Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill

I think that the hon. Member for Somerton and Frome (Mr. Heath) said that the equivalent of ratification for a Bill happens when Her Majesty gives it Royal Assent. To that extent, he is right: a Bill becomes law only when it has been ratified by the Queen through Royal Assent, but as far as I am aware she does not enter reservations or interpretive declarations on Bills passed by Parliament. There is a difference here. If Parliament is to discuss these matters properly, it needs to know at the very earliest opportunity whether there are going to be reservations or interpretive declarations. The best object lesson in that regard was the treaty that I mentioned earlier, the UN convention on the rights of people with disabilities. We had to do an awful lot of work on the issues involved in that, but it was only when we saw the explanatory memorandum that we knew that there were problems in the first place. Without an explanatory memorandum, the House, or a Select Committee, could discuss a matter in the abstract without knowing what problems could arise. That would be a waste of time. I hope that my hon. Friend the Minister will think again on this amendment. I am pretty sure that my colleagues on the Committee in the other place will bring it back, so he will have time to think about it.