Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill

I am rather closer to the position of the hon. Member for Cambridge (David Howarth) than I am to that of my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Beaconsfield (Mr. Grieve). It is important to go back to first principles and to ask what is a treaty what are its implications to the citizens of our country. A treaty is, of course, an obligation that we make to other states and sometimes to international bodies. Very often, that is then reflected in domestic legislation, which bears on the individual citizen. A good example of that is the extradition treaty with the United States, about which we have spoken. Therefore, the starting proposition should be that a treaty is debated as well as approved by the House—that seems a good starting point to me. One must then ask in what circumstances that initial presumption is to be displaced. We then come to the point made by my hon. and learned Friend, which I am sure is true to a degree, that a number of treaties are of minor significance and we should not place a burden on the House. At this point, I have a question to which the Minister may respond in due time. Typically, how many treaties are there each year?