Business of the House (Lisbon Treaty)

May I come back to the charter of fundamental rights, as it is peculiar that specific time has not be set aside to debate it. The Minister will recall that last week, I intervened on him and asked him about the fact that the previous Prime Minister had said that the charter of fundamental rights would not apply in the United Kingdom at all. However, the Minister told the European Scrutiny Committee on 2 October that the protocol"““was a statement of how the Charter provisions will apply in the UK””." It is absolutely fundamental to the question whether the treaty is acceptable or not that we should debate whether the charter will take effect in the United Kingdom, and whether judgments by the European Court of Justice will have an impact on UK law or not.