European Union (Amendment) Bill

I have recently taken an interest in the matter of opt-ins and opt-outs as a member of both the European Union Committee and the sub-committee set up to look into this question. Like the noble Lord, Lord Rowlands, I was alarmed when I read the evidence of the Leader of the House—I am afraid that I was not able to be here last week—particularly the sentence that he read out, in which she said in answer to the second question that she thought that the final decision on opt-ins rested with Ministers and the Executive. I will make one brief point this afternoon. Unless we have a firm system of parliamentary scrutiny, particularly with regard to opt-ins, Parliament as a whole will look foolish. I say that as someone who was a member of the Select Committee on the Merits of Statutory Instruments for the first three years of its life. One saw the whole range of statutory instruments that required, through the affirmative process, a resolution of both Houses. Frankly, many of the potential opt-ins—and the noble Lord, Lord Rowlands, referred to this—are infinitely more important than some of the statutory instruments that come before both Houses and which demand an affirmative resolution. If we do not have that type of strong parliamentary control over these opt-ins, that will be a negation of what Parliament should be about. For that reason, I am strongly in favour of the amendment.