I was about to come to the point about signals. The claimed benefit of the clause is that it sends a signal, but the question is: to whom? Who reads statutes? Not members of the general public, but only lawyers and judges. If lots of lower court judges have been ignoring the course of the law for the past 60 years, including the most recent judgments of the highest court in the land, what extra benefit will we get by passing a statute? Such people are just as likely to ignore a statute as they are to ignore the House of Lords.
The other supposed benefit is that the clause will fix the law.
Compensation Bill [Lords]
Proceeding contribution from
David Howarth
(Liberal Democrat)
in the House of Commons on Thursday, 8 June 2006.
It occurred during Debate on bills on Compensation Bill (HL).
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
447 c490 
Session
2005-06
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Subjects
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Timestamp
2024-04-21 14:09:43 +0100
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