpful if we could get some guidance on that. I beg to move.