Compensation Bill [HL]

I am delighted that I have this opportunity to pay tribute to the wise words of the noble Lord, Lord Goodhart. I agree with the points he made, just as he agreed with the points I made. There is a consensus in the Committee. We are greatly assisted by the fact that we are joined by the noble Lord, Lord Davies of Oldham, the Government Deputy Chief Whip. We can refer not only to this amendment but we can explain that the Minister has just given a series of commitments on what she will do before Report. The noble Lord may have something to do with the timing of the Report stage and he had better allow sufficient time for these extensive commitments to be entered into. Perhaps I may explain that all this arises out of the Deregulatory Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee’s 7th report, in which it concluded:"““In view of the nature and extent of the proposed delegations, we recommend that this House seeks extensive amendment of this Bill””." The Government have not yet published the proposed amendments, although we are assured that they will be available in good time before Report. I merely make the point that there is a huge amount of work to be done. We all want to see it done as quickly as possible, but I hope that the business managers will permit the Minister sufficient time to ensure that she is able to comply with the extensive commitments that she has given to the Committee and for which we are grateful.