Compensation Bill [HL]

I am not sure that I told the noble Lord that I would give him the draft regulations before Report. I think that I said that, during the passage of the Bill, everything would be done to ensure that as soon as we have Royal Assent, we can move as swiftly as possible. I say that only because it is always my view that we should give your Lordships’ House as much information as possible, including sharing draft regulations, but I do not want to commit to something that I cannot deliver. That would be inappropriate. We cannot draft the regulations until we know what the enabling powers will be, so it is important that we have as much debate as possible in Committee. I do not yet have a timetable because I have not discussed with my officials precisely where we are. The draft regulations are certainly not available yet; I have not seen them. As soon as they are available, I will share them. I am happy outside the Committee to give the noble Lord greater information about timetables, but I do not want to mislead the Committee. I intend to act as quickly as I can, but I am also running a timetable to get the Bill passed as quickly as possible. I am trying to do these things in parallel. I will provide as much information as I possibly can about the draft regulations as early as possible.