Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill

I hope that I shall be able to satisfy the hon. and learned Gentleman on that matter. I shall deal with some of the smaller issues that some hon. Members have raised in what I described as a somewhat over-suspicious manner. Attention has been drawn to the words""in a way that a Minister of the Crown thinks appropriate"." This simply means that one could publish a treaty as a Command Paper, or by depositing it in the Library of the House. Equally, one could publish it on the Order Paper, or as a White Paper. There is no way in which a treaty could be published in a way that was secretive, or designed to mislead the House. These are simply the customary words—they are used in many other pieces of legislation as well—that allow Ministers to decide whether a Command Paper or a White Paper is appropriate. I am certain of that. It will be sad when the hon. Member for Cambridge (David Howarth) is no longer a Member of this House. He has done a great service to the House in many ways. He raised the question of whether the affirmative resolution procedure should be used in both Houses. My own suspicion is that that would be too cumbersome for the two Houses. The process that is used in the House of Lords is somewhat different from what happens in this Chamber. The hon. Member for Stone (Mr. Cash) pointed out that there are many different kinds of treaty. The vast majority of them are very technical and relatively minor, and they do not detain or concern the House very often. It should not be for the Government to decide which do and which do not, however. It should be for the House to decide which treaties it wants to investigate, debate and vote on. We would absolutely guarantee that a motion would be debated and voted on, if the House so wished. The question was asked earlier: who is the House, in this context? If Members—whether Front Benchers or Back Benchers—sought to debate a motion, the Government would ensure that there was a debate within the time. The other thing that the Government could do is extend the time.