My Lords, I am in a bit of a dilemma. My noble friend Lady Jones of Moulsecoomb, if I may so refer to her, has spoken to all the clauses
she would like to have taken out of the Bill. When I was last in the House, during my 26 years, the issue of whether a clause remained in the Bill came up only in debates of clause stand part. At that stage only did the argument come forward, if someone wanted to make it, that a clause no longer stand part of the Bill.
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The logic of that was quite plain. It was only when the clause had been all the way through the House that a decision was taken, not on the state of the Bill as printed but on the state of the Bill as amended. In this particular case, even on Clause 49, there are a number of substantive amendments by the Minister, and so it is a bit of a dilemma.
I want to record that I support entirely the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, in deleting those clauses from the Bill. For my own part, I want every single clause in Parts 3 and 4 to be taken out of the Bill, but that must come later. So, what I propose to do is not speak until the second group of amendments where my amendments are identified, but I do not want it to go past this House that I am not supporting the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, my friend, in her amendments; she is asking for all the clauses in this Bill, from 49 to 52, to be removed. So, if I may, I will speak on the substantive issue in the next group of amendments.