European Union (Amendment) Bill

Perhaps I might intervene. In the last debate we discussed in great detail the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the issues of the European Court of Justice and its jurisdiction. We were fortunate enough to hear from the noble and learned Lord, Lord Slynn, a former European Court of Justice judge. While I do not wish to prevent the noble Lord from continuing in his current vein, it would have been incredibly valuable to have had this speech on the previous amendment. In my role as Leader of the House, I am aware that it is important to try to bring together our debates so that we get the maximum benefit. I shall not respond to a great deal of what the noble Lord is saying because I already have on the previous group. It might be of greater benefit in this debate if we were to focus on the particular aspect of the amendment, which is the role of Parliament and the issue of sovereignty, rather than debating issues that we have debated before. I say that with the greatest respect to the noble Lord, Lord Neill of Bladen, but we have already covered a huge amount of this ground.