Damages-Based Agreements Regulations 2010

My Lords, I am not of course seeking to address your Lordships’ House on the merits of these issues, on which I would be wholly ignorant. I was fortunate enough to be a member of the old Statutory Instruments Committee in the days when it merely considered vires. It is one of the advantages of the big changes that have been made that your Lordships’ House can now consider merits. That is a big advance. It has been a great privilege for all of us in this House to hear the noble and learned Lords and other noble Lords who have spoken with such knowledge on the amendment and on the two orders. It is particularly useful also that we have been able to hear the noble Lord, Lord Martin of Springburn, because his point was extremely important. One’s overall conclusion on listening to these matters is that they are as difficult as they are clearly important. Why are the Government so fidgety, to put it mildly, about the time that we are taking to discuss these important issues? The Government Chief Whip is so fidgety that he has had to leave the Chamber. The noble Lord, Lord Thomas of Gresford, put it quite clearly; it is pretty appalling to consider such orders in three weeks when the normal procedure is to have three months to consider them. What possible reason is there to do so? Given how complicated these issues are and the fact that these great experts do not yet fully agree on the correct solution, how wise it is of my noble friend Lord Henley to have made it clear that the Conservative Party has not yet made up its mind what the right solution is. Finally, we have in this country government by Parliament, not fiat by the Government. That is a very important difference. The Government have a choice; either they give Parliament proper time to consider the measures that are put before it, or they do not put the measures before it at all. Actually, there is no great political constraint. After all, if the Government have so much legislation that they wish to get through, depending as they must on proper parliamentary scrutiny, the Prime Minister still has the option of a 3 June election. That may be the option that he will wish to take.