Lisbon Treaty (No.1)

My hon. Friend is raising an important point about the parliamentary scrutiny of any opt-in arrangements. If such scrutiny were not effective, we would be building the use of royal prerogative on top of a previous use of the royal prerogative. As the Government are committed to reviewing use of the royal prerogative in any case, and to providing proper parliamentary scrutiny, it would be perverse if any potential opt-in was not properly scrutinised in this place.