European Union Bill

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right on that important point, and I was immediately coming to it—I have in my hand the explanatory memorandum, to which I referred before he intervened, precisely for that purpose. It stands in the name of the Economic Secretary to the Treasury. A scrutiny matter is still outstanding, so paragraph 26 comes under the heading of ““Other observations”” and states:"““The Government regrets that the Scrutiny Committees””—" those of the Commons and the Lords—"““did not have time to consider this document before it was agreed at Council.””" I can tell the House that that happened because we were in a caretaker period and the European Scrutiny Committee, as such, was not sitting in that interregnum. The memorandum continues:"““It should be noted that whilst agreement on behalf of the UK was given by the previous administration, cross-party consensus had been gained.””" That is why I made the point that the responsibility lies with both this Government and the previous one.