Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

It is always a pleasure—indeed, a delight—to hear the hon. Lady speak in the Chamber. The disrespect to the House was done in the course of the timetable motion. She is wholly acquitted, and can leave this Chamber whenever she likes without a stain on her procedural character. What other problems she and her fellow Ministers suffer from I must leave for discussion with the Chief Whip, but it looks as if he is no longer in his place. The Under-Secretary of State for Justice, the hon. Member for Liverpool, Garston (Maria Eagle) is, like the Minister of State, Ministry of Justice, the right hon. Member for Delyn (Mr. Hanson), obliging and disarming as always. The sub-heading ““Miscellaneous, minor and drafting”” hides a multitude of sins. New clause 3 is not controversial, but I do not think that it can be described as a minor drafting amendment. Neither, if one goes through the several tens of Government provisions in the group, can any one of them be brushed under the carpet as though they were of no account, no importance and unworthy of adequate scrutiny. Having said that, I know that Governments make mistakes from time to time—and they sometimes even admit that they make them from time to time. The greatest mistake that the Government have made is to create this jumble of a Bill, which has forced them to come forward with these alleged ““Miscellaneous, minor and drafting”” provisions. It is not difficult to poke fun at the Government, as they are worthily the subject of ridicule—[Interruption.] I recognise that the Minister is intending to be helpful. I hope that the Government are satisfied with the shambolic way in which they created the Bill. If they had thought about it in a sensible, premeditated and planned way, as opposed to engaging in some sort of legislative doodle, we would not have needed the ““Miscellaneous, minor and drafting”” amendments and we could have had an organised progression towards Royal Assent. As it is, we have not been able to do that. Instead, we have 79 provisions to be dealt with under this procedure. It is a pity that any time has been taken up, but it is legitimate to comment that so chaotic are the Government that they have been forced to spend some time advancing these amending provisions. We will not oppose them, but we do not accept that they are unworthy of proper scrutiny at any stage. Clearly, however, arrangements this afternoon do not permit us the time to do anything more than signal our displeasure at the way in which the Bill has been constructed.