Parliamentary Standards Bill

My Lords, Clause 13 deals with a most important aspect of the expiry of the provisions of the Act, as it will be, and, in particular, a sunset clause. If we had been discussing the Bill as it was, I would gladly have continued to support the Liberal Democrats. However, the Bill has been substantially amended in its passage through Parliament. If there were no sunset clause attached to the Bill at all, I would still have supported the Liberal Democrats because I marginally prefer the sudden death of a sunset clause than this, which I think is rather euphemistically referred to in government circles as an "intelligent sunset". It strikes me that under the provisions of this clause the Government, in the next Parliament, will have three choices. The first is to continue what will be the Act by using the provisions under this clause. The second is to do nothing; the more difficult clauses will then fall and cease to have force. The third is to bring forward new primary legislation. I suspect that whoever is in government will probably come round to the fact that we will need new primary legislation. By then, Christopher Kelly will have reported; he has already made some very aggressive remarks on the Bill and the IPSA, so it may well be that none of this comes into effect in any case. The Bill was born in haste, has certainly been legislated in haste and, even today—although I very much welcome it—has been amended in great haste. Finally, I do not worry too much about the noble Lord, Lord Tyler, but I worry a little bit. My eye was drawn to an article in the Daily Telegraph at the end of last week that commented on the deliberations in your Lordships’ House on the Bill. Comments were made by the leader of the Liberal Democrats, no less, who was fulminating in a rage at what he called the "two-party stitch-up"—that is the Conservative Party and the Labour Party—in defenestrating the Bill. However, the passage that he was most concerned about—the removal of the second defence under old Clause 8—was, of course, down to an amendment that had been moved by the noble Lords, Lord Tyler and Lord Shutt. I very much hope that they have full cover this evening from the leader of the Liberal Democrats in another place.