European Union (Amendment) Bill

I want to intervene on the word ““railroading””, because I want it to be clear in Hansard that, before we determined the number of days in Committee, I consulted the Front Bench of the noble Lord’s party and that of the Liberal Democrats. I consulted the noble Lords, Lord Stoddart, Lord Willoughby de Broke and Lord Hannay, as well as the noble and learned Lord, Lord Howe of Aberavon. I have had an open session at 1 pm every day that the Bill has been in Committee—I believe that that has been on the Whip of all the political parties and has been made known to the Cross Benches. At no point has anybody come to me and said that we have inappropriate time or are being railroaded. The noble Lord, Lord Stoddart, has made representations to me that, because of his concerns, we should try to finish at 10 pm every evening. There is no suggestion in that of railroading. I have listened with great care to all the representations and at no point has anybody put that to me. I hope that the noble Lord will accept that he has had ample opportunity to put his points to me in other ways.